My initial impressions of Barcelona have been very positive. I traveled to Barcelona briefly once a few years ago with my family, so I was already a little bit familiar with the city. This time, however, we are staying in an area of Barcelona that I did not go to during my last visit. The area we are in is for the program much more of a relaxed and quiet area which I have enjoyed staying at more than in the touristy area I stayed in last time. During the first week of the program, we have been on several group excursions, all of which have been fun. We have been on two hikes, one to Montjuic and one to Turo de Rivero. The hikes had great views of the city, beach, and iconic landmarks, including the Sagrada Familia. We also went to Montserrat and visited the monastery and art museum. The museum included works by several very famous artists, including Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso. The classes have also been very interesting. We are taking a class on European Union Economics and one on international business. For our international business class, we are going on company visits, and this week we visited the port authority in Barcelona and went on a boat tour of the entire port. The visit has been one of the highlights of my time here so far. This week I had presentations in both of my classes which I enjoyed researching. Creating the presentations gave me a lot more perspective on Catalonia and Spain and also the European Union as a whole. The classes are very collaborative and give you the opportunity to get to know and work with a lot of the group. I?m excited to see what else we have in store for the rest of the trip.
