The month I was a student in Barcelona was one of the most enlightening, eye-opening, enjoyable, and breath-taking months of my life. Thinking back to my initial goals, I am proud to say that I would not change a single thing about the experience I had. I am able to converse and understand Spanish in a new way. I became genuine friends with Aggies that I had never crossed paths with before. I was challenged and pushed by random, friendly strangers I met on the metro. Doing business abroad is different than doing it in the United States. You are dealing with people who have vastly different backgrounds, cultures, languages, laws, and more. These things on the surface are extremely obvious, but when it comes to business, these differences can complicate the simple. In Barcelona, I had two incredible professors, Professor Gundin and Professor Panina, who offered insights on the European Union, exchange rates, monetary policies, and the different ways business is conducted across cultures.
This was my first time I had ever been to Europe. We could walk in any direction and come across a beautiful, ornate building that was older than the United States of America. We could be at dinner and hear people speaking Spanish, English, Italian, French, and languages I did not recognize in a single restaurant. I was humbled when I was abroad. There is so much that I do not know about this world I live in. One of my biggest takeaways was the fire lit under me to learn more through traveling. It is one thing to read about places and history in books, but an entirely other thing to experience it in person. I long to experience the world more and it may involve me living abroad one day. I am incredibly thankful for this trip and the people I had the chance to meet on it.
