As I sit in the airport reflecting on my time in Barcelona, I am so grateful for all I have learned and experienced in the past month. This past week, we had a presentation on the EU, a tour of Sagrada Familia, and Celler Perelada. During our guest lecture, I learned about the distinction between the European Union and the Eurozone. This will aid me in my future business endeavors as I consider their currency exchange rates with countries in the EU but not the Eurozone since they don’t use the Euro (something other US businesses may not consider). This will give me a competitive advantage in the international market.
At Sagrada Familia, I realized how important it is to save and backup your work as you go. After Gaudi’s death, the rest of his plans for the church were burned in a fire. This made it difficult to continue the work as planned and required deeper collaboration with those that had been involved in the design and building process. Additionally, I really admired the different art forms and meanings behind everything. The light versus dark side and the statutes of the joyful and sorrowful mysteries gave me a new perspective on my faith.
At Celler Perelada, we were given a tour of their winery and a wine tasting. I never realized how much planning and detail goes into making wine, including the type of soil for the grapes, storage material for the wine, length of fermentation, length of aging, restrictions on light and temperature, and more. Celler Perelada has it down to a science. This reinforced in me the importance of being detailed-oriented. Each detail makes an impact on the final product. This is especially important in specialization of a field, like wine.
Overall, the most important thing I have learned has been to be open to new things and flexible to change. Things are not always what you expect and you have to adapt to push forward. Not knowing Spanish was probably one of my biggest struggles while I was abroad, but I learned to pickup key words used in conversation to be able to communicate with Spaniards.
