Hey everyone! I'm making this second blog post about three weeks into my abroad experience here in Barcelona. It's crazy how after just three weeks you can feel totally adapted to a completely new country. During this time, I have gained a strong knowledge of how to use the public transit, adjusted to the everyday life, and genuinely feel like this city is home. From my experience, the first week is the most "shocking" as me and my roommates were overly eager to see and do everything we could as quick as possible. I felt as if once classes and my internship started, I came back down to Earth and began really understanding the cultural differences of Barcelona and appreciating my new daily routine. As far as difficulties go, I'm glad to say I haven't faced many. Perhaps the strangest adjustments have been the lack of public water and having to dry my clothes outside, but neither are too difficult to get used to. The people here are typically helpful towards tourists and don't treat us any differently. However, there are several people within my program that have gotten pick-pocketed, so if you plan to travel here, definitely plan to keep your whits about you.
Thus far, me and my roommates have been able to go on a multitude of excursions. We visited Tossa de Mar in Costa Brava, which is where the picture above was taken. Just last weekend we took a one-hour flight to Ibiza, which lives up to the hype and then some. This weekend I'm planning a trip to Madrid with my family and next weekend I have flight plans to Portugal. Take advantage of the cheap flight costs when in Europe as it is an opportunity that you might not have again anytime soon. I feel like there's almost too much to cover in just a post, but this is the best I could do. I look forward to updating everyone again when I depart and hope anyone who plans to study abroad can take this information and have it inspire them to take the leap.
