Submitted by Jennifer Shames on the 2017 winter session program in Spain and Rome sponsored by the Department of Political Science and International Relations…
As we make our way to a whole new country, Italy, I’ve realized how thankful I am for my new knowledge about the Spanish culture. A huge appeal of this program for me was coming to a whole new country out of my comfort zone, a place completely new to me. The language barrier was tough at first, but after three weeks I know more Spanish than I thought I could learn in such a short amount of time. We spent our last week in Barcelona which might have been my favorite city in Spain we traveled to. It felt more Americanized. The food was amazing, the Catalan culture was interesting and it was great to be near a beach again. Barcelona is definitely a place I can see myself coming back to in the future. My favorite part was learning about Gaudi and his heavy artistic influence on the city, his designs were beautiful and unique. I also loved our trip to Montserrat and saw a beautiful view of the country and even the French border. We had a packed week there and I was surprised to wake up and suddenly be making my way to Italy. I’m excited to experience this new country and culture and put whatever Italian I learned in high school to good use.