Submitted by Gabrielle Hnatin on the 2018 winter session program in Spain sponsored by the College of Education and Human Development…
¡HOLA, UD students, staff, friends and family! This week on the Elementary Education major trip we’ve arrived in Barcelona, our base for the rest of the program! We are finally moved into an apartment, where 6 out of the 7 rooms in the building belong to us. This means, we finally have access to a washing machine and storage to unpack our belongings from our suitcase! Now that we are in Barcelona, we also get to embark on our field placement in St. Peter’s School of Barcelona. The school is home to international students and teachers, who can all speak a minimum of three languages (English, Spanish and Catalan)! Kids can start attending St. Peter’s at the age of just one year old, and continue their education there until they are eighteen years olds and preparing to attend university. The teachers there allow us to observe, work with their students, and provide us with endless experiences that they have had that connect to our course readings and compare and contrast to the field placements we’ve experienced in the United States. In addition to spending time in the schools, we visited incredible places like Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, La Pedrara, and much more. We have had plenty of free time to shop, eat, explore, siesta and more!
My Favorite Barcelona Experience Thus Far: We had a cooking class for our entire program to celebrate our professor, Bill Lewis’, birthday. The twenty-two of us each took on a role in preparing a meal consisting of tomato bread, Spanish omelette, paella, and Catalan Creme (similar to a creme brulee). EVERYTHING WAS DELICIOUS! Some members of our group are avid cooks at home, while others like myself rarely dapple in the kitchen. However, our instructors were patient and made the experience stress-free, fun and in the end very successful! They even told us some interesting things about the history and local culture of Barcelona that we had never considered before. I highly recommend going beyond just eating the food in your host country, really get involved and prepare it yourself through a cooking class or even cooking in your apartment with local ingredients if possible.
Food Advice: You have to try patatas bravas! These fried potato slices are drizzled in tomato, red pepper, and garlic sauce. At nearly every new restaurant we go to, we order at least one patatas bravas for our group to share and if they’re really good, we order some more!
Packing Tip: Free water here is rare! At restaurants, you must ask specifically for “agua en un vaso” (glass of water) or you will be given a bottled water and charged. If this does not seem like a big deal prior to leaving, trust me that when you get here, you will find yourself constantly thirsty. I would suggest packing a reusable water bottle that you can refill at every opportunity you get. Even water fountains are not common. However, our tour guides have insisted that the tap water in Madrid and Barcelona is safe to drink. You can also buy a pack of 6-two liter water bottles for less than 2 euros ($2.45), but the reusable bottle isn’t hard to fit in your luggage and is the best option for the environment.
Looking Forward To: On Thursday, eleven of us are going to a FC Barcelona game! I have never seen a professional soccer game and the entire country of Spain is obsessed with football. Every souvenir shop and stand is fully stocked with FC Barca apparel. I can’t wait to experience the energy in Camp Nou (the soccer stadium)….stay tuned!
Thanks for reading about my program in Barcelona, Spain. If you can’t tell I’m having the absolute time of my life!