(Cultural Activities/Traditions 1) Tarragona for the Weekend: Culture Overload

Tarragona is a coastal city located about an hour and a half North of Barcelona. For the first weekend in Spain, IES brought all of their students to this historic city. This weekend was amazing and I experienced something that I wouldn't have been able to do without the help of IES.

 We started off the weekend with a 7:45 am bus leaving from Barcelona. Once we arrived we were allowed to go off on our own to grab something for lunch. After grabbing a bite to eat in an Indian restaurant the group I was with headed back to the bus. The bus then took us to a gigantic cathedral in a small town near Tarragona. The cathedral was massive and the details of it were stunning.

Next we were allowed to explore the actual city of Tarragone where a few others and I ventured off to see the huge Colosseum ruins. The view from the ruins was breathtaking and the beach behind it, stunning. I would love to come back here someday!

This was just one picture showing how detailed and intricate the stonework was. Imagining how this building was built so many hundred years ago and it is still in one piece amazes me. The architecture to design this building is incredible and I cannot wait to see more buildings around Europe like this!

The next day we went on a walking tour around Tarragona where we were able to see where the Roman ruins were. We walked around the old part of town and walked our way through the three tiers of the city: Government, Public, and Entertainment. The picture above was the walkway leading to the entrance way where the Government part of the city started. The entire city was breathtaking and it was a great way to start off my time in Spain.

Tarragona, you were amazing.

(Life in Catalunya 1) Barcelona: Challenges along the way (Jan 7)

Today, January 7th, I touched down in Barcelona. After hours of traveling via plane and missing my connecting flight in Germany, I finally made it to Barcelona safe and sound. As the other college kids making the same journey and I flooded the airport, IES was patiently waiting for us to guide us through the necessary steps of the beginning of our journey.

Oddly enough while waiting for my luggage, I met up with one of my friends from school because he was waiting for his luggage which had been lost when he changed flights in London. I was just happy that I had all my bags even though I had missed the connecting flight in Germany. After grabbing my bags and meeting a few new people, we all went our separate ways to our houses. 

After not taking Spanish for 5 years, I realized how rusty my Spanish truly was when I attempted to tell the taxi driver my address. After a few seconds of broken Spanish, I showed him the address and the rest of the car ride was silent. After the awkward taxi ride, I met my host mom and roommates, unpacked, and finally settled in. The first difference that I noticed was how small everything was in the apartment; the rooms, the kitchen, the bathrooms, even the shower. Now, I have no problem with this; however, the one aspect of Barcelona that I knew was going to be hard to adjust to was the city itself.

 I grew up and have lived in a small town my entire life. I live in the middle of the woods (as you can see above) with no neighbors and my house is not visible from the road. It is extremely secluded and private, and Barcelona is the exact opposite. Right away I knew this was going to be the challenge that I was going to have to overcome during my four month stay. I'll get back to you in a few weeks to let you know how I have adjusted to the big city of Barcelona.