Hola!

Hola friends! I haven’t been so great at keeping up with this blog… from now on, I’m going to try to post every week. Barcelona is SO wonderful and I’I've been busy trying to get to know more of the city- this has to be one of the most beautiful places in the world, and nothing I see fails to amaze me.  I know that these three months are going to fly by so quickly, and I’m going to soak up as much of it as possible.

We started school last week, and the people have been incredibly friendly and sweet. There’s an Erasmus Student Network (Erasmus is the European exchange program) that organizes a ton of events for exchange students, and we've met people from literally all over the world- England, Ireland, Germany, The Netherlands, Mexico, China, Thailand, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Iceland, Austria, Belgium, Italy, France, Australia, New Zealand… you name it, and all of them speak at least two languages. Talk about motivation to learn some Spanish.

                      

                                                               

I love it and have really enjoyed talking to different people about what life is like where they’re from. This is the first time I've stood in rooms full of 100+ people from so many different places, and that has been one of the coolest aspects of this experience so far. We met some more Erasmus friends who live in our building last night when we heard a siren going off and found them trapped in the elevator- apparently you can’t fit more than 3 people in that thing. Oops. The four of us from A&M also signed up for a mentor program, and mine is the sweetest girl ever- her name is Patri, and I love her. Also, there’s a girl here named Marta who did her exchange at A&M last year, and she’s incredible and has helped us so much.

                     

                                                  

In the first few days ESN took us to a disco, and had an international dinner where students brought foods from their countries. They held it in the middle of the business school, and there was a sangria drinking contest…needless to say, this place is very different from A&M. It’s definitely a cultural experience, and I know I’ll have a lot of stories! We've had other events, like a karaoke night last night and a few other dinners and tours of the city. I've also done a little more exploring - we live across from a really beautiful park that I run in now, and I visited Parc Guell where the artist Gaudi did a lot of his work. It was impressive. In the first week we were here, we also visited La Sagrada Familia, a famous Spanish cathedral, and Montjuic, which overlooks the whole city- easily two of the most stunning places in Barcelona. 

                  

            

                       

           

                                                               

Our orientation for school was on the 7th, and classes started the 8th.  That being said, I still don’t know what I’m officially taking. It’s been a little bit frustrating because most of us didn't get the classes we requested (I got two out of four of mine, but they’re scheduled at the same time.) The add/drop session last night didn't work, so for now I’m just going to the classes I want and apparently they’ll add me to them sometime in the next month. The administration seems really disorganized about managing stuff like this, but they have several hundred exchange students to deal with so it’s sort of understandable. I’m trying to take an international marketing class, a commercial management/advertising class, an operations management class and a consumer behavior class- so far they've been really interesting because everything is taught from a European perspective. The material also focuses pretty heavily on international business, which is great because that’s what I’m interested in. I signed up for a Spanish class as well, so we’ll see how that goes!

Another aspect of this semester that I know will be difficult is not being constantly around the community that I have in Texas. I found two English speaking churches but got lost trying to go to both of them (my sense of direction is literally the worst) so I’m going to try again next week.  Just being in this beautiful place, though, makes me see God and life in new ways, and I am absolutely in awe looking at what he has created- not only visually, but in people and cultures and languages and flavors and so much more, coming from all over the world. He is so evident here even though the country is predominantly secular, and I hope he uses me to share his love with the people I meet.  I know that in certain aspects my view of Jesus has been influenced by my own culture, and being in another part of the world is reminding me that he transcends any of these elements and his power extends to every corner of the earth.  I am so, so thankful that He has given me the opportunity to experience all of these things and am full of joy right now. Thanks for reading about my adventures this week, and I’ll keep everyone posted!