Week One

I just finished my first week here in Barcelona! The more I think about it, the stranger it is that I am really here. Through these past 8 days I have felt so many different and strange emotions all at once. Every day here is different, and every day I am equally as excited, and slightly anxious, to see what the day will bring.

When first arriving, I found myself excited, a little weirded out, but mostly excited. I moved into my apartment flat with 5 other girls. Out of the six of us, five of us come from CU. I was a little shocked to be honest, considering the fact that I had just flown half way across the globe, just to find that I would be living with fellow CU students for the next eight weeks. Part of me felt relieved by this, and another part of me felt a little disappointed as I was looking forward to meeting new people from schools around the world.

As soon as we all got settled in, my new roommates and I wasted no time trying out new restaurants and exploring the night life here. For the first two days, I found myself feeling excited to experience this new city surrounded by new people. It took until I was sitting alone in my room, to realize that I wouldn’t be able to be in constant contact with those back home, and that I wouldn’t be able to see their faces whenever I wanted. This thought made me feel alone and slightly overwhelmed. I quickly accepted that there was nothing I could do about it, except to get over it.

Following the weekend, we quickly jumped into our internships, something I was looking forward to. Waking up in the morning, I felt quite anxious getting ready and finding my way to work. As we all set out for internships at 9 am, the city was flooded with people commuting to work. Somehow, in the midst of the crazy human traffic, I easily found my way to work on the first day much to my surprise. When first meeting my co workers, I had my first ‘oops’ moment that made me realize there are a lot more cultural changes than I had imagined. In Spain, it is customary to do a side peck two times when meeting someone. I, not knowing, went in for the handshake. When my co-worker when in for the kiss on the cheek, it became awkward real fast. Naturally, I laughed it off, but since I have remembered the proper way to greet strangers.

Besides slight cultural differences, I think I am adapting at a good pace. It’s quite helpful knowing the language, as I feel I have meaningful conversations with the people I interact with daily. Working alongside people who primarily and rarely speak English has forced me to speak Spanish more often, which was one of my goals for being here.

As for this city, I absolutely love Barcelona. The people, the culture, the city itself, it is all great. I quickly found my appreciation for this city when I took a last minute trip to France for the weekend. A roommate and I decided to book a flight to Nice, France without much research or planning. We found the city of Nice to be very beautiful and charming. Something that we found not so charming however, were the people. While my experience was COMPLETELY subjective and while I do believe generalizations are unfair, I will most likely never return. I found most of the people I interacted with there very rude, standoff-ish, and plain mean. This however, taught me something very important: the world is not always a friendly place period. As much we might hope or imagine it to be, it is not. I felt quick relief and comfort returning to Barcelona, which made me feel even better about calling this place home.

It’s crazy to think I’ve only been here for a week, as I feel I have been here for much longer. However, I’m not complaining! So far, I love my internship, my new city, and my new life. I am very excited to see what these next seven weeks will bring.