I LOVE BARCELONA 2014

School was pretty structured. I took harder classes than most I feel like because the length of my homework and classwork was more extensive than others. It was hard to motivate myself to do the work because I was in the ¨studying abroad´´ mindset. However, I was taking political science classes and I am used to extensive reading and writing but I came in thinking it was going to be easier than my home university. It was really useful and informational though--I learned a lot!!! Classes are around an hour and a half so sometimes I got restless but for the most part, teachers would present a video and then lecture or some in class activity which I liked. It broke up the class a little bit so we weren´t just listening to lecture! Classes went a little later than most do at home. I got out at 7:30 each night and was home by 8, but considering that we didn´t eat each night until like 9, it wasn´t a big deal.

Getting used to eating at weird times for us was a struggle but we got used to it real quickly. If you are living with a host family, I would recommend going to the grocery store and buying your own snacks to have throughout the day so you are not waiting on them entirely for your meals.With that--make sure to tell your host family about the food you do not care for. It will be really helpful for you and for them. Also, they might get frustrated if you don´t tell them then down the line, they serve you something and you don´t like it.

You also need to get used to walking everywhere. It was an adjustment for me because back at home, everything is so spread out so I am constantly in my car. Here, you can walk to everywhere or take the metro. FIND THE 3 MONTH pass as soon as you get here! you will end up saving some money by getting that one instead of the 1 month unlimited! but also don´t always rely on the metro because walking is good for you and you get to see where everything is in relation to everything else!!!!! Spending most of your time traveling underground on the metro isn´t that fun!

Spend time in Barcelona because its your temporary home. Traveling was fun, but also staying here and exploring everything about the city holds a lot of value and you will be thankful one day for it! you will know all the secret local places that no one else got to see if they were always traveling!!!!

I loved Barcelona and wished I was here longer!!! AIFS was an amazing program to go through!