After I finished my study abroad program, I had the privilege of spending a week in Spain’s second most prominent city, Barcelona. The capital of Catalunya offers a few interesting lessons in urban planning, my field of study. In particular, Barcelona is the epicenter of the ‘Okupa,’ or Squatting, movement in Spain. Thus, during my…

So, now that I’ve discussed living with my host family and getting along with my classmates, let’s get into the main course; how was the program itself? My courses were not challenging for a few reasons. One was my familiarity with hearing Spanish (even European Spanish) and my practice reading in the language. Furthermore, I…

In this second blog post, I’ll discuss my experience fitting into the culture of my host family, as well as the culture of my fellow students. My host mother, as disclosed in the previous post, was a dog owner. However, prior to arriving in Spain, I thought that she had THREE dogs and her adult…

This blog post is the first of four describing my experience studying abroad in Spain as part of the Pitt in Spain Panther Program. I would like to note from the get-go that these blogs are being composed in retrospect, as I tried to minimize internet usage during my trip. As a result, while I…