Hi. I’m Avery. I'm gonna be in Berlin for Fall 2021.

My friends over at Williams College, (who I’m glad I was able to visit at the college's New England utopia above before disappearing to Germany for several months), sometimes joke that I live in a YA novel. A lot of my life consists of, usually pleasant, but oftentimes ridiculous things that just sort of happen to me. Of course, I try my hardest to happen back.

We are officially less than three days from my departure for Ecuador.

I repeat.

We are officially.

less.

than.

three.

days.

from my departure for Ecuador.

This is not a drill.

So this is my first blog ever. Welcome, I think? If you don’t know me, my name is Melanie Garza. I was raised in Monterrey, Mexico but have lived in Texas for a long time now. I moved to the U.S. in pursuit of what people call the “American Dream” after my family lost our business and our dad as a result of corruption, violence, and a fundamentally broken Mexican economy. 

After spending the summer in London, it was somewhat difficult returning to the reliable cornfields of Indiana. After seven weeks in another country there was certainly a culture shock coming back and getting used to living in America again. As I look back on my time in London, I find it hard to reflect as it almost seems like a dream now. This reflection has been perhaps the most difficult prompt to write about, but I can still think back to my time in London with joy.

I have yet to run out of things to do in Barcelona and I only have a couple of days left in this amazing city. As sad as that is, I have compiled my favorite things I have done in Barcelona that I think everyone should try and do. Now some of these activities are free (yay!) while others you do have to pay for but are still 100% worth it.

Where do I begin when it comes to talking about food in London? The answer to that is pretty easy if I’m being honest. I could write this entire blog post solely about fish and chips and all the different places I tried it, but that would be absurd (unless someone would be interested in that, then it’s not a problem at all). The food here has its ups and downs but I’ve done my best to single out some food tips, items, and places that are necessary to try if you are visiting London for the first time.

My study abroad experience has been nothing short of amazing. I have had the best time in Barcelona and would not change my experience for the world. With that said, here are 5 reasons why you should study abroad in Barcelona, Spain!!!

Everyone going to a new place alone has that thought in the back of their head that it may be kind of hard to make friends once they arrive. Unless you’re just immensely confident in your friend-making ability (in which case that’s pretty cool for you) but you’re not like the rest of us.

Wow, what a crazy and exciting past 10 days it has been in Barcelona! I have absolutely loved this city and cannot wait to explore it more throughout my next couple of weeks here. These past 10 days have been non-stop busy because my friends and I are trying to do the most with our time here. We have been all over the city, literally, we took the metro 7 stops too far. But that’s part of the experience of being in a new city right? After that one metro mishap on the first day, we finally got it down.

Arriving in one of the biggest and most well-known cities in the world and having to spend the first five days in a room with little to no airflow, during one of their hottest weeks, was not the ideal way to begin my travels abroad. Many of us have been through quarantine at some point during this pandemic, but nothing really compares to hearing the kids screaming outside chasing down an ice cream truck while you’re sitting in the same spot for four hours.