As I write, there are ten days left of my study abroad experience, nine if you do not count the day of flying back to the United States. I have said it is hard to believe this fact so many times that the phrase has lost meaning, but that does not change the reality of the situation. Nothing lasts forever, and here we are. So, before I write about my time in Rome as a whole, I want to write about my final two trips to Dublin and Budapest. These two places were always on my must-visit list for a few reasons.

As I sit here on the train to Barcelona thinking about how this is one of my last trips while abroad, I can’t help but feel sentimental. Studying abroad was something I knew I’ve always wanted to do and knowing that it will be over in 2 weeks makes me sad. I’ve made amazing friends, discovered hidden gems of the city, gotten used to Spanish eating habits, laughed, cried, and everything in between. I feel that I’ve changed since coming here and I mean that in the best way possible.

I have a personal connection to these two neighborhoods since they are where I have been doing my homestay for the last 4 months I have been in this city! And everyone I talk to about them, including people from Barcelona, don’t know about them! Camp de L’Arpa and El Clot are adjacent neighborhoods in the middle of the city that are extremely well connected by transit. The neighborhoods are bordered by the Sagrada Familia neighborhood of the Eixample, El Guinardó towards the mountains, Navas, and towards the water by Sant Marti and Glories.

Les Corts is a local upper middle class neighborhood adjacent to Sants, Sarrià-Sant Gervasi, the Left Eixample, the mountains, and L'Hospitalet de Llobregat. Les Corts de Sarria is the oldest part of the larger Les Corts division of the city, with its center of beautiful Concordia Square. It is also the most affordable part of the neighborhood with larger apartment buildings on one block and older apartment buildings across the street; this is compared to the massive spaced out mansions that go up into the hills.

This past weekend, about 20 people from IES Abroad Salamanca headed off to Tangier, Morocco. As the country sits just across the strait of Gibraltar, many of us had dreams of visiting the country from before arriving in Spain. While we ended up making our own individual plans in various smaller groups, most decided to travel on the same weekend for the sake of convenience. 

Sants is a quiet, formerly industrial neighborhood with Camp Nou and Les Corts bordering it towards the mountains, Mont Juic towards the Mediterranean, and L’Hospitalet de Llobregat and Left Eixample on either side. The neighborhood is an interesting look into more residential, middle class Barcelona which is unfortunately not on the radar for most tourists or students visiting the city. The neighborhood has many quiet pedestrianized streets, a lively main street, beautiful old architecture, and a gorgeous park – Parc de l'Espanya Industrial.

Intro

Back in February when a group of us booked a trip to Morocco, we did not realize it landed on Eid al-Fitr, a celebration that marks the end of Ramadan. When I noticed, I was excited for the cultural and religious experience since back at my home university, I’ve taken a few courses on Islam and Africa. In the end, it was a group of over 15 of us that spent the weekend in Tangier, and here is what we did!