John Mark’s Study Abroad

Barcelona

Barcelona has been a blast. It was a very busy city there was always something going on. This is the first city that Professor Holley has been with us. It has been enjoyable hanging out with him, and getting to know him better. The first 2 days were very similar, we would wake up early, walk around the city all morning, come in and take a siesta, or afternoon break, then that night would eat dinner and then enjoy the busy nightlife. It is so crazy to me how late everything happens in Spain. Normal dinnertime was about 9 pm. Then going out time was about 1:00am and if you got there before 3:00am it was free cover, if you got there after 3:00am you hade to pay to get in. In auburn if you get there after 10:00 pm you have to pay cover, so they are about 5 hours later than the US.

In the middle of the trip we had a full day of work and meeting about our chapter. It was hard being in the middle of a huge fun city and having to stay in the hotel and work. But it is just a small trade off for the amount of fun we are having.

One of the mornings we got an unbelievable opportunity to tour the Sagrada Familia. The Sagrada has been under construction for well over 100 years, and they are estimated to finish in 2020. We had one of the architects that has been on the project for 18 years give us a tour. He has written a few books about it, and was a wealth of construction knowledge.

One of my favorite evening adventures was going with Jeff to Parc Guell. The two of us rode out to a mountain outside of the city, we had a little bit of a hike to get to the top, but there was a awesome view from up there. There was some other cool sculptures and architecture, but my favorite part was the view.

The last day we meet up with our friends from Interlaken. We all went to the beach, bought some Sangria, and relaxed on the beach all day. Tommy dug a huge hole, and buried me up to my neck. I had to break out after I started to loss circulation in my feet. That night we went to a Pat Methany Concert. I am not a huge fan of jazz… but it was still cool.

Sorry pictures are taking a while to upload but they are all in the video so enjoy.