During the summer 2013, PC '12 Leah Carroll, PC '11 Caroline Kirby, PC '11 Rachel Robillard and PC '11 Megan McGill studied abroad to Barcelona, Spain through IES Abroad.
These girls had a wonderful experience abroad together!
Here are the questions the girls answered:
1) Study abroad City & Country
2) What are you studying/what classes are you taking?
3) Favorite part of study abroad so far?
4) Any cool excursions?
5) What do you miss most about the U.S./UT/home?
Leah Carroll PC '12
1) Study Abroad City and Country- Barcelona, Spain (Catalunya)
3) My favorite part of studying abroad was getting to visit so many new places throughout Europe. I also got to meet a lot of new people and make some great new friends!
4) I left Barcelona a few times on the weekends to go to Prague, Venice, The Costa Brava, Seville, Madrid, Sitges, Girona, Pubol, Figueres, Port- Illigat, Cadaques, Collioure, and Tarragona!
5) I main things I missed about America were the free water, peanut butter, and of course the ability to stream Netflix.
Rachel Robillard PC '11
1)Barcelona,
Spain Summer 2013 through the IES Language and Area Studies program
Taking Spanish
Advanced III and International Marketing
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| Maria Garcia Rodriguez and Rachel Robillard 2009 |
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| Rachel Robillard and Maria Garcia Rodriguez 2013 |
3)My favorite part of studying abroad was rekindling my relationship with my Spanish family. During the summer entering my junior year of high school in 2009, I studied abroad to Barcelona, Spain through the Rotary Club. While learning a different language and culture, I lived in Barcelona for three weeks with the Garcia Rodriguez family. After the three weeks, Maria Garcia Rodriguez, who is my age, came back to Texas with me for three weeks to also learn a different language and culture in America. It was a wonderful experience, which made me gain a second family in Barcelona. It had been four years since I have seen the Garcia Rodriguez family, but it felt like I was only gone for a short amount of time when I returned. I quickly adapted and couldn’t have felt more at home.
In addition, it was the best feeling when
both my American family and Spanish family met for the first time in person this summer. I
am truly blessed for both of my families.
4)Excursions? Of course! The
best part of studying abroad was traveling. Since I did not have class on
Fridays, I took advantage of traveling in and out of Spain every weekend. I had the
opportunity to travel to a place that has been on my buck list all of my life:
Africa. I went to Chefchaouen (known as the Blue City), Tangier, and Assilah. From riding camels along the beach, bargaining with locals while shopping, and getting my first henna tattoo, it was hands down my favorite vacation excursion. Fortunately, my Mom’s reaction was a
lot better than what I was expecting when I told her I was going to Africa for
the weekend.
I paid for the excursion with my own money, so it was a happy 21st
birthday present to me!
For more
information on my study abroad story, check out my individual blog:
Megan McGill PC '11
1) Barcelona, Spain in the IES
Program
2) In Barcelona, I took a Spanish
class and an Art History class
that focused on the Spanish artists Picasso,
Miró, and Dalí.
3) My favorite part of study abroad
was being able to become so immersed in the culture of Barcelona! I lived with
a family of five for the six weeks that I was there, and they taught me so
much! I got the opportunity to learn so much more about the Spanish and Catalan
people than I would have ever learned in a weeklong vacation. Also, being there
for six weeks gave me so much time to explore and try out all of the wonderful
restaurants and food that Barcelona has to offer!
4) For an independent trip one
weekend, I went to Menorca, Spain with my Barcelona roommate and another one of
our friends. It was by far my favorite excursion that I took! We went to the
extremely relaxing island of Menorca, off of the coast of Barcelona, near the
end of our study abroad semester and had so much fun. We spent the entire
weekend on beautiful beaches, and were able to test out our Spanish with the
locals, who knew much less English than the people of Barcelona. I can’t wait
to go back sometime!
5) During my summer abroad, I
really missed Tex-Mex food, free water at restaurants and air conditioning, but
especially my family and friends that were back in Texas! Thankfully, more than
fifty percent of the students in the program were from UT, including three of
my ZTA sisters, which made Barcelona feel much more like home!
Caroline Kirby PC '11
1)I studied abroad
in Barcelona, Spain through the IES Language and Area Studies program
2) The classes I took
were Spanish Advanced Grammar I and International Marketing
3)I can’t really
pick one part of study abroad that was my ultimate favorite. There were so many
different aspects that made my experience great. On the one hand, I loved
living with my host mom and learning the way that people live in Barcelona and
their everyday life. I also really enjoyed traveling and seeing places in a
whole new way because I had no one but myself and the friends I traveled with
to figure out how to get from point A to point B. It was no longer me going
along with my parent’s travel plans. It was my friends and I scrambling for the
cheapest way to get back from Granada to Barcelona the day before we needed to
be home for class on Monday morning. Then finally, taking a less than luxurious
night train home, which arrived just two hours before class solely because we “wanted
to see more of the city”. Still, I enjoyed not just the places that I got to
see during my study abroad experience, but the little details and chaotic
planning that went on in between each destination. Spontaneity and luck had a
lot to do with it in the end.
4) During the week, I
typically tried to explore all that Barcelona had to offer, which was a lot.
Then, on the weekends, I went on trips to places outside of Barcelona. In total
during my program I went to Terragona (Spain), Girona (Spain), Figueres
(Spain), Púbol (Spain), Cadaqués (Spain), Sitges (Spain), Madrid (Spain),
Seville (Spain), Granada (Spain), Collioure (France), Venice (Italy), Prague
(Czech Republic). In of these places there was many unforgettable experiences.
One place particularly that I would love to go back to is Venice. When I went
it was with a group of six, with only a small plan of places we would like to
see and the rest just to wander. Regardless of where we tried to go in Venice,
we got lost and sometimes we got really, really lost. The best part was that
even though we were lost it never felt like time was wasted because sometimes
that’s when I really felt I learned about how real locals live everyday.
5)I definitely missed a few things that
I took for granted before I left the U.S. One thing is the free water at restaurants.
With all of the hard work that comes along with being a tourist, there is a
never-ending craving for water and no restaurant will just hand it over for
free like we do here. Also, I missed being able to communicate easily with
friends and family and in the same time zone too.
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