Hello! My name is Gabrielle Martin and I am currently studying abroad in Barcelona, Spain. I chose to study abroad in Barcelona for a few main reasons. First, I was offered the ability to apply for an internship through the Sigmund-Weis School of Business at SU, and Barcelona was one of the cities to choose from. I knew I wanted my abroad experience to push me just outside of my comfort zone. I had taken two semesters of Spanish at SU, but it did not come easily to me at all. Barcelona was the only choice from the business school that was not a primarily English-speaking country, so that is why I chose Barcelona. In addition to being pushed outside of my comfort zone and having an international internship, I wanted to travel as much as possible! It is very easy and cheap to travel around the European Union. Barcelona is a very interesting city. It is located in Spain’s Catalonia region and is known for its art and architecture. One of the most famous landmarks in Barcelona is the church La Sagrada Família designed by Antoni Gaudí. A cool thing about the Sagrada Família is that my apartment window looks right out to it! Look at the picture below! One special thing about Spain as a whole is that there are 17 different regions of Spain, all with their own governments. Often times, each region will have an entirely different character and sometimes even another language. In Catalonia, most people speak Catalan, which sounds like a mix of Spanish and French. People do also speak Spanish, and most people have a little knowledge of English.
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My goals here are to achieve academic success, treating the importance of classes just as I would at SU. At my internship, my main goal is to watch how a business, particularly a start-up company, is run in another country. What decisions are made, how many employees are there, how does a work day look, how to people dress for a “day in the office” and things of that nature. On a more personal level, I hope to gain knowledge of another culture as a whole- what are the “norms” in Barcelona? I also hope that I will be able to see as much of another country as possible delving deeper than just the main tourist spots. I also wanted my abroad trip to not only push me out of my comfort zone on a language front, but in a way of life in general. Barcelona is a very large city, with over 5.5 million residents. This is the complete opposite of both Selinsgrove and my hometown of Green Lane PA where I would be lucky if both cities had 5,000 people combined. I took the opportunity to use my abroad experience as a way to see if I would like living in a big city where I would live in an apartment, walk a lot, find a coffee shop on every corner, and use public transportation. Overall, I wanted to take my one opportunity to “live a different life” in a completely new place with people who knew nothing about me.
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