The spring of my sophomore year, I took Honors International Studies in Math History and this came with a study abroad component at the end of the semester after exams. The country chosen by the professor was Spain, mainly Barcelona and Madrid. This part of the class was much better than the classroom portion. I had never been in an airplane before, nor had I ever been out of the United States besides the Caribbean, and this experience was one of the best I’ve had so far in college. I’m so glad had the opportunity to experience another culture and hundreds of years of history built into it. Barcelona’s architecture, specifically La Sagrada Familia and Park Guell were amazing in their detail and how much they differed from normal architecture during the time the architect, Gaudi, was alive. We got to see a 360 degree view of the city from one of the tallest buildings; on one side were the mountains and on the other was the Mediterranean Sea, something I do not see everyday. Madrid was much more overwhelming because of the size but it was interesting to see the difference between the two cities. Barcelona is divided between the “old” and “new” city, while Madrid’d history was incorporated into the modern day city throughout. At first I thought the food portions were going to be smaller and their meals consisted of one course, but I was wrong on both accounts. Their portion sizes were huge, especially the paellas that were given out in individual pans and each meal besides breakfast had a starter, a main dish, dessert, and bread. Going in I only had talked to one person in my class and I wasn’t sure if I would make any friends but by the end I was way closer with almost everyone in the class, and I’m sure we will continue to be friends until graduation. This was definitely my favorite college experience so far!