The Adventure Begins

The journey has finally begun, on Tuesday September 5th I took off on a flight with a group of 27 other University of Illinois Architecture Students to study abroad for the entire 2017-2018 school year in Sant Cugat del Vallès, Spain at UPC. (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya) Over the course of the year I will be visiting many prominent points of architecture in Spain and all over Europe.

As someone who has not been overseas until now, this entire week has been an integrational experience for me and many of my friends. We walked around Sant Cugat and found all the supermarkets and other specialty stores that we may need while living here. When exploring downtown you will find the beautiful Monastery of Sant Cugat (pictured below), many tiny shops, the train station, many wonderful tapas restaurants, all inside an abundance of beautiful Spanish styled streets.

This week we also explored the streets of downtown Barcelona. Walking all over the city until my feet started to swell, I was able to scratch the surface of Spain and all its architecture has to offer. I even got a glimpse of some of the Gaudi’s masterpieces that were designed all over Spain (La Pedrera pictured below). Once I get my UPC student card I will go back to these buildings and get a student discounted tour.

Over the course of the year I know I will learn much more in depth on Gaudi’s designs, along with learning about the designs off many other Spanish and European architects. I will also be learning more Spanish so that I can fully immerse myself in the culture while studying here.

So……. Hablaré contigo más tarde!