Sisters Abroad: Cristina Ventoza

• One of our sisters, Cristina Ventoza, spent the summer studying and traveling abroad. Read all about her experience here!
• So while most people spent the end of spring semester looking for a summer job, I was looking for a place to spend all my saved up cash. I had spent some time researching different programs to do over the summer, ended up picking a program that was four weeks long in Barcelona. I really did not care about what classes I was going to have to take, but knew I wanted to expand and put to use my spanish skills. I had to take an international business class and a spanish 2 course. I did not know very many people on my trip but that turned out to not be a problem There was 17 of us on our trip all with different expectations and concerns, but in the end I think we would all agree that it was the best four weeks of our lives. We were split into groups of mainly 2 and stayed with host families. I lucked out and would say I got one of the greatest families there was. I had a host mother and two host sisters, ages 19 and 9. They were so nice and attended to anything we needed. The mother would make us breakfast and dinner. Dinner was always a family style that would usually start late, around 9:15 pm and last hours with us talking and comparing cultures. We had classes about four times a week. One weekend we spent doing day trips to Sitges, and Girona, and another weekend we spent doing business visits in Madrid. The worst part about being abroad was remembering that we were still taking classes. It was so easy to get distracted by all that there was to do, but we always found ways to fit some time in for school. Most days I had a four hour break between classes, where I would grab something quick to eat and then head to the beach. The beach was always crowded with people when the weather was nice. It was always a nice place to nap or a good place to attempt to do homework. A couple of my favorite places are Park Güell, that was built by Antoni Guadi and Montjüic, which was a fountain that at night would change colors depending on the music playing. By the time the month was up, we could all hold our own conversing with a Spanish native, we had the metro system completely down, and could tell you where to get the best gelato. I never wanted to leave and can say that I am always going to be trying to find ways to get back there, not only to see my amazing host family, but to visit all the historic parks and buildings.

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