Barcelona

A childhood admiration

Posted on by laurenfordsite

Growing up we all have that one person that we look up to and aspire to be like. For me, that has been my brother Adam since day one. As a little girl he never failed to put a smile on my face and he always made sure to show me the right way to do things. However, it is not only about how he’s treated me as a sibling that makes me admire him so much but it is also his personal life journey that is so incredible to me.

Adam is twenty-five years old and currently in law school at the University of Denver. He started his journey at the University of Boulder at Colorado where he attended school not knowing one other person. I never knew how he did that considering I am such a homebody. After a week he completely fell in love with school and met so many new people. He loved not knowing anyone because it gave him the chance to meet all new people and learn how to adjust to an independent lifestyle. As he reached his Junior year of college he was given the opportunity to spend a semester abroad. He was deciding between Barcelona and New Zealand but again Adam took the route less traveled by his friends and went to New Zealand. There yet again he knew no one and learned to live life on his own. He traveled to places such as Australia, Fiji and Thailand where he lived with all new people in different hostels. As his semester abroad came to an end and he finished off his senior year at Boulder he had to start figuring out what he wanted to do with his life. Adam decided that going to law school was the right choice for him as it was always his dream to be a lawyer. However, law school didn’t begin for an entire year after graduation so he had to figure out an alternative plan for the time being. Independent Adam decided yet again to step outside his comfort zone and travel by him. He purchased a one-way ticket to Thailand with merely a backpack. He had no agenda as he planned to figure it out as he pleased. He ended up working as a bartender and living at a hotel on the beach where he lived off the small amount of money he was making each day. This was absolutely amazing to me and something I could never fathom doing myself.

As I look at back on his experiences and reflect on my own I see that a huge reason that I have become so independent and I have embarked on so many unique journeys is all because of adam. He showed me the importance of independence and the importance of taking the road less traveled as it ultimately helps you grow as a person and value the experiences you have. Without Adam I would have never went to The University of Arizona not knowing anyone and I would’ve never pushed myself to study abroad. He is not only an incredible brother but also an incredible role model for all.

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Bo De B Barcelona

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In our world today studying abroad has become an extremely common thing amongst college students. Students are spending up to four months in a foreign country with new people and a completely new lifestyle, something extremely unique. Some students go into the abroad experience with no guide and no input on where to go or how to go about understanding the new lifestyle. Others go into the abroad experience with guides created from friends with past experience and tips on how to begin understanding the nature of the new place they are living in. As for many study abroad students in Barcelona, they have been given a guide consisting of the best restaurants, places to go, places to see and things to do.

This guide helps to send study abroad students in the right direction so they are not struggling and completely lost. Although it is wonderful to have a guide of sights to see, having a list of restaurants has seemed to be the most useful. Barcelona is a huge city with endless amounts of restaurants, some of which are amazing and some of which are not as good. Based on the endless amount of guides study abroad students have been handed, it seems to be that one specific restaurant has not only been on every list but also number one on every list. One would think that a number one restaurant would be one that is maybe more expensive and rather nicer. However, on this guide the number one restaurant is Barcelona is a small, hole in the wall, take away restaurant. This restaurant is called Bo De B.

With nothing but incredible reviews on all the most widely used rating websites, Bo De B has an amazing reputation in Barcelona and has yet to fail any of its customers. Bo De B opened up in Barcelona in 2007 by a Moroccan family serving some of the best Mediterranean food in the city. They wanted to bring a piece of home with them to their new life in Barcelona and their piece of home has flourished as endless amounts of people see themselves obsessed with the food. Bo de B is a small take away restaurant located right near Barcelona’s large post office in the center of the city Gothic District and just minutes away from the beach. The restaurant has only about four tables inside which are always taken up and is known to have huge lines of people waiting to grab their food to go. Every item they serve is inexpensive and of amazing quality. They are well known for their sandwiches which consist of fresh meats and endless amounts of toppings such as tzatziki sauce, feta cheese, olives, onions, tomatoes, rice, cucumbers, pesto, lentils, peppers and more.

Customers are able to choose whatever they want with no extra charges. When customers decide they want to wait in line for a sit down meal they are able to purchase more than simply just a sandwich. Bo De B offers different assorted meat platters, patates braves, hamburgers, salads and much more. Bo De B is extremely inexpensive as they have sandwiches that go for no more than five euro and their well known platters for no more than six euro.

With Bo De B being such a popular attraction to people living in and visiting Barcelona, people tend to question why they don’t make their restaurant bigger or extend to other locations. The owners had explained that not only is it rather expensive to expand their restaurant, they merely just don’t want to. They built Bo De B as a small hole in the wall, take away restaurant; something that reminds them of home in Morocco. Although the lines tend to extend pretty far out the door, no one seems to mind as it is all just part of the experience.

With so many different people in and out of the restaurant each day, the owners had mentioned how much they love and appreciate all of their customers. In particular, they had made a point to say that they especially love and appreciate all of their American study abroad students. With Barcelona being such a popular American study abroad location, the workers of Bo De B see American students in and out of the restaurant on a regular basis. They love the American students because they show so much love, appreciation and excitement for their food and they become very regular customers. Some people claim to eat there almost every single day while studying abroad!

When seeing so many happy and excited customers it is easy to understand why Bo De B has made such a mark on people when living and traveling in Barcelona. Based on reviews from sites such as Trip advisor,  Yelp, 10Best and Barcelona-life there hasn’t been one poor thing said about Bo De B. Along with the ratings from those popular sites, people also tend to also acknowledge reviews from popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Instagram. When searching for Bo De B on the internet it shows over 2,000 likes on Facebook, almost 2,000 followers on Instagram, about 900 tweets on Twitter and even a youtube video recorded by a customer showing the family who owns the restaurant and live footage asking the customers about their experience at Bo De B.

People even say that since the food is so delicious and the service is so great they don’t even mind waiting in a line because in the end it is worth it. As much as people want Bo De B to grow and expand, Bo De B is a place that wants to keep its authentic reputation and be known for being an amazing hole in the wall kind of restaurant. It seems that Bo De B will continue to flourish and forever keep its high ranking on all study abroad students travel guide to the wonderful city of Barcelona.

A quick trip to Ireland…

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After about three weekends of spending time exploring and learning about the culture in Barcelona I departed for the beginning of spring vacation. Our first stop was Dublin, Ireland for the big St. Patrick’s day weekend. I didn’t know exactly what to expect but I knew I was filled with excitement based off what I had previously heard about Dublin. As we arrived Thursday afternoon and our cab approached the town center we began seeing hundreds of people in green and every single street completely taken over by people. I usually spend my St. Patricks day in the city of Chicago which always seems wild but this took wild to another level. It was one of the coolest and most exciting events I had ever seen. We quickly dropped our things off at the hotel and got right out to streets and headed to the bars. The irish people couldn’t have been friendlier, the vibes couldn’t have been better and everyone I was traveling with couldn’t have been happier. We spent the entire night and afternoon bar hopping, drinking too much beer and meeting lots of new people from all over the world. Dublin had started to become one of my favorite places in the world…

As we woke up the next day my friends and I hopped on a bus and headed to one of the most beautiful sights in Ireland, the Cliffs of Moher. I’d seen pictures of it before but never truly new what to expect. We spent about four hours getting up there but the time wasn’t a burden to us because the views were absolutely amazing. We saw some of the most beautiful land, homes and outrageous views of the water. We made a pit stop for lunch where I had my first fish and chips. I will say it was amazing! After hours of traveling we finally made it to the cliffs…

We followed the path to the top of the cliffs and as we began approaching the very top I looked around at all of my friends to see each persons jaw completely dropped. No one had words to explain what we were seeing but everyone was absolutely amazed with the biggest smiles on their faces. The water was a beautiful blue and the cliffs were gigantic and like nothing I had ever seen before. We took tons of pictures and then we all sat down gazing off at the view and talking about how lucky we were to be able to get the opportunity to experience something like this. We were able to watch the sunset on the cliffs with the water glistening behind them. In that moment I knew that Ireland had truly stolen my heart..

The endless possibilities through social medial…

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After the previous class I can honestly say that I learned a lot about the unique journey of Valentí Sanjuan. He represents not only a person with so much talent but also a person with motivation and determination. Valentí explained to the class how he got his name out to the world and how he fought to the finish to get to where he is today. Not only did he get his name out into the world through his TV show but also through his motivational challenges as the ironman and ultra man.

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With the social media world being as large as it is today we see how difficult it could be to get your name out into the world and standing out as unique amongst the others who are aiming for the same stardom as you. Valentí explained to the class that it was not easy. He first created his comedy show called Visto lo Visto where Valentí and a few friends rented out a theatre in Barcelona, invested in cameras for recording and then posted their show to the internet. They began promoting themselves through every popular social media outlet, attempted working with every advertisement company and they even put themselves out on the streets. Although they had no guarantees of making their comedy show big, they stayed confident and gave forth full effort each and every day as this was something extremely important to them. As time progressed, they saw themselves receiving more and more views on YouTube, likes on Facebook and shares on Twitter. This led to more and more people interested in actually attending their live events. Valentí saw how much potential he had as he had made himself so big on social media that he wanted to continue to grow even more. He then used his knowledge in growing through social media to create his own personal show called Etiquetats.

With hard work and advertising of himself he pushed until he could make his show onto the big screen. Overtime he saw his show on live television, something truly remarkable. Along with both of the shows he presented, Valentí still wanted to do more. He trained for hours each day to compete in the ironman and ultra man challenges. He purchased a GoPro camera, recorded all of the obstacles he faced and created a motivational YouTube channel. Looking at his YouTube channel now you can see that he has over 20,000 views on almost all of his videos. What i found truly amazing was the fact that his YouTube channel wasn’t necessarily for himself to make money, rather it was to get his name out into the world and make an impact on people viewing his videos. He wanted to prove that anything is possible with hard work and determination.

With so many people aiming for the same goal of becoming big through the Internet, Valentí explained to the class that although it may be difficult, anything is possible. He expressed the importance of being confident in what you are good at and to never lose faith. Yes our world is so competitive today but Valentí is an incredible example of how it is possible to get your name out and become successful through social media. Through his YouTube channel, Visto lo Visto and Etiquetats, Valentí shows a true example of how social media outlets, hard work and determination can lead you to even more than just “15 minutes” of fame.

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A trip to Barcelona…

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Coming abroad everyone feels as if they have to live it up to the fullest and take advantage of each weekend for traveling all around Europe. However, in the midst of all the excitement of traveling they tend to lose sight of the main reason they are studying abroad, experiencing Barcelona. It was not until this weekend when I stayed in Barcelona that I realized how truly in love with it I am. If we are traveling on the weekends that only leaves us with Monday through Wednesday in Barcelona with most of our time spent in classes. How is that any time to explore and experience the culture in Barcelona? This weekend I was able to expand my knowledge and perspective on Barcelona and experience so much that it has to offer.

On Thursday after classes my friends and I decided to make our way up to Bunkers to see the beautiful view of Barcelona with the sunset. It took us about an hour to get there but no one seemed to care, we were just so happy to be walking around in the beautiful weather seeing all of the unique scenery Barcelona has to offer. Once we finally made it to the top I paused and took a moment to take it all in. Barcelona is truly one of the most beautiful and breathtaking places I have ever seen in my life. With the sunsetting behind us we all sat together, sipping on a bottle of wine talking about how blessed we are to be able to experience this.

As the sun finished setting we began walking to dinner. We had no destination in mind so we decided to just walk until we found somewhere.This was one of my favorite experiences because we were able to feel like one of the locals. Along with that we were able to pass the beautiful Sagrada Familia, one of the most incredible monuments I have ever seen. This was also so nice because no one had cell phone service so we were able to enjoy each others company and the views around us. We found a small Mexican restaurant called La Taqueria with no idea whether or not the food was going to be good. We ended up talking with the staff for about an hour and having some of the most amazing Mexican food any of us have ever eaten. Talking to the staff was nice because we got to form a relationship and gain more of an understanding of their culture.

As the weekend progressed, we knew we weren’t getting the best weather on Saturday so we headed to the beach for the day on Friday. Walking along the path we got a full feel for the Barcelona Marina. People were singing, dancing, bike riding, roller blading, eating and simply just enjoying the view. Coming from Chicago this gave me a very different feel of what a city is like. Barcelona is much more laid back, no one is rushing and everyone just wants to leisurely enjoy their day, exactly what I love. Although the weekend was short it showed me that I don’t need to always hit every place in Europe and that I’m only living here once, its time to enjoy the amazing Barcelona!

Social Networking: is it good or bad?

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As social media has started booming across the world, it has become the number one outlet for people to connect, express themselves and fully interact on a constant and daily basis. Social media allows people to interact with one another instantly no matter where they are in the world. Whether it be socializing with friends or connecting with people for work, the social networking world is an incredible outlet for interactions with one another. However, just like anything in the real world, everything comes with positives and negatives. The first positive of social networking is that it allows worldwide connectivity. Being one of the few people from the University of Arizona in Barcelona, social networking has helped me stay in touch with all of my friends even though we are all the way across the world from one another. Through Facebook I am able to chat, post photographs and constantly have live updates on all my friends which has helped to maintain so many of my relationships while abroad. Along with that, through Linkedin I was recently able to get an internship for this upcoming summer. Being all the way in Barcelona and being able to get an internship all the way in Chicago by simply using a social media network is a truly incredible tool to have. Although it may seem like social networking has more positives than negatives, people seem to find many negatives within the social networking world. In a class of mine here at CEA we watched a video that showed how social networking could consume individuals from real personal interactions. People become so obsessed with social media that they tend to forget about living in the moment and become so obsessed with using social networking. Social networking can also be used as a way for people to create a different identity of themselves for they will never have to actually be seen face-to-face. This can lead to false relationships and things such as identity theft. As seen on the reality show Catfish, every day there are people who become so obsessed with social networking and how easily it can allow them to change their identities.

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Here is a post on Facebook consisting of photographs of my friends and I all over Europe!

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In regards to my life I believe that social networking has both positives and negatives as well. It is positive in the sense that it allows me to constantly connect with friends and family while I’m abroad. It is negative in the sense that it tends to take me away from the real world as I get so consumed with what other people are doing and posting that I forget to live in the moment, something that is extremely important to do while studying abroad. While I was traveling in Monaco about two weeks ago I took a moment to put my phone away and actually engage in the views around me. My friend took this photo of me and I will never forget how much I truly appreciated the environment around me in that moment. Social networking was turned off and truly got to feel the amazing moment versus look at it with the mindset of getting pictures for my Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook.

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To go abroad, or to not go abroad?

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As I began my first semester of junior year at the University of Arizona I truly realized how much I loved it there. Being so happy, I never in a million years imagined myself ever leaving, especially leaving to study abroad. After a month of being in Arizona, people began to talk about leaving to study abroad and filling out applications. My older brother had studied abroad in New Zealand and always said I would be making a huge mistake if I didn’t study abroad myself. As scary as the idea of leaving Arziona sounded I began to look into the study abroad program. Although the guidance counselors were extremely helpful they didn’t have the same perspective as someone my age would have on the actual abroad experience so I went and Facebook chatted a girl I knew who was studying in Barcelona. As she ranted for hours about how much she loved it she could tell I was still very hesitant and nervous about actually whether or not I was going to end up going the following semester. She left off our conversation by having me follow her on her instagram blog to see through her pictures how amazing abroad actually is.

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The photographs and videos she posted helped me to see how there is so much more out there than just a life in Arizona. As hard as it was imagining leaving my Arizona life behind I knew that pushing myself abroad was the right thing to do. Now, here I am today in Europe and I’ve never been more thankful for something in my life. So far I’ve traveled to Amsterdam, Nice, Monaco and Florence and have absolutely loved them all. However, after spending this past weekend in Barcelona I can honestly say that Barcelona is my favorite city I’ve been to so far. I posted on my personal Instagram account a photograph of myself on the beach from the other day.

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Yes, the photograph was beautiful but the actual moment of the photograph was even better. As I sat on the beach with one of my best friends from high school in silence just analyzing the people and environment around us we both looked at each other and said “wow”. That was the moment I realized how truly blessed I was to be able to embark on a journey abroad like this. All of the people were smiling, the sun was shining, the water was glistening and overall everyone was just happy to be there. People may think that going abroad is scary but the one thing I can truly say is that going abroad is a once in a lifetime experience and no matter what you are missing out on at home it will always be there when you get back.