Barcelona SAE

I worked in a small music school and helped teach saxophone, piano, voice and clarinet lessons and I taught all the students in the school how to sing a Coldplay song in English for their holiday concert. I also worked with the preschool classes and the parent/toddler classes. I transferred their student database to a new program and re-filed their music library. I also attended music history classes with the other professors. I loved the people I worked with and the opportunity to teach music in a foreign language. Every day, I learned more about their culture, their music and their language. I enjoyed the opportunity to explore the city and meet some wonderful people. I also enjoyed learning about their culture and improving my Spanish. I spent a lot of time exploring the city on my own and spent time with friends from work and from the language school. I also attended multiple concerts and took every opportunity I could to do something new. I was able to travel to Montserrat and Valencia for a few days. I learned how to work in a school where no one spoke English and I never knew what to expect from day to day. I can deal better with stress, the unknown, being completely immersed in a new culture and taking on the challenges presented to me everyday. Take every opportunity you can to learn new things and do not be afraid to take risks. Let yourself be completely immersed in the culture.

My internship was at an English magazine called Barcelona Metropolitan, The City in English. I worked with the lead graphic designer for the magazine as a design assistant. Mostly I created and fixed ads that went in the magazine. Because it is a free magazine, they rely heavily on advertisements from local businesses who want to reach out to English speakers to keep the magazine up and running; so it was really important to make sure the ads were attractive and pleasing to the customers! I loved the environment: everyone was really friendly and even though the staff was mostly from the United Kingdom, they really incorporated Spanish culture into their business. Everyone kept a 'no pasa nada' (no worries/no rush) attitude. I loved meeting new people both from the U.S. and Barcelona. Learning about new cultures (including things I did not previously know about different regions in the states) was probably my favorite part of being abroad. Most days I would leave my internship around 3:30 PM and go straight to the beach. Even though the beaches inside the city are not nearly as beautiful as the ones just outside, they are still very impressive and easily accessible! The Mediterranean Sea is refreshing enough to cool down, and warm enough to keep swimming for hours. Of course, the shopping was fun to experience and I indulged quite a bit! Most of the time other friends from my program and I would go out for tapas late at night to truly experience the life of a Spaniard. We also got the opportunity to take some weekend trips to Madrid, Rome, and Pamplona for San Fermin The Running of the Bulls! There are three valuable traits I learned in Barcelona that will help me out in the future: communication, patience, and the ability to adapt quickly. Learning how to communicate with people on the street and coworkers was a must! In order to communicate effectively I had to remember to stay patient in situations that usually happen very quickly in the U.S. (like going to a restaurant or waiting for a phone call to be returned). I especially think the ability to adapt quickly to a new situation (like a foreign country) will help me become successful in a new job after graduation. ALWAYS enjoy every second of your internship, even if it gets boring at times: it goes by so quickly! Make sure you take lots of pictures and meet as many people as you can!