My gli theme and challenge was to address poverty in spain and how it has affected the education system. While in spain i was given the opportunity to ask fellow Spanish classmates about their experiences with the education system and how it affected the impoverished. Many answered that because of the rising tuition costs for university some students would often have to take time off to raise money before pursuing a university career. This would often result, in my time in spain, with public protests at the university. These protests would be significant enough to shut down the university for several days, however the government would continue to ignore these protests.

I learned from this experience to explore and understand a different countries culture. Specifically, in Barcelona, catalans are very proud of their history. Catalans have years of often being put down by the Spanish government and my professors and fellow peers helped me understand their hardships. Being able to truly understand this changed my experience to be more open minded of the locals when visiting a new country. It is important to understand their hardships and traditions which they find pride in. This in the end changed my view of how i will continue to experience any culture.

Also, a fond memory i have of my time there was of spending one of my first days in Barcelona. Once there i decided to take advantage of the free art museum days and went out to explore by myself. This helped me step out of my boundaries and start to feel comfortable in this new foreign country i was alone in. From that point onward i was able to comfortably go on my own path, experiencing and meeting new people. This has made me even more confident to go on may adventures to come.