travel | Abroad in Barcelona

Cultural activity- Barcelona for the weekend

Posted on April 18, 2016 by tesswaldronblog

This weekend I had my very last trip planned for Mallorca, Spain. Mallorca is an island off of the coast and is considered a top vacation spot. Although this trip may have been extremely relaxing and unbelievable, I had a hard time leaving my apartment for my flight on Friday.

It hit me that I have a little less then two weeks left in the most amazing city in the world, and I am not happy about it. I packed my suitcase and printed out my boarding passes… but I sat back down on my couch and decided to stay. I looked at my social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and looked through all of the pictures of all of the previous adventures I have already taken to other countries. Nothing beats Barcelona.

I realized the I can’t get back the sunny Barcelona days and the outrageous nights at opium. I can’t get back Bo De Be, or gelato on the Mediterranean. I cant get back laying out on the beach and having 1,786 people that claim they are experts at giving “massages” ask if I would like a foot rub for money. I will miss FC Barcelona games with thousands of loyal fans. Although there are some days I want to see every country in the world, Barcelona is always what I look forward to coming back to every Sunday night after traveling for the weekend.

I look forward to taking the metro with hundreds of new faces every day. I look forward to waking up in my apartment and stepping outside on my balcony and seeing the mountains to my left and right. The food I have eaten abroad has made me realize that I am not a picky eater anymore. I have expanded my horizons to heights I never thought I would reach. I don’t need cellular data to talk to my friends 24/7. I do not need a map to get me places. I am a lot more street smart and independent, and I love that. I will miss the warm days and cold Barcelona nights with my best friends. Ill miss having no responsibility here besides school work. These are the best days of my life and I am so incredibly sad seeing it come to an end.

I know that one day I will come back to Barcelona when I am older, I just don’t know when. People have been asking my lately if I would want to live here when I am older, and I think i would love to live here for a year or two. When I first came abroad, I couldn’t imagine living in Barcelona for longer than four months, but now I am dying to stay.

Barcelona, you win. You have my heart. Thank you for these last four months of endless opportunities and adventures. Thank you for the lifelong friendships and memories that you have created. Thank you for teaching me how to be independent, and happy on my own. Ill be back one day!

Traveling Outside Your Comfort Zone

Posted on April 10, 2016 by tesswaldronblog

Traveling abroad and Studying in one continent is amazing. But traveling somewhere that is completely out of your comfort zone is life changing.

Studying abroad in Europe is hands down the coolest thing I can say I have ever done. Traveling from the Swiss Alps, to the Eiffel tower is pretty damn awesome. But, what is life like outside of Europe? Whats behind the european lifestyle?

This weekend I found out what life was like in a 3rd world country and it was extremely eye opening. I was prepared for some type of culture shock, but I still couldn’t believe where I was. Seeing people wear the same outfit, almost in a continuous uniform was something I can say I have never seen. The was that Africa functions compared to Europe is mind boggling…

In Marakech, Morocco, they do not ride mopeds to and from class… they ride camels and donkeys. They believe animals can get this job done and it is much cheaper. They believe that showing the shoulders or below the knee is “rubbish trash”, and I know that because the first day a woman yelled this directly at my friend. They pray outside 5 times a day– religion is apart of their every day life. They eat bread for breakfast everyday, accompanied by a cup of green herbal mint tea. Moroccan oil and argan oil is made here in order to make your hair and skin soft. The currency is not only different, but the value of a simple coin is to die for. Many people in this area are struggling, and they work for every singe cent they can get.

I see this as appreciating the important things in life and valuing what is really important to you. They dress differently because their religion is so important to them. They stop what they are doing 5 times a day and go out into the streets and bend down onto a mat to prat because that is what gets them through the day. They work for their money by making handmade crafts and products and sell them for extremely cheap. Most people cant afford fridges, so they use spring water from the mountains and waterfalls to cool down their drinks. They don’t have heaters where I was because they explained to me that “not many people can afford them so they aren’t made as much”.

It is crazy how different two continents are even when they are so close together. It is so important to step outside your comfort zone and travel to the unknown because it makes room for you to grow by opening up your eyes to differences and knowing how lucky life is when you have amenities that many people don’t have the luxury of having.

Food Experience- Multimedia Report: Happy Pills

Posted on April 4, 2016 by tesswaldronblog

“A sweet remedy for everyday pains”

Happy Pills was originally started in Barcelona and was designed to essentially take over the world. This famous family business that started off as a small hole-in-the-wall candy shop, is now one of the top destinations for tourists all around the world to go to while visiting Barcelona. Opening in 2007, Happy Pills has worked hard to build a brand that can bring happy moments to people by using a magic recipe that mixes the exact dosage of sweets with positive and amusing messages. These messages can be chosen from millions of funny jokes, to love notes to your significant other. Happy Pills can either function as a gift, or even to treat oneself while be indulgent and memorable at the same time.

From corporate gifts, to birthdays, to weddings, Happy Pills personalizes pills for all kinds of events where a sweet remedy is needed! There are four locations in Barcelona, one in Vizcaya, and another located in Zaragoza. Although Happy Pills would be a huge success in places such as the United States, they want to continue to keep its authentic reputation of being a place people desire to travel to. Having a place so authentic and so far away makes it more memorable and special when tourists travel to places such as Barcelona. Happy pills is an extremely brilliant branding move by taking the world’s love for candy and taking it to a new level by making their shop like a pharmacy. People love it. The selection of candies is large and is sorted by color and taste. From left to right it starts with pink and ends with the last color in the rainbow, purple. The top containers contain sour and sweet candies and the bottom drawers contain chocolates. From gummies, sour belts, tarts and marshmallows, this blows all of the traditional candy stores out of the water.

Candies are constantly being replenished and the store is very clean. Employees give customers gloves to place whatever candy you want into the “pill bottle”. Happy Pills believes that using gloves rather than the traditional candy store tongs because they want the customers to be able to touch the candy. It is part of the purchasing experience. Its always a bummer buying candy from a candy store and it turns out being hard and stale. There are many stores where candy simply sits in the containers for days but here, it is guaranteed that the candies are replenished every single day. The comfortable, clean and fun atmosphere is what attracts people to this store and is what Happy Pills takes pride in.

The fun part about this store is when it comes time to choose your container, which determines what price you end up paying. The prices of the bottles start from 6 euros and can even make hit the price of 25 euros. There are many unique containers. Most of them look like pill bottles, but there are containers as unique as tablet boxes. These tablet boxes add onto the fun atmosphere by creating the idea of a piece candy each day. Pill jars vary by size and they definitely can add up fast in price.

After stuffing the pill jar with candy to your liking, there is one more step to the process. This part attracts customers because it makes each bottle of candy unique. With a selection of over 100 choices of stickers, there are many different prescription stickers that can cater to the customer’s desire. These stickers range from a choice of “For a Bad Hair Day”, “For When The Wifi is Down”, “Get Better Soon”, “I Love Barcelona”, “For the Best Sister Ever” and many more. Half are the stickers are in Spanish and the other half are in English so that all different types of people from all over the world can understand what they are putting on the front of their pill bottle.

This candy store takes pride in knowing that every person that walks in, can walk out happy while bringing joy to the little kid in all of us. This candy store is not for only children, but it is also for adults as well. It is obvious that Happy Pills is a totally different concept from other candy stores because right when customers walk in they immediately wonder if they are really in a candy store or not.

“Because of the unique concept, the branding of Happy Pills from the design of the store to the packaging and selection of the candy is really important for our brand and image.” – Imma Duenas, brand manager of Happy Pills

Pills are not for every occasion in life. But candy is. Although there may the same candy that can be found in other candy stores, there is a great deal of candy that is unique to Happy Pills that can not be found in other stores. One of the biggest hits of the shop is the Happy Pills set that is called “After-Sex”. This candy is catered for adults and has all of the red and pink candy in shapes of hearts and kisses that makes the moment after a little more fun. The description under the stickers are all about “hot” and “yes”.

Happy Pills is a fun way to feel like a kid in a candy shop again. It has an innovative design and is one of the most unique places in all of Europe!

My Trip To El Born

Posted on March 8, 2016 by tesswaldronblog

The “Gremis” also known as the guilds were a group or people that all pertained the same particular skill set. These guilds worked on certain items and worked with the same materials to produce. There were certain stages that the Gremis had to go through in order to be apart of Els Gremis.

Streets that I walked through were:

Carrer de Mirallers- guilds responsible for making mirrors

Carrer de les cotoners- guilds who dealt with making and selling cotton

Carrer de Espaseria- making swords and armor

Placa de Llana- responsible for trading wool

Carrer de Sabateria- guilds responsible for shoe making

La Casa Taller is was very interesting and made me understand why houses were built the way they were back then. The doors to the houses were extremely small and hard to walk into. The staircases leading up to the next floor was small as well. The first floor, also known as “principal” contained the biggest space and the bigger windows. As the building got taller and taller, the windows became smaller. This had to do with the people living in it. The younger people working in the guilds lived at the top.

The buildings in El Born were all built similarly. They were all built out of stone and have been standing for hundreds of years. La casa teller was made to last long and the stone makes sure that it still stands today. The roads here were extremely narrow as well.

Santa Maria del Mar was a magnificent church that was built between 1329 and 1383. It looks basic and simple from the outside, but the inside has much detail and depicts the Catalan culture. From the outside, they didn’t want to to be “too much” by being too intricate.

El mercat del Born was a cool public market that is made out of iron and marks the beginning of modernism.

El Fossa de les Moreres is built on top of a cemetery. The people that were buried here were the people that defended Barcelona when the city was under attack.

La cuitadella is a park in which is an extremely significant area. This park covers a little more than 70 acres and is the ground to many monumental places in Barcelona.

One of the main changes that came to action after September 11th, 1714 was that the people were not allowed to speak the Catalan language. They also went forward with shutting down universities and making huge changes in the government.

The consulate of the sea was set up in Aragona and consisted of a judicial board. This is now used to promote trade offices throughout Europe so it is still good use.

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