One of my favorite places I visited before my program start date with my father and then again during a field trip with the program, was the quaint yet captivating medieval town named Girona. It is located north of Barcelona, closer to the mountains with narrow winding cobblestone streets and a rich Catalonian culture. Although I spent a lot of my first trip admiring the physical beauty of the town and fangirling over the fact that several scenes from season 6 of Game of Thrones was filmed there, the field trip introduced me to the history and cultural importance of the town.
We learned its founding history as a roman supervising camp which was later deeply entangled into the conflicts relating to the border politics during the Frankish empire and that it is also one of the best-preserved Jewish Quarters in all of Europe. I found the history engaging and was able to follow the historical storyline since I was learning about the early history which led to the current structure and boundaries of Europe in my Doing Business in Europe, international business course. Being able to tie the historical aspects I was learning in class to have a greater understanding of Girona, and Catalonia as a whole, was rewarding and actually helped me remember some specific facts that I was later tested on!
Alejandra Butcher-Salazar
Hometown: Madison, Wisconsin
Major: International Business and Marketing
Program: CIEE Barcelona Business and Culture