Taylor's Trip to Barcelona

     After spending eight weeks over the summer in Barcelona, University of Massachusetts student Taylor Gilmore said she would recommend other students get involved in the study abroad experience.

     Gilmore, a native of Walpole, Mass. had always hoped to explore other countries.

     “I’d always wanted to go to Europe and it seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to live there,” said Gilmore.

     While abroad in June and July, Gilmore took Spanish language courses, developing her Spanish-speaking abilities.

     “My only prior Spanish language experience was in high school,” said Gilmore.  “Living in Barcelona definitely helped improve my Spanish language skills because you are constantly practicing with native speakers.”

     However she also did a lot of traveling, seeing parts of England, France, Italy and the Czech Republic as well as other parts of Spain.

     Gilmore said the experience was everything she expected, “if not harder” because of the significant lifestyle differences in Europe, as compared to that of the United States.

     “It’s culturally so different that it was difficult to adjust,” she said, referring to the food, the language and the size of the city in general.  She explained that Barcelona also participates in siestas from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. every day.  People typically spend this time sleeping, eating elaborate three-course lunches and drinking alcohol.  All stores are closed for the three hours to allow employees to partake in the siestas.

     She also found living in Barcelona to be much more exciting than living in Amherst because of the city’s scale.  Amherst’s population of around 38,000 people pales in comparison to that of Barcelona, which is over 1.6 million.

     “It was very interesting visiting the different tourist attractions because they were always full of people,” said Gilmore.  “There were always lines out the door at the nightclubs and if you went to the beach you could expect to be sitting within three inches of another person, who was probably speaking a language that you didn't understand.”

     However, Gilmore remarked that Barcelona is also a lot more dangerous because of the frequency of pickpockets.  In fact Barcelona was picked by TripAdvisor.com as the number one city in the world to beware of pickpockets.

     Though Gilmore had to take the crowded subway on a regular basis and was frequently at risk of having her belongings stolen, she returned to the U.S. without personally experiencing theft.  Unfortunately three of her four roommates were not so lucky.  One had her phone pick-pocketed twice, another had her camera stolen and the third had her phone taken out of her purse while at a nightclub.

     All the same, Gilmore considers study abroad to be “a very rewarding experience,” that she would encourage other students to take part in.

     “I highly recommend students study abroad because it allows you to see and experience other parts of the world and different cultures.”

     Gilmore said she would consider going back to Spain in the future to teach English, but only temporarily.

     “I would miss my family too much to move there permanently,” she said.

     Here at UMass, Gilmore, now in her junior year, studies both journalism and communications.  She also is pursuing a minor in psychology.

     Gilmore currently works as an intern in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences where she primarily writes articles and edits videos.  The monthly SBS newsletter, which is sent out to its students by email, is subject to her editing expertise.     

By Shelby Ashline