Economics + Culture, Fall 2017, Newsletter II

In Barcelona the dry weeks and beautiful sunny days already belong to the past and Fall season has begun with all its splendor. Tree leaves turning yellow and red, spiraling around the feet of the passing by, with temperatures slowly falling. Meanwhile our students have become fully acclimatized and are now part of the daily city life of Barcelona. They assist their classes, work on their assignments and have even taken their midterm exams! 

However not all is work and the season was greeted by making the typical Catalan dessert ‘Panellets’ and roasting the traditional ‘Castañas’. The students cooked the Panellets helped by our staff and later shared their delicious experiment with other students at the Study Center!

One of CIEE main efforts is the student’s immersion in the local culture and ways of life, believing that this will enrich their life experience and help them shape their future in better ways. This is why we confer such importance to the activities with locals. There are many ways for CIEE students to practice this immersion, they can participate for example in the ‘Castellers’ workshop, were local students teach them how the typical Catalan Human Towers are built (these are traditionally performed during major Catalan festivals at many locations within Catalonia).

Although EC students are very busy practicing cultural Immersion, studying for midterms and doing class assignments, they also have plenty of weekends for travelling around Spain and Europe! This Fall EC students visited Granada, the beautiful southern Spanish city, were they enjoyed visiting the Alhambra and the popular neighborhood of ‘Albahicín’. They learned much form the local culture and food, tasting the delicious southern ‘tapas’ and even danced some Sevillanas!