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Before coming to Barcelona, I thought I knew what I was going to get out of studying abroad. I expected the travel, the pictures, the stories I’d tell when I got home. What I didn’t expect was how much it would quietly change the way I move through my day. Europe has an entirely different way of living, one that feels less focused on productivity and more centered on actually enjoying the life you’re in. Being here made me realize how much of my routine back home was built ar

December in Barcelona has this way of sneaking up on you. One minute the city feels normal, and the next it is glowing. Not in a dramatic way, more like the city took a small breath and everything felt slightly different. The weather gets cooler but never actually cold, and somehow it still feels like the holidays even though everyone is still walking around in light jackets. The moment things really changed for me happened on a totally random morning. I had just walked out o

I signed up for the AICAP graffiti tour thinking we’d just be pointing at murals and taking pictures. It ended up feeling more like a story about a city determined to wipe its walls spotless and the artists just as determined not to disappear. The guide told us that painting without permission in Barcelona can cost you a nywhere from around 300 to 6,000 euros. Not a little warning, but a fine that could seriously ruin someone’s month. She said the city spends real money scrub

Walk around a Spanish city for a day and you start to notice something: there’s always a Zara. On the main shopping street? Zara. In the neighborhood commercial zone? Zara. It’s not dramatic to say the brand is everywhere here. That alone already tells you something important—there’s real demand for it in Spain, and people actually shop there regularly, not just for a “going out” outfit. So even though Zara is a global name, it lives differently here than it does in the U.S.

Back home, Halloween is basically a neighborhood event. Porches get covered in fake webs, someone drags out a giant skeleton, and there’s always a bowl of fun-size candy by the door. Kids run around until their costumes are crooked, then dump everything on the living-room floor to trade. U.S. brands play right into that: big candy promos, costume collabs, limited-time drops, and social posts made to be screenshotted. It’s built for Gen Z to post all night. In Spain, October 3

Florence has a way of softening your idea of “perfect.” On our first afternoon near the Duomo, I did the classic tourist loop and ended up gelato-hopping. Some counters showed off neon towers stacked to the ceiling; others kept their flavors under metal lids with wobbly handwritten labels. I tried both. The plain metal tubs—pistachio in that quiet sage green, strawberry a gentle pink—didn’t look flashy, but they tasted like the real thing. No dye, no artificial flavors, just

If you asked me a year ago what my Starbucks order said about me, I probably would’ve joked that it said I’m always on the go.  I was that girl rushing into a Florida Starbucks between classes — earbuds in, laptop under one arm, answering texts with the other. My matcha latte was my signal to keep moving. It wasn’t some mindful moment — it was just part of my routine, something to hold onto while I kept moving. But then I moved to Barcelona. And suddenly, the same green logo

The first time I walked through the airport, a Desigual ad stood out to me—not because of the clothes, but because of the vibe. The image...