Internship in Barcelona – Highlights of Karo

“Typical Spanish – that means the joy of life”

After graduating from university last year Karo only had one wish – she wanted to go to Spain.

One year abroad, exploring something new and if possible combine these travel plans with something useful for her own CV. She found an internship in Barcelona and is telling me everything about her past months in the Catalonian capital today.

Typical Spanish – for Karo that means the joy of life. The people are very open, always friendly and you get the feeling that you could adventure something every single day. It doesn’t matter whether it is a weekday or the weekend – you are making plans for every day. Whether you are meeting up with friends in the middle of the week, eat late in the evenings or dance through the night, there is always something to do.

In the beginning Karo had doubts concerning the language. Before her stay she had the chance to take some Spanish classes in university which helped her gain the necessary vocabulary for a stay abroad. But still she emphasises this is Catalonia – different to the rest of Spain for sure. Furthermore she was afraid of having trouble finding friends since this was the first time for her going abroad for an internship not with fellow students in an ERASMUS-program or with other Au pairs.

Arriving in Barcelona those doubts quickly disappeared. Her Spanish-skills were more than enough to find her way around and even expanded when she visited a language class during the first few weeks where she also had the chance to find her first friends. Apart from her language classes Karo found it very easy to meet new people – whether she went out in the evenings, met people over facebook groups or on the apartment hunt, new friendships seemed to await her everywhere. On one of these apartment hunts she met an Erasmus-student – talking about it, she looks at me, smiles and says „if you know one, you suddenly get to know them all!“

She also likes to talk about her colleagues. Karo is working in the Customer Service of a travel agency while also supporting the Marketing department. Her typical work day is usually starting with coffee, breakfast, some cuddling time with the office dog and lots of emails. When those are all answered, she takes care of the social media channels, writes exciting stories for the blog and contacts new clients concerning her travel plans, before she gets ready for the after-hour beach experience.

Karo states that living in Barcelona and experiencing the city as an intern means having a lot more time to get to know the real Barcelona with all its inhabitants. Particularly having time to actually relax with a book in one of Barcelona’s parcs or spending a whole day at the beach without worrying that she might miss precious time to see some of the fabulous sights is what Karo enjoys so much. She loves to follow all the insider-recommendations concerning restaurants and try them all out. She definitely found her favorite spots in which she is now being warmly welcomed while the staff already knows her order. Those favorite places for her are the Creps al Born in which she probably knows every waiter on a first-name basis, the little café Alsur which she describes as incredibly cosy-furnished as well as the beach of Poblenou an the Parc de la Cituadella in which you could enjoy the nicest breakfast in the sun.

I am asking her about her Barcelona-Highlight. Again her eyes sparkle and while she tells me about various situations it is getting more and more obvious that the whole Barcelona experience was one big highlight – to make a decision on only one event would be way to hard. She is telling me about a concert in Palau San Jordi, the electro-brunches in Poble Espanyol to which she went and danced all day as well as a short trip to Ibiza – „being already in Barcelona seemed to be the perfect opportunity to hop over“, she explains.

Her stay is going to end soon. Karo is certain, that she will miss the beach the most. Just passing it on her way to work this was probably one of the places she spent most of her time at. Also, the kindhearted Spanish people and the fact, that Barcelona is a humming city in which awaits you some kind of event behind every single corner will be missed too.

Her advice for you: don‘t stress yourself before even getting here. Once you arrive many things fall into place themselves. An accommodation can be easily found when you are actually here, giving you also the opportunity to meet others. If you are open-minded and outgoing, you can make new friends on every corner. Dare yourself to speak Spanish with as much locals as you meet and you will learn Spanish in no time.

The only thing Karo most likely regrets is the fact that she didn’t spend too much time on sightseeing when she arrived. Once you are here you will get lazy and just enjoy the city and your favorite places. Now the time is running and the to-do list is way too long. She shrugs her shoulders: „I guess I need to come back then!“.