After a grueling day of travel, we arrived in Spain! The flight there was quite bumpy and sleepless, and once we arrived in Madrid, the day had just begun. We started with a bus tour, where we saw historical sites around Madrid. We then left the bus and took a walking tour, where we saw the palace as well as a famous church. We then stopped for lunch at the Museum of Ham that had no ham. There, I tried paella for the first time, which was pretty good, but I hope to find better now that I (spoilers!) have arrived in Bilbao. We then took a long train ride to Bilbao, where everyone tried their hardest to catch up on sleep, and finally got to the hotel.

I quickly found out the next morning that it was the best hotel ever. The breakfast was amazing, with the best orange juice I think I’ve ever had, along with eggs and bacon. After breakfast, we walked to the Basurto Hospital and learned about the healthcare system in Bilbao. Hearing about the mix of private and public healthcare was interesting, along with the statistics of how the population benefited from the system.

Afterwards, we toured BioBizkaia, which is a biomedical engineering company that covers a variety of fields. I chose to tour their bioprinting lab where I saw their larynxes that they made for students to practice on. Hearing from professionals in the field was very helpful for expanding my horizons on possible paths in biomedical engineering.

Finally, we returned to the hotel. I hope to catch up on a ton of sleep to be ready for the day tomorrow!