Sadly, today was our last full day in Bilbao before flying back home tomorrow, but it was still a great day! We started the day with another delicious breakfast at the hotel before walking to the engineering school for the last time! At the engineering school, we got a final presentation from Saioa where we compared differences in the healthcare systems between Spain and the U.S., and also how pregnancy care works differently. One of the key differences that I’ve noted over the past several weeks is that all healthcare in Spain is free, regardless of economic status or insurance. A main concern I had with this was that public healthcare would cause long wait times, but I learned that it is not really a problem at all in the Basque country, and their system works incredibly well there. After Saioa’s presentation, we got to visit two student engineering projects at the school, EskoBilbot and an electric guitar project! EskoBilbot is a project run by a team of students working to develop a prosthetic hand, and we received a very interesting presentation where we learned about their progress in developing the hand and how they built it. It really showed me how engineering works so closely with medicine in developing various devices. After the prosthetic hand project, we walked over to the electric guitar project, which was super cool! We learned about how electric guitars were created, and got to see the different progressions of the guitar. We even got to hear some electric guitar demonstrations by Dr. Abramowitch and Meli, and heard some amazing piano by Jonathan! Even though I’m a nursing major, music is still an important my life and seeing how instruments were created was incredible!
After seeing the projects, we had a wrap up meeting with Saioa to go over our feedback on the program, which was obviously amazing. Saioa did an incredible job of organizing an amazing trip for a group, and I’m so grateful for our leaders Nora and Dr. Abramowitch for helping making this such a meaningful experience for us all. At the end of the meeting, we played a Bilbao kahoot and I got third place, which I was very happy about!
After our meeting, we had a delicious lunch at the cafeteria before taking the metro over to the Hanging Bridge, which is a transport system that brings cars across via a gondola attached to cables! We took an elevator all the way to the top of the bridge, which was quite high up and got to walk across and see amazing views of the city! I even appreciated the scenery so much that I walked into a metal pole on the bridge. Whoops. It was quite rainy and cold outside, so after the bridge we all went and enjoyed pastries and hot beverages at a local cafe, which was delicious! I got a french toast pastry and it was very yummy. After the cafe we headed down to the beach for a farewell dinner! While the weather was bad, the beach was gorgeous and the food was delicious! We all got yummy burgers and had some calamari as appetizers that my side of the table devoured. It was so fun getting to recount all of the fun memories we made on the trip and enjoy some great conversations with all of the new friends I met on this trip. I am so grateful for the chance to have come here and learn so much while making so many amazing memories and long term friends. The memories I have made from Plus3 Spain will last a lifetime!!
After dinner, we hopped on a bus back to the hotel where we engaged in some passionate karaoke as a whole group, belting out all of our favorite songs. It was a very nostalgic moment and it made us all sad that the trip was coming to a close so soon. Once we got back to the hotel, I did some last minute packing before heading to bed for an early travel morning tomorrow!!
Overall, I have had an absolutely incredible two weeks in Bilbao. Going into this trip I had no expectations of what I was going to learn, and I barely knew anyone on the trip. Now, I have a much better understanding of how engineering and nursing work together so frequently in the healthcare system, and I learned so much about Spain and myself! I can confidently say that I have made friends with every single person on this trip, which is something I never thought would happen. The memories I have made in Bilbao are ones I will carry with me for the rest of my life, both for how fun and how impactful it was. Thanks to everyone that made this trip amazing and thanks to everyone that followed along!!
