I’ve been here for about 2 1/2 months. It is crazy. I have never been so far away for so long. I’ve missed home, some days more than others. I think mostly I just miss the people from home. I have taken for granted the friends I have met in college and I’ve missed them even more than I could have ever imagined. It’s easier to miss my friends from home because we go so long throughout the school year without seeing each other; but the best part is now I know which of these friends I will be friends with for life, so the distance doesn’t matter anymore.
Coming abroad was a good decisions. It’s such a learning experience and there are new challenges, places, and things to experience every single day. I will admit that it is also somewhat lonely. I haven’t met many people that I have truly connected with here. A lot of people are here for all the wrong reasons… well I guess they’re just the wrong reasons to me. Barcelona is the party capitol… probably of the world. And a lot of the kids in my program are here for that reason alone. They go out everyday of the week and they drink themselves into oblivion, and that is definitely not my goal.
However, the opportunity for me to be in Spain and have most of europe easily at my disposal, is unreal. I have already visited Czech Republic, Italy, Portugal, Northern and Southern Spain, and Morocco. On my list of places that I am still going to hit up are; Belgium, Netherlands, France, England, and Greece. I am so lucky to be given this opportunity to see a lot of the world in a span of a few short months.
I have about a month and half left here. And, while I am excited to be going home because I’ve missed it more than I ever imagined I would, there is still time left for me to embrace all of my opportunities and to make the best of what I have. At the end of the semester I will be traveling for about 3 weeks, and I could not be more excited. Its going to be three weeks of having nothing to worry about except for seeing as much as I can, and learning as much as possible.
That being said… I miss friends and family so much; but I would never give up this opportunity for anything.
next post will be about morocco so stay tuned :)
Friday, March 18, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
So as of yesterday I have officially been away from home for two full months. I am also going back to the U.S. in exactly two months. Its strange, on one hand i feel like time has gone by so fast but on the other hand i feel like its been forever since I've been home.
So with two months left I have a ton of things coming. I have a two 5 page papers, a 15 page research paper, two exams, a final exam for spanish, a final presentation for art, a presentation based on a 200 page book, a presentation based on my 15 page paper, and another 5 page paper based on someone else 15 page paper. So....... yeah. I have a lot of work to do.
I am also busy the next couple of weekends; this weekend I'm going to Morocco, next weekend I will be in Valencia for a day for las Fallas a huge festival, the next weekend I'll be in Brussels, and the next weekend in Amsterdam. It is so incredibly exciting to get the opportunity to visit so many diverse places in only 4 months.
After the semester ends I'll be in Europe for another three weeks. Me and nikki have booked our flights and here is our plan; two days in venice, two days in florence, and then we take a train to Milan where we fly to athens. We'll spend a night in athens, and then six days between different islands including santorini and mykonos. We'll fly from Mykonos to London, where we will be for a few days. We will be there on April 29th when the prince is getting married which is going to be crazy! And finally we will spend a couple days in Nice, and then back to Barcelona to gather our things and head back to the states.
At first it was really difficult for me to spend my money, but I came to realize that right now I have such an amazing opportunity to see and do things that I can't normally do, so I'm trying not to worry about money. I probably wont have any money left when I return home, but it doesn't matter because I will get a job and I can worry about all of that later.
Last week was a crazy one. For one I got an internship at Mental Health America as a non-profit accounting intern! So i'll be living in college park for the summer .. i'm really excited!!
So I'm going to attempt to explain this story but I really dont actually have any idea what happened... I was in the metro and we stopped at the Sagrada Familia stop which is one station away from my stop (Sant Pau Dos de Maig). A bunch of people were hurriedly walking up the metro train and out of my door, they looked worried and wanted to get off urgently... but I didn't know why. Then some people started yelling and I turned and saw a man strangling another man. Somehow they got off the train and a woman was holding each man by their sleeves (obviously not effective at all). I really dont know what happened next but all of a sudden one of the guys was pushing the woman (or even hit her or something) I didn't really have a good view because everyone on the metro was trying to move towards the door to get a better look. A few men sprinted of the train and grabbed the guy to get him away from the woman. It took three men to hold this crazy guy back. The whole metro was loud and everyone was talking about what was happening, but I literally had no idea what was going on. The man started screaming something about la policia (and my guess is that he was saying don't call the police), but I missed the rest of the sentence. The whole metro was a buzz and i couldn't focus on anyones conversations to try and figure out what had happened. It was really strange to witness something like this and have no idea what was going on. I was really confused and completely frustrated at the language barrier. I guess i will never know what happened...
On Wednesday I was talking to Meera who was going to Prague this weekend with Michelle and Kirstie. I kept telling her I was jealous, and wished I was going, and she told me to go. I looked up plane tickets but they were really expensive since the flight was two days away. I considered buying the tickets, but then realized I was maybe being ridiculous so I emailed my parents asking them what I should do expecting them to be the voice of reason and tell me I was crazy for thinking of spending so much. They told me that they thought I should go because I probably wouldn't have another opportunity to go in a really long time... so I bought the tickets and on friday I went to prague!
I arrived in the Czech Republic around 130, and waited till about 4 for the girls from Rome to arrive. We had to switch our money to Krowns. The exchange rate is about 1 USD = 17 krowns. We took a bus and then the metro to our hostel; St. Christophers. The first night I was in a room with 5 random people because there wasn't room in the girl's room, but the second night I moved down with them and about 20 other girls. The hostel was really clean, and pretty centrally located. It was about 22 USD a night which is a pretty good deal.
On the first night we went out to eat. We saw a few signs for Pilsner Urquell, and yes this is embarassing but at first we thought it was a resturant, but after seeing about 3 or 4 signs (they really did look like resturant signs) we realized it was a type of beer. Obviously we know nothing about beer. Anyway we went to a typical Czech resturant, and we ordered some pilsner urquell and some hardy czech food. The food was pretty good! I never expected czech's to have good food. Later we went to the old town and saw the astronomical tower which was lit up at night, and we went to a few bars. We also stopped into a bakery had a traditional bakery and had a typical Czech desert. It was good!
The next morning we got up early to go to an out door market. They had typical markety things; purses, sunglasses, t-shirts, etc. Nothing too special. After the market we dropped some purchases off at the hostel and continued to old town to eat lunch. We at some more Czech food and were again impressed with what we got.
So with two months left I have a ton of things coming. I have a two 5 page papers, a 15 page research paper, two exams, a final exam for spanish, a final presentation for art, a presentation based on a 200 page book, a presentation based on my 15 page paper, and another 5 page paper based on someone else 15 page paper. So....... yeah. I have a lot of work to do.
I am also busy the next couple of weekends; this weekend I'm going to Morocco, next weekend I will be in Valencia for a day for las Fallas a huge festival, the next weekend I'll be in Brussels, and the next weekend in Amsterdam. It is so incredibly exciting to get the opportunity to visit so many diverse places in only 4 months.
After the semester ends I'll be in Europe for another three weeks. Me and nikki have booked our flights and here is our plan; two days in venice, two days in florence, and then we take a train to Milan where we fly to athens. We'll spend a night in athens, and then six days between different islands including santorini and mykonos. We'll fly from Mykonos to London, where we will be for a few days. We will be there on April 29th when the prince is getting married which is going to be crazy! And finally we will spend a couple days in Nice, and then back to Barcelona to gather our things and head back to the states.
At first it was really difficult for me to spend my money, but I came to realize that right now I have such an amazing opportunity to see and do things that I can't normally do, so I'm trying not to worry about money. I probably wont have any money left when I return home, but it doesn't matter because I will get a job and I can worry about all of that later.
Last week was a crazy one. For one I got an internship at Mental Health America as a non-profit accounting intern! So i'll be living in college park for the summer .. i'm really excited!!
So I'm going to attempt to explain this story but I really dont actually have any idea what happened... I was in the metro and we stopped at the Sagrada Familia stop which is one station away from my stop (Sant Pau Dos de Maig). A bunch of people were hurriedly walking up the metro train and out of my door, they looked worried and wanted to get off urgently... but I didn't know why. Then some people started yelling and I turned and saw a man strangling another man. Somehow they got off the train and a woman was holding each man by their sleeves (obviously not effective at all). I really dont know what happened next but all of a sudden one of the guys was pushing the woman (or even hit her or something) I didn't really have a good view because everyone on the metro was trying to move towards the door to get a better look. A few men sprinted of the train and grabbed the guy to get him away from the woman. It took three men to hold this crazy guy back. The whole metro was loud and everyone was talking about what was happening, but I literally had no idea what was going on. The man started screaming something about la policia (and my guess is that he was saying don't call the police), but I missed the rest of the sentence. The whole metro was a buzz and i couldn't focus on anyones conversations to try and figure out what had happened. It was really strange to witness something like this and have no idea what was going on. I was really confused and completely frustrated at the language barrier. I guess i will never know what happened...
On Wednesday I was talking to Meera who was going to Prague this weekend with Michelle and Kirstie. I kept telling her I was jealous, and wished I was going, and she told me to go. I looked up plane tickets but they were really expensive since the flight was two days away. I considered buying the tickets, but then realized I was maybe being ridiculous so I emailed my parents asking them what I should do expecting them to be the voice of reason and tell me I was crazy for thinking of spending so much. They told me that they thought I should go because I probably wouldn't have another opportunity to go in a really long time... so I bought the tickets and on friday I went to prague!
I arrived in the Czech Republic around 130, and waited till about 4 for the girls from Rome to arrive. We had to switch our money to Krowns. The exchange rate is about 1 USD = 17 krowns. We took a bus and then the metro to our hostel; St. Christophers. The first night I was in a room with 5 random people because there wasn't room in the girl's room, but the second night I moved down with them and about 20 other girls. The hostel was really clean, and pretty centrally located. It was about 22 USD a night which is a pretty good deal.
On the first night we went out to eat. We saw a few signs for Pilsner Urquell, and yes this is embarassing but at first we thought it was a resturant, but after seeing about 3 or 4 signs (they really did look like resturant signs) we realized it was a type of beer. Obviously we know nothing about beer. Anyway we went to a typical Czech resturant, and we ordered some pilsner urquell and some hardy czech food. The food was pretty good! I never expected czech's to have good food. Later we went to the old town and saw the astronomical tower which was lit up at night, and we went to a few bars. We also stopped into a bakery had a traditional bakery and had a typical Czech desert. It was good!
The next morning we got up early to go to an out door market. They had typical markety things; purses, sunglasses, t-shirts, etc. Nothing too special. After the market we dropped some purchases off at the hostel and continued to old town to eat lunch. We at some more Czech food and were again impressed with what we got.
After lunch we headed to the main old square where we met James who would be leading our free tour. James is a 20 something guy from Ireland who fell in love with a Czech girl and is now living in Prague. he gives 3 hour free tours of the city (which they ask you tip if you enjoyed them) and paid tours of the Prague castle.
I'm really glad we did the tour because we learned a lot of the history and many stories about Prague, things that I had no idea. For example, in prague is one of the only Jewish quarters that they did not demolish during WWII because Hitler loved Prague and planned on retiring to Prague. The Jewish quarter was going to be turned into a museum of an extinct race upon the completion of Hitler's "Final Solution."
During the tour we stopped for a break for coffee and we stopped at a place that had bagels! Me and meera split one and it was delicious. There are barely any places with bagels over here!!! Also I forgot to mention how cold it was in Prague. I went from the 60 degree weather in Barcelona to 30 degree weather in Prague and I was not prepared at all because I sent all my winter clothes home with my parents!!
The end of the tour left us by the Charles Bridge which was a historic bridge constructed in 1357. In the old times it was the most important way of connecting Prague Castle to the old city.
We crossed the bridge and on the otherside we stumbled across a Bohemian Carnival. There were peopled dressed in costumes, a band playing, and tons of stands lined up with all kinds of food. It smelled so good! There were sasagues, nuts, candy, cotton candy, hot wine, and much more. We came across a stand of churros and decided to get some. They were the best churros I have ever had!! I wish i could explain how good they were. After exploring the carnival we decided to look for the Lenin wall, but it was getting dark, we were cold, and we couldn't find it so we headed back to the hostel.
Charles Bridge by night.
For dinner we had some Thai food! It was really good, but I realized that I never wanted to eat again after a weekend of so much food. We decided not to go out because we were exhausted from eating and spending the whole day exploring the city.
We woke up early once again and went to the Prague Castle. It reminds me a lot of hogwarts!
It was bitterly cold so we didn't hang around for long.
This time we actually did find the Lenin wall and it was awesome! It was full of graffiti and quotes from different visitors. I can't describe how awesome the wall was but I'll try to show you.
So anyway Prague was awesome, and it was great to spend another weekend with Michelle, Meera, and Kirstie.
On a final note, my grandma passed away last week. I wasn't expecting it, so it was definitely shocking. She lived a long, good life, and she will be missed. I can't go home to go to the funeral and for the first time I'm really realizing how far away I am from home. I wish I could go home and say goodbye, but I know its not possible. Rest in peace grandma, I love you.
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