Sign In
Marshal Burton
21 years old finishing my bachelors in International Relations at Canisius College in Buffalo, NY. Awaiting my next trip...Burtonm
Travel Blog Posts
Oviedo, Spain; My new home
Published: September 28th 2012Europe » Spain » Principality of Asturias » Oviedo
November 15th 2011
Coming to Spain to study abroad was a giant step for me. Not that studying for a semester in a foreign country isn’t a big leap for anyone, but it is an especially becoming jolt into the real world for someone like me. Until now, for the most part, my life has gone comfortably unchanged. I go to university in the city I grew up right next to, so I chose to save money by living at home. I’ve never lived away from home. I’ve never even moved houses for that matter. I have lived in the same house for my entire twenty-year life. On my last day in the States, I woke up in the bed I’ve slept in for most of my life. I gave a goodbye pat to the dog that has greeted ... read more
October 31st 2011
The 20hr journey to Italy for a four-day weekend was definitely worth the hardship of travel, but it was a little more difficult to overlook the mountain of cash I parted with to do so. The destination was Florence, to visit some friends from home who are studying abroad there through a different program at my college in Buffalo, NY. Since it is far beyond my budget to fly out of the small airport closest to where I live, in Oviedo, Spain, I have to take a 5-7 hour bus ride (5 hours during the day or a 7 hours overnight) to Madrid every time I want to travel internationally. After paying for the round trip bus ride, the round trip flight, and the taxi into the Florence city center from the airport (which could have ... read more
October 3rd 2011
The five-hour bus ride north from Madrid to Oviedo was an odd mixture of boredom and terror. I traveled with the only other student from my university studying in Spain this semester. As far as I could tell, she and I were the only English-speakers on a crowded coach departing from the deceptively hard-to-navigate Madrid bus station. We almost missed the bus as we patiently waited at the deserted platform where a woman in the ticket office had told us ours would arrive. Seeing as there was clearly no bus leaving from that platform any time soon, I decided to check where the bus a few platforms down was headed. It was ours, and after we threw our bags underneath and climbed aboard, it pulled out of the station less than a minute later. I watched ... read more
First Days in Spain - Madrid
Published: October 14th 2011Europe » Spain » District of Madrid » Madrid
September 28th 2011
I’ve been in Spain one day and I have serendipitously witnessed virtually every generalization I have ever heard or read about Spaniards. I strolled the streets of Madrid on a scorching, sunny day, slowed by equal parts wonder and jet lag. I saw the mangy, free roaming dogs who stay within arms length of their masters at all times, never giving any bother to passer bys. I was caught behind the group of four elderly Spanish men, happily sauntering along the sidewalk, paying no attention to the pedestrian jam building up behind them. I dodged the traffic of speedy little cars and scooters (who I can only guess are playing a city-wide game of “Who Can Drive Fastest and Closest to Things Without Hitting Them”). I witnessed the high-class attire the locals insist on wearing for ... read more
September 24th 2011
The scope of my departure had not fully registered until I woke this morning. I have everything packed and every item checked off on my to do list. But until today I may as well have been packing for a few weeks in, say, Kansas City. I filled out the first of a seemingly endless flow of paperwork eight months ago and had the idea to study abroad long before that. The three months I will spend in Spain have seemed like a vague and distant venture, blurred by fantasy and unrealistic imagination. Everyone knows I haven’t stopped confidently explaining (with detail) the awesome things I will do, the fascinating people I will meet, and the marvelous things I will see. Now its time to live up to the great tales I have foreseen. Perhaps it ... read more
Tot: 0.099s; Tpl: 0.005s; cc: 9; qc: 50; dbt: 0.02s; 1; s:apollo w:www (50.28.60.10); sld: 1; ; mem: 6.4mb
© 2013 TravelBlog.org & Bloggers