My first impression of Italy was a fun one as they played the Call to the Post song (the song typically played with a trumpet before a horse race) when the plane landed and everyone clapped and cheered for the pilot for landing the plane. The Italian uproar was exactly how I imagined it would be. How fun! We struggled a little bit at first trying to figure out how we would get from the Pisa airport to Moneglia—the small town that we would be spending our first two nights in, but eventually we figured it out. The people at the information desk and the ticket counter were grumpy and difficult to understand, but we found some nice people to guide us to the bus stop. After taking a train to Sevilla, a bus to the ... read more

Tonight I picked my parents up from the train station at 6:30. I was drained from getting back so late from Paris and having an early class, but the minute I saw them I had a sudden burst of energy. I have missed them a lot over the last two months. I miss my siblings a lot, but as one of four children, it is a rare and welcomed opportunity to spend one on one time with my parents. I am so happy that I get to share this experience with them and that when I talk about things from now on they will be able to visualize it and understand me. They will meet my host family tomorrow, I am nervous!... read more

Today was a free day, which naturally started with a huge breakfast at the hotel. At 9:45, Hayley, Natalie, Brian, Devin and I took the RER to Versailles. We entered in the garden, which seemed to go on for miles. The weather was crisp and felt like fall back home. Everywhere I turned there was green grass, beautiful fountains, trees with leaves that we in the process of changing color and fluttering to the ground. There isn’t any space in Cádiz for grass or trees so it was a really nice change of scenery for us. We took a tram down to Marie Antoinette’s house and garden. I personally don’t have much of an interest in Marie Antoinette, so seeing her house was of little importance to me, but I enjoyed having Natalie tell me about ... read more

October 14th, 2011 I can’t decide how I feel about Paris. Before I left, I wasn’t very excited to come here. I haven’t studied to language or the culture or the history so I wasn’t as interested in Paris as I have been in the Spanish cities we have traveled to. This is the first place that has a true language barrier for me. I can’t understand what people say, but sometimes if it is written the words are similar to Spanish. I thought the people here would be extremely rude and would automatically not like us because we are Americans, but so far everyone has been extremely accommodating. The food is great so far. We arrived in Paris around 11 PM so a lot of places were closed, but we found a little Italian restaurant ... read more

Our trip to Lagos was one that I will never forget. Before we left, things were chaotic. The original plan was for Hayley, Devin, Susan, Meghan, and myself to rent a car from Jerez and drive it to Lagos where we would meet up with our friend Tegan. The day before we were suppose to depart, Susan tells me that she decided not to go. She made a few excuses but none of them were valid. Susan’s lack of consideration created a huge problem for the rest of us because Susan is the only one of us who is over the age of 21 and therefore, the only person who could sign for the car. We were angry, frustrated, and upset that she put us in this situation less than 24 hours before we were suppose ... read more