Jocelyn Delaney

Day 3 (Saturday) it poured all day. We walked through the Jardin du Luxembourg regardless though and it was still beautiful despite the rain and grey skies. We went to the Pantheon Monument and toured the crypt which was actually really interesting. Afterwards we enjoyed warm tea and coffee at a fancy creperie across the street. We tried to go to the Grande Mosquee de Paris but it was closed (we were running ahead of schedule since we didn’t stay in the gardens as long as we anticipated). We got to see one part of it though. By this time we were soaking wet and just wanted to head towards the Eiffel Tower. So we headed over that direction. We stopped to have lunch (at a Japanese resturant of course). After lunch we did some window ... read more

I'm still in shock that I am living in Madrid. My friends were all laughing at me the other day because we were taking a walk exploring Madrid and I turned to them and said, "we're in another country right now." They were laughing since its been a month now what we've been here and it still hasn't hit me that this is where we will be for another 3 months. Last weekend we did a walking tour of Madrid. We saw so much and had so much fun because our tour guide was a hilarious, young, scottish boy. At the end of the tour we even got discounted tickets to an authentic flamenco show! We also expored a whole lot on our own. We went to parque retiro, paseo de prado, la latina, plaza mayor, ... read more

Itinerary: Thursday, September 13: (Not with the tour) 2:00 pm Bus from Madrid to Seville 8:00 pm- Arrive at Seville Backpacker Hostel Picasso 11:00 pm- Night out in Seville Friday, September 14th: Free time touring Seville 1:00 pm- meet at the Consulado de Portugal 1:30 pm: Bus departs for Lagos- Portugal 4:30 pm **Portugal Time** Arrive at Aqualuz Hotel in Lagos, check into rooms, sign up for actiities y vamos a la playa! 8:00 pm- Meet in lobby to walk down to the center of town for dinner recommendations 11:00 pm- Kickoff Party at Grand Café Saturday, September 15th: 8:00 to 10:00am- Breakfast 10:30 am- Meet in Hotel Lobby for Sanfria Sailboat Cruises 11:00-1:00 pm- Sangria Sailboat Cruises +Grotto Tour 1:00-5:00pm- Free time at Meia Praia Beach 6:45pm: Meet in Hotel Lobby for Bus Excursion to ... read more

I’ve been extremely busy here in Madrid. Classes have finally started and there’s a lot of celebration to be had. We have gone to a few international student mixers and they were a lot of fun. I think I’ve officially met someone from every continent here (except Antarctica of course). I’ve met people from Ireland, Poland, France, Brazil, Guatamala, Japan, Australia, Greece, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland and Germany to name a few. I’ve also been able to do a lot of exploring of the city. Maria has been taking my roommate and me on mini excursions every afternoon to show us new places. We’ve been to a tapas restaurant where tapas and a pint of wine were 1 euro each. She also showed us this beautiful park that has a pool that people tan next to, ... read more

Today we did a walking tour of Bilbao. It was such a gorgeous day, we all enjoyed the tour even more than usual especially after having been caught in the rain several times on our walking tour in San Sebastian. After our walking tour we visited the Guggenheim Museum. We weren't impressed by the first floor. It was all modern art that no one really appreciated. The second floor however was truly amazing. We walked through rooms and rooms of paintings of landscapes by David Hockney. I loved all the colors he used and was so facinated by the way each of the paintings looked. I had never seen anything quite like it. In one of the rooms we decided to take a closer look so we stood right infront of the painting to appreciate it ... read more