http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/ksjs/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from ksjs en-us Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:51:21 +0000 Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:51:21 +0000 Working on Capitol Hill is everything I expected it's interesting exciting and fun Though this is an internship my responsibilities are serious relevant and important. Kiersten the other intern and I are in charge of organizing and distributing faxes which are actually scanned and emailed to us giving Capitol tours sorting mail answering the phone and writing response letters to consti http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/District-of-Columbia/Washington/blog-299199.html Teaching English When Leshia Patrick and I signed up for this trip we were told we would be working with agriculture and public health. So all the preparations we made this past semester were relating to those projects. Upon arrival in Z we discovered that somewhere somehow there had been a large misunderstanding and our ONLY project would be teaching English. This was not easy for me to accep http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/blog-184905.html Thursday May 31st was the worst culture shock I have ever experienced in my entire life. We got to Z and pulled up to the Community Foundation which has become our home base. There we met our host families met a ton of people that we of course didnrsquot remember five minutes after meeting talked to the people in charge of us and then left with our host families. It was incredibly overwhe http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/blog-184714.html We arrived in Mexico City and without even leaving the airport we boarded a bus bound for Puebla. The trip took about 2.5 hours an hour of which was just getting out of Mexico City Wow. I can now say Irsquove been in the largest city in the world. What a mess of people and cars and trash and culture. Wow. When we arrived in Publa we took a taxi from the bus station to UPAEP or rather La U http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Puebla/blog-184718.html Upon returning home from Spain I was desperate to find a way to leave the country again. That way came in the form of KState International Community Service teams The KState Community Service Program sends students around the world each summer. The sites change occasionally as do the projects at each site. This summer students are going to Botswana Africa Brazil South America and Mexico. http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/blog-184712.html In late March I got an email over the Ag CommunicationsJournalism listserv from an alum who now works for the Kansas Bioscience Authority asking for student interns to attend the International Bioscience Convention and help work the Kansas booth. The trip was all expenses paid plus a small stipend in addition to a great resumebuilding experience. All of this and the fact that the convention w http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Massachusetts/Boston/blog-184665.html After leaving the airport I got back on the metro to go to the train station to catch a train to Segovia. I'm not sure why I decided to do this mom and I had some communication difficulties when she changed my flight and I wasn't able to fly out the same day as Leshia and Megan but I also didn't want to have to ride to Madrid myself. I hate goodbyes and thought it would just be easier to get the http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Castile-Leon/Segovia/blog-67121.html Now that I'm home so much of the past semester seems like a bizarre blur. The semester came to a blinding crashing end one I definitely wasn't prepared for. Just like you can never really be ready to leave your friends and loved ones I'm not sure I'd ever be ready to leave Sevilla. Unfortunately I didn't have a choice.The last three weeks of the semester I spent soaking up as much Spain as http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Andalusia/Seville/blog-67119.html I left Spain Thursday May 17 2006. I left my hostel early and got the Madrid airport at 730 my plane left at 1125ish. I couldn't check in until 830ish so I got my luggage out of storage where I'd left it the day before and did a quick repacking job to transfer things I'd want for the flight to my backpack. The airline baggage weight limit and scales were in kilograms and I couldn't reall http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Georgia/Atlanta/blog-67123.html I really wanted to go to Barcelona this semester and it just hadn't happened. Some of my friends went while I was in Ireland and it was hard to find another weekend that worked since Barcelona is so far from Sevilla. So when I learned that most flights to Rome went through Barcelona I arranged my flights to allow for yep about a 30 hour layover there. I arrived Friday night from Rome and was http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Catalonia/Barcelona/blog-57931.html To take advantage of our second spring break a week off of class for La Feria de Abril my friends and I made plans to go to Italy. It was amazing of course but also one of the most difficult weeks of our lives We were just hit with so many unexpected challenges making the trip not exactly less enjoyable but just...challenging.I went to Italy with my 6 best Spain friends. I'll introduce th http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Vatican-City/blog-57896.html Don't you love how I procrastinate and then crank out numerous posts in the same day I've been on the internet since 3 today Urg. The reason I've been procrastinating is that I have less than a month left and sorry but I don't really want to spend it on a computer. I've been hanging out a lot with friends enjoying the beautiful weather and walking around Sevilla. I'm going to miss this place http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Andalusia/Seville/blog-54887.html Thanks to La Feria de Abril The Fair of April I don't have school this week It's my second spring break and an amazingly fun time to be in Sevilla. My guidebook says that Feria is the Sevillanos way of rewarding themselves for being so good during Lent Feria is a week long party with a lot of drinking dancing and eating. There are fair grounds at the edge of town with Casetas little tents http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Andalusia/Seville/blog-54873.html Aladdin pun intended.This will be a long entry so to capture your attention I thought I'd throw out a few highlights from the past five days 8 Hours in a bus...every day Sahara Sunrise sketchy means of transportation lots of bargaining in various languages 10 liters of bottled water amazing food actually seeing stars BIG DONKEY tons of mint tea and spending a lot of Dirhams.Friday morn http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Morocco/F-s-Boulemane/Fes/blog-52414.html Wednesday night before leaving for Portugal I had a long conversation with my host sister one of those conversations you never forget. I can't recall how it started but somehow we began talking about the United States and I discovered that Spaniards have some incredible misconceptions about our country. First of all Carmen thinks we all carry guns and that there are no laws regarding the pu http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Lisbon-and-Tagus-Valley/Lisbon/blog-50589.html I've never been so happy to return to Spain than I was after leaving Ireland Actually come to think of it that was the first time I have ever returned to Spain. The warm weather was so welcoming when we stepped off the plane from Ireland. My cold is doing much better now I've been heavily medicating which has paid off. Grandma I've really been using the Kleenex and vix you sent me ThanksTo http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Andalusia/Seville/blog-48569.html Saturday morning Dory had to leave home at 530 a.m. and all of her roommates had gone home for the weekend so we left with her. We intended to find a pub or cafe for tea and hang out around Galway until our ferry to the islands but nothing was open. We tried going to the bus station but it was closed so instead we sort of wandered around because it was too cold to sit down The grocery stor http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Ireland/County-Galway/Connemara/blog-48517.html We arrived in Galway City and Dory met us near the bus station. Galway is a very young college town. The vast majority of the population in under the age of 25. The city is located on a bay of the Atlantic Ocean there is a river running through town and manmade canals branch off of it. Fishing and other searelated jobs are prominent there. So is the sea food. We first took all of our baggage t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Ireland/County-Galway/Galway/blog-48515.html Maddie and I left Seville on Wednesday evening and flew to Liverpool. The first thing we noticed when we stepped off the plane was the distinct difference in temperature between Spain and England We never left the Liverpool Airport as we caught our flight to Dublin shortly after arrival but still it was fun to be in the presence of the Beatles The Airport itself is called the John Lennon Airpo http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Ireland/County-Dublin/blog-48514.html It is February 23rd I have been in Spain exactly one month. Reasons to celebrate1. I am alive having survived several large cities long bus trips being a pedestrian and eating the food2. I have not yet lost my mind from culture shock and speaking another language3. I am still here you'd be surprised how many people only last a few days or even just a few hours before giving up and hoppi http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Andalusia/Seville/blog-42756.html