Like every day, today started cold and dark, with corn flakes and tea. Class was again about 4 hours, and we talk, as usual, almost exclusively in Spanish. We covered "si" clauses ('if' phrases - they're actually kind of annoying because the tenses are very specific that you can use...if I'd had that, I would have done that, etc.), which is good because I'm bad at them. We also discussed the future tense and, of course, general talk. For lunch, we went and found a local restaurant that consisted of an almost-outdoor grill and about 6 tables. Of which we took 4. I ordered morci. As those of you who followed me last year know, I very much enjoy going to restaurants in other countries and ordering foods which I don't recognize or know the names ... read more

Well, we are in Buenos Aires to take classes. I suppose, unfortunately, that will require some classroom time. One benefit of winter is that I don't feel as guilty about it: last year I kept dreaming of being outside and enjoying the weather while I could when we were in meetings and lectures, but here I find myself yearning to be out and about less. Of course, we do also have less daylight and less heat, so there's that. My Spanish class does seem as though it will be fun and interesting, though. There's four of us: me, a pair of girls similarly skilled at Spanish, and another guy whose parents are Colombian but who speaks English at home. It's hard to place his skill in comparison, but I definitely think all four of us are ... read more

Lesson one: red eye flights without a time change are worse than redeye flights without a time change. Mostly because you have a much longer time of trying to sleep on an airplane, which, at least for those of us with absurdly long legs, is not high on our list of pleasures.Lesson two: expect nothing. I've already been surprised about 14 times by something I wasn't expecting from a city like Buenos Aires. At this point, it might be more efficient to expect surprises. Whether it's the lack of skyscrapers (the tallest building comes in about 5 meters shy of the tallest in Boston -- a city about 1/5 the size of ... read more

Now that my trip is over, I've taken the time to compile a list of the best and worst of several different categories. See it below! FOOD BEST: Prague's meat is always tender and surprisingly cheap. I wouldn't suggest it for vegetarians, but meat-lovers won't find a better city for their appetite. WORST: We ate Dutch food in Amsterdam for lunch on our first full day there. We didn't eat true Dutch food again, or if we did, we thought it was some other ethnicity's food. That should tell you all you need to know. MOST OVERRATED: The food in Rome was, to be honest, wholly underwhelming. I found the pasta to be not dissimilar to that which I can get in the US, and I've had better bread from a grocery store. Their gelato was ... read more

The last day. I have been in Europe for just a couple days shy of two months now, and it has absolutely flown by. The groups I've been with range from a size of just me to 30, and every size, place, and time has been amazing. For our last day, we decided to visit a few of the museums in Amsterdam. We got a late start, but stopped by a local bakery called Bagels & Beans that was recommended by Marie. Unfortunately, she left this morning, so we were on our own for the day; however, her recommendation was on spot. We'll actually be going to another branch of it tomorrow before we leave. We split up then, with Liz, one of our resident Physical Therapy ladies, going to the Body Worlds exhibit here. A ... read more