It has been a long time since my last post, and much has happened. Since then, I've travelled to 3 different countries, taken a few exams, finished a few papers, and met some new people. I'll sum up the highlights in this post, but I know I won't capture everything.
- I went to Rome to visit my friend Colin from Rice. It was a spectacular city, and he was the perfect tour guide because he is a Classics Major doing a program there studying the history of the city itself. The museums were great, the weather was beautiful, the food was delicious, and I got to meet some of his friends in the program who were fun.
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| In front of the Trevi Fountain |
- I've adopted the strange practice of going to McDonald's to study. Ok, maybe I've only done it a few times, but it's a remarkably good location partly because of the free wi-fi and partly because it's not my bedroom and I can actually get work done there. Also the University libraries here are far away, crowded, and close at 7pm.
- Jeremy and I took a weekend trip to Geneva. Switzerland was almost like a cleaner, better organized, and all around nicer version of France, but it didn't really have as much character. We were surprised by a few things: when cars stopped to let us cross the street, the cleanliness of our hostel (and the fact that they gave us free chocolate), and the price of everything (extremely expensive). My favorite things were the Jet d'Eau (a 500 foot tall geiser-fountain thing in the middle of Lake Geneva) and the modern art museum. Probably the biggest fail of our trip was the hiking excursion that conveniently fell on a rainy, cloudy day. Up in the mountains we couldn't even see 10 feet in front of us, ruining the supposedly gorgeous views of the Alps. Life is hard...
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| Fail. |
- We've found a spot on the rocks near the beach that is a great hangout spot at night. The combination of the city lights, the sound of the ocean, and the moon reflecting off the water is unbeatable.
- I took a trip to London and Barcelona with Jeremy for our spring break which I may or may not cover in a separate post (too much information for this little bullet point. Here's a few pictures to give a quick summary.
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Finally realizing my dream of entering the wizarding world...
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In front of Buckingham Palace with Louise, our lovely host
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Group of us (Jeremy, Ian, me, Katherine, Hannah) in front of Cathedral de Barcelona
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| Gorgeous fountains in Barcelona |
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| Spectacular Sagrada Familia by Gaudi |
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| View from the Cable Car over the bay in Barcelona |
- Tonight was the "deuxième tour" of the French presidential election (aka the one that matters). My host family had a group of people over to watch the results live on TV while eating some delicious food. I was studying for an exam and came down just a few minutes before the results were announced. It was one of the times when I've felt most immersed in French culture during my semester here because it was such an important moment for the country as a whole. I was suddenly very aware of being a foreigner observing from an outsider's perspective. That's not to say that it was a bad feeling; on the contrary, it was really eye-opening. It made me really appreciate the opportunity that I'm getting by studying here.
