I’m sure you all were wondering if I actually go to classes here or if I just spend my days eating tapas, picking up strangers and sitting on my balcony. Well, I do all of those things, but I also go to class for three hours every Monday through Thursday. I’m not quite sure how…
Read MoreAll articles filed in study abroad blog
Conversations with Strangers: Jenica from Johannesburg
How we met: Jenica and I sat across from each other on a 5 am train to the airport in London and immediately started chatting. We talked about travel, how I would make the world’s worst spy and how many camels I would sell for in Africa. If you’re following the Conversations with Strangers posts, you know that…
Read MoreLiverpudlians, Big Cats and Canceled Trains
During my weekend in London, my best friend and I took a day trip to Liverpool to visit my friend, Ryan, who was an exchange student at U of I last semester. The first night, we only saw the bottoms of bottles, glasses and a few pitchers. But the next day, we visited Albert Dock and…
Read MoreLondon Calling
This weekend I traveled to London to surprise my best friend for her birthday. I’ve been to London before, so this wasn’t my first rodeo. Regardless, I decided to make the most of it and do all the touristy things once more. I toured the entire city by foot over the span of two days; visited…
Read MoreThat Time I Went to the Gym
My roommate Laura invited me to the gym, and naturally I felt inclined to go. As much as I am loving my carbolicious lifestyle, my booty is getting a little too big for it’s own good. I expected the gym to be like any other: rather dark and unpleasant, with rubbery floors, an awful color scheme and grunting…
Read MoreTripe, Bidets and Nutella
Today is the big move, and I am most definitely ready to be in my own apartment. Yes, I actually did find an apartment and will not be a homeless. I’m very much so looking forward to living more comfortably, which means being able to identify my dinner, not shaving my legs in a sink and…
Read MoreConversations with Strangers: Kyle from Boston
How we met: I met Kyle and his buddies, Alex and Ned, while waiting for the metro. They were speaking English, and being an English speaker myself, I decided we had enough in common to become friends. We spent the rest of the night bar hopping and I am most definitely still feeling the remnants of…
Read MoreEat The Damn Bread
I think I have eaten more carbs in these past two weeks than I have in the past year. And I am happier than I have ever been. Breakfast is always cereal with either toast, croissants or muffins. Lunch is a foot-long baguette. And not the Subway five dollar foot-longs that are actually like 11 inches. We’re talking…
Read MoreThe Spanish Host Family Experience
For the first two weeks of my study abroad program, everyone was placed with a host family. I live with a rather nice Spanish family in a small apartment in the northern part of the city. I share a room with another girl in my program, Kelly. My host mother is Montserrat, a sweet woman in…
Read MoreWild Horses Couldn’t Drag Me Away
Sometimes I like to think of my life as a movie, and therefore will proceed to describe today in the form of a screenplay. It’s basically Eat Pray Love, except in Barcelona and I am not a middle aged divorcée. I’ve never actually seen the movie, but I’m going to assume that the plot is…
Read More