LAST DAY IN EUROPE!

Today was my last day in Paris and Europe. We slept in a little bit later this morning (finally) and went to mass at notre-dame, the strange thing was that tours were going on during mass. After mass we walked around the cathedral and found the Shakespeare Co. Book store where I think a few authors used to go to write?

After notre-dame, we walked toward the arc du triomph to watch the tour de france. There were so many people; we had a hard time seeing the bicyclists but we did get to see a glimpse of them. The most interesting part though was talking to people from all over the world while we were waiting for the bicyclists to arrive. We met people from Norway, Denmark, Spain, Belgium and even some Americans. There were a lot of Texas flags too, apparently Lance Armstrong is from Texas, I didn't know that.

Then we came back to the hotel and went to dinner inside a mall near the hotel, the mall was so futuristic and modern, along with all the buildings in our area.

It's bittersweet to be leaving Europe tomorrow. I've had an amazing time and learned so much. I've also learned how grateful I am to have the life that I live back in the states though!! This seriously has been a wonderful experience for me, I've loved every minute of being over here!!

But I'm more than ready for some twice-baked potatoes and american steak :)

Au revoir Paris!

pictures of eiffel tower

Night/Day..

Day Two in Paris

We started off the day with a bus tour, it took us all around the city of Paris, everything from the eiffel tower to statues of napolean to the louvre. At the end of the tour we were dropped off at the louvre and walked around inside the museum for a few hours. We saw the mona lisa painting along with some egyptian artifacts and roman sculptures.

After the louvre, we went on a boat tour down on the river by the eiffel tower. From the river we could see Notre-Dame, the old prison that marie antoinette was executed in and some other monuments.

Then we went up to the top of the eiffel tower; it was the most amazing thing i've ever done! Once we were halfway up I really couldn't imagine being any higher up..but i'm so glad we went to the top.

After finally coming back down to the bottom, we ate some crepes and watched the tower sparkle some more, I love watching it sparkle!

Tomorrow we want to go to Mass at Notre-Dame and then watch the Tour de France come through around 5 pm. Should be a nice relaxing last day, then back to the states on Monday!

First Day in Paris

Today we arrived in Paris around dinner time, I still can't believe we're not in Spain anymore, we are starting to realize that we're not going back and it's a little bittersweet. And we've caught ourselves talking to the people here in spanish without even meaning to. Luckily most people understand spanish here... and english! our french bus driver definitely did not like us. But besides him, the french people that we met have all been pretty nice to us.

I taught my friends the basic french that i remembered learning from mom and non, i didnt remember a lot but every little bit helps!

Once we arrived in Paris, we took the metro to the eiffel tower and literally just sat there and stared up at the tower for half an hour. It's absolutely beautiful in person! Every hour for about five minutes, the tower sparkles. So we bought some crepes nearby and sat in the lawn and watched the eiffel tower sparkle show.

Now I'm back in the hotel. We're in the business district so we have a pretty long metro ride to get to all the tourist attractions in Paris, but I don't mind it because we dont have annoying tourists around us.

Tomorrow morning we are going on a bus tour of the city. My camera is fully charged, I plan on taking lots of pictures! I'm going to post a picture of the sparkling eiffel tower on here later too :)

Last week..

I can't believe how quick this trip has gone by..well, the last two weeks have gone by quickly at least..

We have class today, tuesday and wednesday. Final exams are on thursday!! And then we leave for Paris early Friday morning, I am so excited to see the city!

I'll be home in a week, can't wait to eat some chick-fil-a and lots of junk food!!

salamanca newspaper

finally a free weekend!

I am so excited for this weekend...the instructors finally have nothing planned for us!! I plan on sleeping in past 7 am for the first time in three weeks and doing lots of laundry! So exciting I know haha.

Exactly one week til PARIS and only 3 more class days left!!

Weekend in Rome!

Just got back from a great trip to Rome, Italy! It is absolutely beautiful. We had midterms Friday and then a long break from Saturday-Tuesday.

We saw the Trevi fountain, Spanish steps, Coliseum, Patheon, all of ancient Rome and we went to Vatican City to visit St Peter's Basilica. It was the biggest church I've ever seen, I feel like I kept finding new rooms to explore in there haha. I got to rub St Peter's foot. They told us that it gives you a blessing when you rub his foot!

We were definitely ecstatic to eat some Italian food. Pizza, pasta and gelato for every meal, yum! We went to the HardRock Cafe Sunday night and watched Spain win the World Cup Finals. I was a little jealous of everyone who was still in spain that weekend!

We're back in Salamanca now...not looking forward to the downgrade in meals that we'll be experiencing but at least I have my own room again!

Seven more class days...
Halfway finished with my trip!

Lo Copa Mundial, Viva Espana!!

Today was a lot of fun! We had classes like usual and after class we went downtown to watch the World Cup, Germany vs Espana. Espana won, the city went absolutely crazy it was so amazing! We talked with the locals in spanish all night..they definitely made fun of our spanish accents haha but it was a lot of fun.
i'm excited for rome this weekend! of course spain is playing in the championship game the weekend that we decide to leave spain...but i know we will still be able to watch the game in italy.
midterms in two days! yikes. better go back to studying! viva espana!

Segovia & Avila

We took a tour to the town of Segovia this morning to visit the 2000 year old Roman aqueducts. They were breathtaking to look at! I really enjoyed Segovia because it had more of a countryside feeling to it. It's a small town but absolutely beautiful and it is the home of King Ferdinand & Queen Isabella's castle. Our tour took us inside the castle. From the balcony of the castle you can see the valleys of Segovia.

After our tour we did some shopping and then we sat outside a cute cafe in Segovia's Plaza Mayor (main square) and ate ice cream and listened to a local band that was playing nearby. I really think we sat out there for a few hours..we didn't even realize what time it was, it was like time had just stopped!

On the bus ride home from Segovia we stopped in Avila for a few minutes to look at the giant stone wall that surrounds the entire town of Avila. It was very pretty.

Now I'm reading a story for my Hispanic Literature class, Spanish from the 13th century is definitely much different than modern Spanish so it's a difficult read!

More tomorrow! Ole (thats for you, mom haha)

Viva Espana!!

Today was absolutely amazing. Well besides the first day of class part...the classes here are difficult. Three hour classes are definitely a killer. My brain hurts from speaking all this spanish, we have literally been speaking the language everywhere we go since we moved in. Everywhere from at the bookstore where we had to buy our textbooks to the grocery store to even in the dorms we've had to use all spanish! My electricity stopped working in my dorm room this morning so I had to explain to the man at the front desk what happened..in spanish! I didnt really even know how to say what happened in english??

After classes we all bought cheap spanish jerseys and went to La Plaza Mayor to watch the world cup game. It was absolutely amazing being down there with all the other people who lived in the city. There were flat screen televisions set up around the entire perimeter of the plaza. And when spain scored...i had never seen a place more riled up in my entire life! It was seriously one of the coolest experiences ever.

Everyone here in salamanca has been so hospitable with us Auburn students. They seriously are so sweet to us, and a lot of the people who worked in the shops have heard of Auburn because of this summer study abroad program and they always tell us how much they loved the Auburn students.

Time for bed, we're going to visit Avila and Segovia tomorrow morning!

Ok i lied...

After going on a two hour walking tour of salamanca today, i have changed my decision about this town. It is GORGEOUS! We saw so many pretty cathedrals and buildings. We also saw salamanca's version of La Plaza Mayor, it is set up just like madrid's only in my opinion, salamanca's plaza mayor is much prettier! There are more shops and restaurants in salamanca's version. We had the best ice cream i've ever eaten in my life while at la plaza.

then we had our orientation and we found out where our classes are. we have class from 9 am-12:15, then siesta, lunch at 2 then class from 4-715, then we're all getting together to watch espana play in the world cup!!!

Finally in Salamanca

We took a two hour bus ride from our hotel in Madrid to our dorm in Salamanca this morning. I think every single person was asleep the entire bus ride.

Salamanca isn't what we all were expecting..we'll definitely be making some weekend trips to madrid! It's nice here and the weather is perfect, but it just seems very remote over here...there's really nothing around us but our dorm. I have no idea where the actual university is haha. We found a few cute stores closer to town. I definitely feel like I'm in a different world over here though. We've barely seen any people other than the people from Auburn!

The staff is very nice here, but I can't figure out if they really don't know any english or if they just don't want us to use english because they only answer us if we speak to them in spanish. So thats been challenging but at the same time kind of fun haha.

Time for a siesta now, i promise i havent turned lazy, just all this traveling has exhausted me, i feel like i havent had a good nights sleep since i've been here!

We're taking a walking tour of salamanca tonight from 6-8 pm and then orientation begins at 10 i think?

the cafeteria food here is actually pretty good. oh and lunch is only served from 2-245 pm and dinner is served from 9-10 pm! plus all the stores close at 2 pm.

It's difficult adapting to the Spanish lifestyle!

Last day in Madrid

It's been a long day! We started off with a bus tour of the city of Madrid. The tour took us to all the historic places like a bullfighting arena, palaces, La Plaza Mayor, cathedrals and old convents, the Madrid soccer stadium and the National Library of Spain. We saw DOZENS and dozens of statues, most were spanish kings but we also saw one of christopher columbus.

After an interesting but exhausting morning, a few girlfriends and i searched all around the block for a mcdonalds! no luck..so we went to an "american" restaurant instead..bad mistake! never eat american food in a non-american country! a burger and fries never looked more appalling.

then we took a quick siesta! later we took the metro (kinda like a subway) to a famous museum- el museo del prado. it was closed by the time we got there so we went shopping and ate some dinner. the dinner place wasn't fancy, but i think the owner realized we were american and were accustomed to tipping waiters so he treated us like royalty! it was seriously the most run down restaurant i had ever seen but he gave us a white tablecloth for our table and fancy cloth napkins. the other customers looked at us so funny!

it's been very interesting trying to communicate with the spanish people, we got lost trying to find the museum and had to ask many people who didnt know any english for directions!

i'm finally in my bed now and i think we're about to go to bed! it's about midnight here. we leave tomorrow morning for salamanca! it's about a 2 hour bus ride

buenos noches!