CISabroad

Sunday... So since I hadn't done my paper about a piece from the Perejaume art exhibit we visited last week, I did that all day Sunday and finished some other homework too. I had to just clean up a bit and organize everything before another crazy week began. I'll have to find somewhere to print the paper at and all of that fun stuff but I'll figure it out. Later, Gloria made us pizza for dinner (I think that's a bit of a tradition now and I like it) and afterwards I got to talk with my buddies from Ferris and then my family! It was really nice to talk with them. I even go to see my dogs. They're s...

Not to sound cliche, but words cannot describe this experience thus far. To me, it is the coolest place on Earth! From the flight in on South African Air up to the Shark Cage Diving I embarked on today, the first couple weeks have been unbelievable. I quickly picked up that things are done quite differently here in the Western Cape of South Africa. It is not at all like the fast pace life of New England, it is VERY chilled back which is fine by me. It can be somewhat irritating when you need something done however you just learn to go with it. I have already had the opportunity to become engaged i...

Sábado. I got to sleep in this morning and had breakfast at 10. Later I met some friends at Plaza Catalunya, and we walked around there and ended up checking out La Boqueria (large open-air market near Las Ramblas) and the Born area. As we were wandering the side streets, we came across a plaza where there was what appeared to be a cultural festival of some sort. There were a bunch of these giant costume-type things of caricaturized people (and I also saw a dragon and a horse) that dancers would wear then perform a dance onstage. There were so many people in the plaza it was crazy, and they...

It's been a long day. This morning I had my first Tandem Program Intercambio meeting. The Tandem Program is for students who want to meet to practice Spanish (or English for the Spanish students). I met with Walter today, who is actually from Peru and working on his Master's in Business here in Barcelona. He's really nice and even though it took us 30 minutes to find eachother at the metro stop, we had a bit of time to talk before I had to leave to meet some people from my program for a tour of Mercat de Santa Caterina (Market of Saint Catherine). I had just enough time to stop at a cafe to get a ...

Thursday. Breakfast at 8, then off to Spanish class at the Eixample campus. There was a big group of tourists getting off a bus to see la Pedrera (one of Gaudí's buildings) as I was walking and it reminded me of Ferris when there's tours for the high school students and you have to fight your way through the crowd. Spanish was fine, our teacher was in a really strange mood and kept making weird expressions but it was pretty funny. After Spanish I picked up a wrap from the mercado and brought it back to the apartment to eat for lunch. Later I had Spanish Contemporary Art, and walked there, h...

It was more emotional than I expected, saying goodbye to my family at the airport. I could see the worry in my parent’s eyes and the indifferent gaze by my younger brothers who will not comprehend the magnitude of my journey for a few years. My one backpack and I hop on the first of three planes and get ready to depart.                 The first flight to Detroit, Michigan my mind was dazzled by the everythings that was happening during the flight. I’m easily amused by planes. I find flying so fascinating. ...

Miércoles. This morning I didn't have class, thank goodness, so I had breakfast, tried to take a nap (and failed), then got ready and met some friends at the Eixample campus. The plan was to go to a park near the Sant Pau Campus, but we ended up running out of time and just walked around, eventually going to a mercado to buy lunch (pre-packaged sandwiches are 1,05!! I'm so going to live off those now!) and then hanging out at the Eixample campus. I walked back to the Sant Pau campus from there (today was a lot of walking...it was good though) and had my Modernisme class. I went back to the ...

Martes. This morning I had Spanish, so I ate (and told Gloria I had salsa classes tonight so I wouldn't be at the apartment for dinner - she seemed to approve because she began to dance in the kitchen and talk about las Sevillanas again) and walked over to the Eixample campus. It was really sunny and clear today, but still cold. Class was fine...nothing really special about that today. Later I met with my Spanish Contemporary Art class in front of La Pedrera, one of Gaudí's buildings, to see Perejaume's exhibition. I looked up a picture of him and he's a weird looking guy, but I really thou...

Sunday!  I went to Placa Espanya with some friends and we checked out the Museu Nacional d'Arte de Catalunya (National Art Museum of Catalonia). It's free on the first Sunday of every month. It was super cool and I wish we had more time to look around, but it closed at 2:30. There were some pieces there of early work by Dalí, Gaudí (furniture and things like that), and Picasso. It was so cool, I could probably spend an entire day there. Out front there was a street musician who played "Hotel California" among other hits on his electric guitar. It sounds weird, but he was actually pretty...

This past weekend was soooo AMAZING! I decided to buckle down and pay for the optional excursion to  Arenal and Monte Verde. It was pretty steep in cost ($195) but at the end of it all it was so worth it. We boarded the bus at 1:00pm on this past friday Feburary 3rd and headed to a first destination of Arenal. We arrived that evening  checked into our rooms and headed up the ol dusty road to bath and relax in the hot water springs of Baldi Hot Springs. It was so relaxing and fun. They have this super fast water slide that basically zips you down and plummets you into the water. Sounds a tad bit ...