Getting Involved

I’ve written a lot about my travels away from Salamanca on the weekends, but having a home base in this city is very important for my experience. We were told when we arrived that we have to be careful if we were planning on traveling every weekend because we are here to immerse ourselves specifically …

Historical Pilgrimages: Delphi and Hosios Loukas

Last weekend we took a trip to upper central Greece to visit Delphi. If you have read The Odyssey (or other classical texts) you know Delphi is the place to consult the oracle. If a person was facing a tough choice, let’s say to attack a city or not, they would make the trek to …

Portu(girl)

This past week was midterms week, and to boost our morale after a tough week we took a trip to Portugal with IES. On Friday we left early in the morning excited to get away from studying and for a sunny weekend in Portugal. Our first stop was the city of Coimbra, where we visited …

Field Trip to Atapuerca and Burgos

The religion class through IES Salamanca takes a field trip every year to Atapuerca and Burgos, Spain. La Sierra de Atapuerca is an archaeological site that contains some of the earliest human remains in Europe. We have been learning about prehistory and the idea of religion during that time, so the perfect place to visit …

Skeletons and Museums and Books, Oh My!

I started off this weekend by facing my fears and visiting the Catacombs of Paris. The remains of over six million people are held in these tunnels that used to be part of a mining network. In 1786 city officials began the process of moving bones from the overflowing Parisien cemeteries into the abandoned tunnels. …

Packing for a Semester Abroad

Here are a few items that I have found to be very important (but often overlooked) when traveling abroad. Plug adapters for every country you plan to visit Small power adapters allow United States-style plugs to fit into different outlets. You can invest in fancy adapters or find them on Amazon. This is something you’ll …

Peloponnese Field Trip

So much time has elapsed since I last wrote, and for good reason: I spent the last 4 days in the Peloponnese, the large peninsula of southern Greece. It is good for me to review the itinerary, since I learned so much information in just a few days. Overall, the field trip was equally thrilling …

Un día típica

I’ve had four weeks of classes so I’ve had time to establish a routine for school week. Although each day usually brings something new and unexpected, I have a general routine, so here’s a snapshot of a day in my life in Salamanca. I wake up around 8:00am to get ready for the day and …

Birthday Weekend & Clean Monday

When you are quite young, it is not unusual to imagine what your milestone birthdays might be like. Will I get a car when I turn 16? (Definitely not.) Will I have newfound freedom when I turn 18? (No.) Will I party til the sun comes up when I turn 21? (Ha! Still no.) When …

Twelve Hours in Sevilla

This weekend I took my first non IES sponsored trip, and I went with two friends to Sevilla! We decided to take the six hour bus trip to Sevilla and back in the same day. On Friday, our bus left at 1:20am from Salamanca and we arrived in Sevilla at 7:35am. After getting our fix of …