Belgrade Bound

In less than 48 hours I will be on my way to Belgrade, Serbia. Since I arrived home from Tunisia on December 14th a lot of my time has been spent preparing for Serbia. I had several books I needed to read as part of my course work, I had to unpack and re-pack, and …

Week Two Complete! Park Güell, Tarragona, and so much more

Hello everyone! Week number two is complete here in Barcelona and I could not be more excited to share my recent adventures with you. Just yesterday, I visited Park Güell, a masterpiece of the famous Catalonian architect, Antoni Gaudí. His work primarily was created around the early 1900’s, when Barcelona was flourishing after expanding rapidly through …

Barcelona: First Thoughts

What’s up guys! I have finally made it to my study abroad destination, Barcelona, Spain. The time change has taken some getting used to, as well as the lifestyle of Catalonians. For instance, mornings last until 2 pm, dinner is at 9 pm, and the daily dose of tapas is a bit overwhelming. Tapas, for …

Istanbul

The plane that spirited me away from fair Athens spat me out – sleep-deprived – in the merry city of Istanbul/Constantinople/Byzantion/Byzantium.  Baklava here is, empirically better than anywhere else in the world, and the sights are unparalleled. It is, after all, a Roman Greek Turkish European Asian Muslim Christian Jewish Byzantine Ottoman smorgasbord about 2600 years old. …

Leaving Greece

I lied. This is the penultimate post. I assure you, Amy, I did not mean to swindle you.  It’s just that there’s so much to write, and I didn’t know how to summarize my Greek pilgrimage in so few words and…ah. Well! It felt not so long ago that I was rambling about the newness of …

Germania

Or Fall Break Part II. As I sat down at the boarding gate in Pisa heading to Frankfurt, I wasn’t terribly worried. After that adventure in Assisi friendhunting, karma would afford me a hitchless ride through to Göttingen, from the airport. Not so.  You see, Josh had foolishly booked a Ryanair flight to a minor …

Italia

Pardon my long absence. The CYA has its midterms, its Thanksgiving Break, and its finals all rolled into the same 30 days, so it’s been a whirlwind keeping it all under control. As you may know, I am no longer in happy Athenai, but am posted currently in Istanbul.  But that’s for when I get …

Besleema Tunisia

Saying goodbye is never easy. I’ve been fortunate enough to travel to many places and I’ve never really been ready to leave any of them. Although I’m excited to see my family and friends back home, I’m not yet ready to leave Tunisia. I feel so comfortable here. If only I could stay and continue …

A Thanksgiving to Remember

Last Thursday we celebrated Thanksgiving at SIT. We each made a dish and we planned to have everything ready by 4pm (we moved the time up from 6 because of the curfew). It was nice to sit down with everyone and just relax, instead of sitting around the table typing out ISP’s. On Sunday I …

That Day

It was November 24. The air inside the cafe was cold. It had been raining all day and winter had finally arrived. We sat around the table. All nine of us a bit quiet, not quite knowing what to say. Rhiana spoke up and asked Mounir if he was alright. His response almost brought tears to …