Arrivederci alla citta bella di roma

Yesterday I had to officially say my farewell to Roma. It was difficult saying goodbye to all of my good friends I made in Rome, but nothing can beat coming home to a loving family that I've missed dearly the past four months. The last day in Rome I decided to go to my favorite place in the entire city: St' Peter's basilica. I got up early, walked around the city one last time and met up with my roommate Maeg. Maeg and I went to one of our favorite cafes and grabbed a panino to go. We walked, panino in hand to the beautiful Vatican city. We walked through the whole Basilica of St Peter and for the last time took in the great magnificence of the church. Afterwards we went to our favorite gelateria Old Bridge and continued to walk around the city. Maeg had bought a lock a few months ago and wanted to put the lock somewhere in Rome that reminded of us of our great semester abroad. We went to the Ponte Sant' Angelo which is the bridge in front of Castel Sant'Angelo, but also the bridge that connects our school to the Vatican. It was simply the perfect place. We both plan on visiting Rome again some day and hopefully this little lock will still be there to remind of us what an amazing experience studying abroad was. After walking around the city one last time, my program had a farewell dinner with the everyone in the program, around 150 of us. We all ate and told stories about the past four months. My good friends and I went to Piazza Navona, the Pantheon and our favorite pastry shop one last time after the farewell dinner. Studying abroad in Rome was one of the best experiences I have had. I'm extremely fortunate and grateful to have wonderful family that supported and helped me to be able to go on this wonderful trip. Rome gave me amazing friends that I will keep in touch with for the rest of my life, memories that I will never forget, a level of happiness that I didn't know I could possess and a once in a life time experience. As a last and final blog post I decided to make a list of my favorite things throughout my stay in Rome. Thank you to all who have followed along with my blog, I really have enjoyed blogging about my experiences and was happy to hear from those who enjoyed reading about them. Arrivederci alla citta bella di roma!! (Goodbye to the beautiful city of Rome!)

1. Going to my favorite cafe, "Bar Orologio" to get a cappuccino and cornetto di ciocolatta with my friends before class.

2. Going to see Pope Benedict XVI on a Sunday to be blessed.

3. Going to my favorite pizza restaurant "Dar Poeta" with the gang.

4. Putting a lock on Ponte Sant'Angelo with Maeg to remember my experience studying abroad in Rome.

5. Going to my favorite gelateria "Old Bridge."

Christmas spirit in the air!

Ciao again! I apologize for the delayed posts, my travels started to come to an end and my school work started to catch up with me. Last week I wrote 30 pages in research, and was a little "wrote out" I guess you could say. Now, where to begin? I believe my last post was right before I left for Berlin. Ah Berlin, Germany was absolutely amazing. The Christmas markets were sensational and the people were welcoming and generous.

So your thinking "Christmas markets you say?" What in the world are those, we don't have those in California. Christmas markets are located all throughout Europe but differ depending on where you go. The ones in Berlin consisted of little cottages decorated with Christmas lights all connected together surrounded by Christmas trees and Christmas decorations. In the cottages there are bratwurst, caramelised hazelnuts, chocolate, gingerbread, warm wine, Christmas ornaments, and any other decoration relating to Christmas you could think of. I'll give you my first hand experience with these magnificent little markets:

As I walked into the first Christmas market, I encountered what you might call a sensory overload. First, the smell of fresh pine and peppermint filled my nostrils as I slowly drifted towards a cottage filled with an assortment of candy. Thousands of packages covered the stand filled with different flavored candies ranging from peppermint, caramel, apple, watermelon to black licorice. I continued to walk observing Christmas trees glittering with red and gold decorations lining one side of a wall with a cottage serving warm wine on the other. Continuing through the market a scent caught my nose, then I saw exactly what I had been searching for: the bratwurst. Yes, one of my goals I established upon arriving in Berlin was to try a bratwurst. It was placed in a freshly baked bread roll sticking out about 5 inches on either side. It was positively delicious!

After my bratwurst fiasco my friends and I saw a sign for a ballet so we decided to talk to the woman working at the ticket booth. She informed us that there was a German ballet that night, and if we went to the opera house half an hour early we might be able to get what are called "resting seats" for a very cheap price because we are students. So we did as we were told and made our way to the opera house that night. Luck was on our side that night and we were given 70 euro tickets for 13 euro because we were students! The ballet was called Peer Gynt and was absolutely breathtaking. The dancers floated gracefully across the floor, the extensions of the main ballerina were miraculous. She leaped into the air with full trust that her partner would catch her, without any hesitation in her body language. Grace ran from her toes to the ends of her fingertips. Every dancer in the ballet was extraordinary, we were extremely lucky that we were able to attend the ballet for such a great price.

The following day we roamed Berlin and came across the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. This monument was unlike anything I have seen in Europe, especially compared to Rome. It will be easier to see in the pictures, but the monument consists of 19,000 square metres 2,711 concrete slabs arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field. The slabs are designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere, and the whole sculpture aims to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason. As we were wandering around the massive monument, we overheard a tour guide. The tour guide was very charismatic and knowledgable so we decided to ask him if we could join. Next thing we knew we were being informed of the exact place where Hitler committed suicide.

This interested me probably the most out of everything I saw in Berlin. The place he committed suicide was nothing more than a car parking lot. At first I was shocked. Why would a place so historical be hidden with nothing more than a small plaque informing the public about the site. But as the tour guide continued to talk, it became clear. The city of Berlin dynamited the bunker Hitler committed suicide in for the sake of the city and its people. Berlin did not want to commemorate anything that had to do with Hitler, much less establish a place for his followers to remember him. His body was cremated and his ashes were released into a river in order to avoid making a monument for Hitler or give him recognition. In a way, this reminded me of ancient Roman civilization.

Damnatio memoriae is the Latin phrase that literally means "condemnation of memory" in the sense of a judgment that a person must not be remembered. It was a form of dishonor that could be passed by the Roman Senate upon traitors or others who brought discredit to the Roman State. The result is to erase someone from history. In a way, this effort by the city of Berlin to erase Hitler from history related back to this ancient punishment.

Overall, Berlin was an amazing city to visit. I loved the food, Christmas markets, ballet and most importantly the history. Its funny how visiting just one city can make you sit down and think for a little about the past and what other people have gone through. It can definitely put things in perspective and make you appreciate your own day to day life.

Sicilia

This past weekend I went to Sicily, which is an island off the southern coast of Italy. The first day we walked around Palermo and found a beautiful botanical garden that was part of a university in Palermo. Afterwards we walked along the beach and came upon what literally was a “hole in the wall” food place swarming with locals. We were a little skeptical at first so we slowly walked up to look at what people were eating. After the owner saw us debating over whether or not we were going to eat there, he quickly grabbed what is called a “Crocché,” which is a fried potato and gave one to all three of us to try. After we ate the delicious crocché and making the obvious decision to eat there we were given free fried zucchini to munch on while we were waiting for our sandwiches. I ordered a “panella” which is a fried potato sandwich with fresh squeezed lemon.

The next day we went to the city called Agrigento, which has the famous ruins of Sicily. Agrigento was founded around 580 BC. The city was first called Akragas by the Greek people. The Romans ruled during the period 262 BC and Carthaginians in the period 255 BC. Agrigento was prosperous during the Roman rule. After the death of Julius Caesar in 44 BC, the people there were granted Roman citizenship.

We were able to see multiple ancient temples and giant bronze statues. I recently learned all of the architectural orders of temples for my Ancient Roman Civilization midterm and it was entertaining to be able to distinguish architectural orders of the temples we saw. Although I knew the temples were Grecian from the information given at the sites, it was nice to see temples that we had talked about in class and the differences between Roman and Greek temples. Almost all of the temples in Agrigento were in the Doric order, which is a Grecian architectural type. Greek temples have three large steps along the entire perimeter of the temple surrounding the center of the temple which what is called the “cella.” Etruscan temples on the other hand have one stairway leading into the entrance with the cella located in the far back of the temple. Greek temples have columns surrounding the entire temple whereas Etruscan temples have all of the columns located in the front of the temple. Just a little Ancient Civilization history for you.

Even though the ancient architecture and cities were fun to experience, I have to talk about my favorite topic, pastries(as you all probably have noticed). Sicily had by far the best canollis I have eaten in Italy. There was conveniently a pastry shop a block away from the hostel we were staying at, and traveling with people who enjoy food just as much as I do, we obviously had to go back a few times. The first time we went there we all ate an amazing chocolate muffin. Although, I’m not sure if you can describe this wonderful slice of heaven as a muffin. It tasted more like a rich piece of chocolate cake and had nutella in the center with an extra dabble on top. The night before we left we also made a trip to our wonderful pastry shop and bought canollis. The filling they put in the middle of this canolli was different from what I have previously tasted. It was creamier and had mini chocolate chips folded into the cream. The cream wasn’t too overwhelming, but not too settle either. Simply perfect.

Its back to Rome for me though. Due dates for all my essays are starting to approach unfortunately and the next few nights might be late ones, but how can I complain about a little work in exchange for experiences like these? Europe has been nothing but wonderful to me. Its taught me to live a little, not stress so much about the little things in life, how the smallest things in life can bring the most joy (for me it has been the pastries), and most importantly as the Italians say enjoy: “il dolce far niente” the sweetness of doing nothing.

I think we might be....related??

Venezia! Ah bellisimo citta! Where do I begin? Venice was probably one of my favorite cities that I've visited in Italy.(Besides Roma of course!) Well, I departed for this weekend trip Thursday night straight from school. My two good friends in the program (Jessica and Jasmine) were my travel buddies for the weekend and we took a short 45 minute flight right up north to the city on water. A particular hostel was recommended to us by my roommate who had stayed there the previous weekend. Our hostel was called "A Venice Fish" and had its own little bridge leading to the front door. A Venice Fish was definitely an experience in itself, the hostel was set up similar to a Co-op. There was one main common area with a giant vintage looking chandelier hanging over a large table with twenty chairs. Five large rooms were connected to this common area and each room had around 5-6 bunk-beds, meaning a minimum of ten people were sleeping in each room. Dinner was included in the cost, which usually consisted of a huge pot of pasta along with possibly a bottle of wine that you pick up at the grocery store on the way home from your daily excursions. Some would think, oh vey sleeping in a room with 9 other people then eating in a huge common area sounds horrible, but I can reassure you it was one of the most entertaining things I have done and I met some really neat people! Everyone has a different story and if you open up just a little you can meet some amazing people.

For the majority of the time we were in Venice, we just wandered through the whole city stumbling upon gorgeous piazza or bridge at a time. We happened to come across what is known as the Rialto Bridge, which is one of Venice's most popular sites. I had emailed my Aunt Kerri the week before I left for Venice and asked her about a confectionary shop with the name "Mascari" on it I remembered her and my Uncle Ben mentioning after a trip to Venice. My Aunt Kerri sent me all of the information about the shop along with pictures, which I printed out a took with me to Venice. My friends and I were determined to find this little shop. We crossed the Rialto Bridge and I had my directions out looking like your typical tourist, then I slowly looked up for a second and there it was: Drogheria Mascari. This cute little store sold delicious chocolates and wine(My kind of grocery store, I thought it was appropriate that I was potentially related to the owners). I slowly walked into the bustling little shop and walked up to the counter with the picture of my uncle with one of the sons of the shop owner. I asked "Parli inglese?" (Do you speak english) The elderly man said "A little." So I pointed to the picture and explained "questo è mio zio" (This is my uncle!) and the younger man walked over and exclaimed "And that's me!" pointing at the picture I was holding. Nevertheless my friends and I received some free chocolates and I was able to get a picture with the store owner. In the picture below he has his hand raised like a true Italian and is saying "Mascari!!" I believe my Uncle Ben was able to connect a few family member names when he visited, it was nice to meet someone who I was potentially related to! Ah come è bellissima famiglia. (Ah how wonderful family is)

Two of our friends in the Rome program were also staying in the same hostel as Jess, Jazz and I so we all ended up exploring Venice together. We walked down a little street and found a little coffee shop that had one of the best pastries I've had in Europe!(No surprise here, I'm starting to think I have a mental pastry GPS now) The pastry was called a "Krapfen." It was almost like a doughnut, but much chewier with the choice of either cream or nutella inside covered in powdered sugar. Although it might sound a little excessive, I'm not going to deny this, I went back to this little store all three mornings I was in Venice and had one.

After delicious pastries and coffee, the five of us headed to St. Mark's Basilica right in front of Piazza San Marco. Piazza San Marco is one of the biggest Piazza's in Venice. Mark's Basilica was had one of the most intricate wall designs that I have come across in Europe. Gold Mosaics covered the walls, ceilings and archways. This particular basilica had a large cross hanging in the center of the church that looked similar to a chandelier and had red candles lining the entire perimeter of the cross. The churches I saw in Venice were very different from that of Rome, Spain or France. Most of the windows had red stained glass, red curtains covering the windows, or settle hints of red throughout the church. They were also very dark and most of the art in these churches had a very Baroque style, keeping in theme with the darker color scheme.

The last night we were in Venice we had one goal: to take a gondola ride. We went around 5 p.m. just as the sun was setting. Jess Jazz and I found a beautiful black gondola with red interior that we decided was the perfect one. We swiftly drifted through the canals of Venice with the sun slowly setting reflecting the colors of the city on the water. As we floated down the canals, we passed the opera house and could actually hear a woman singing. Her voice echoed off the narrow walls for a few blocks and the three of us sat in silence taking in this wonderful little city on water.

Venice was a gorgeous city, I'm extremely lucky that I was able to visit it for a weekend. If anyone is visiting Italy for a week or so I would say Venice is one of the must sees. There's nothing like it in the world, everything in the city is so unique. Good food, beautiful scenery, and meeting potential long lost relatives, what could be better?

Paris holds the key to your heart

Where to begin... To sum everything up, Paris was pretty much everything that I expected then multiplied by ten. The first day Christina and I arrived we headed straight to the Eiffel Tower. We grabbed a baguette on the way filled with mozzarella and cheese then sat on a bench in the grassy area right in front of the Eiffel Tower, soaking in its magnificence. After finishing the best baguette I've ever hade I looked over at my friend Christina and we both knew, it was time to conquer this great monument. There are two options to going to the top of the Eiffel Tower: either take the elevator to the second level then take the final elevator to the top or walk all the way to the second level then take the second elevator. Wanting the full experience, Christina and I obviously chose to walk. About halfway up, I started to feel that delicious baguette and I wasn't too sure whether I was going to make it or not. 340 steps later, Christina and I made it to the second level then took the elevator to the very top of the tower. Once we reached the top I peered over the railing at what appeared as "The City of Lights." I was able to see everything in Paris from the Cathedral of Notre Dame to the Pantheon to the saccroroux, it was an absolutely amazing view.

What better to start off that same night than a crepe right below the Eiffel Tower? My favorite thing since I've been in Europe has been nutella so I had to get a nutella crepe. The little crepery stand had a guy making them fresh right in front of you. He handed me a steamed folded up creme with warm nutella stuffed inside gushing out of the top. Hesitantly, I paused from devouring my crepe and looked up, it was exactly 6:00 p.m., the first time of the night that the Eiffel Tower's sparkle lights go off(They go off every hour on the hour for about 5 minutes in addition to the normal lights that light up the tour at night) I thought I just about died and gone to heaven. Not a bad way to spend your first night in Paris.

The next morning Christina and I headed off towards the Palace of Versailles. As we headed towards the palace I was greeted by enormous, lavishly decorated gates. Everywhere I looked the palace was outlined in gold. The inside of the Palace was marvelous, every room was decorated magnificently. When I walked into every room the first thing I would do was look up because every ceiling either had a breathtaking painting or an exquisite chandelier. Everywhere you looked there was gold, whether it was a bed, mirror, painting, window, chair or desk. Although the inside was beautiful, nothing compares to the gardens of Versailles.

As I walked outside I felt as though I was entering a scene of Pride and Prejudice.(Which by the way happens to be my favorite movie of all time, Mom and Karrina you both know this) At the moment I was Marie-Antoinette strolling outside for the day, possibly to have tea by the lake or perhaps stroll by one of my many fountains. I walked down the center of the garden between two ponds to look out upon another few ponds lined by gardens ending in a large lake. I decided to walk down a particular row which ended up leading me to a separate private garden to the side of the main walking area(which no one happened to be in while I was there). The garden had trees with leaves colors ranging from green, to red, to orange to yellow. It started to rain just a little, not enough to the point that it was uncomfortable but just enough to that the water sparkled off every tree, bush, leaf and flower. It was probably one of my favorite moments of being in France.

After Versailles, we headed back to the main city center of Paris. We went to the Orsay Museum which is the impressionist museum. This museum had some of my favorite paintings I've seen in Europe. It had rooms full of Monet and Van Gogh which was like nothing I had ever seen before. The colors of Monet's paintings seemed to jump out of the frame as if he had just painted the scene that very day. Van Gogh's paintings were amazing to see in person, the museum had an incredibly impressive collection of his works and I thought were placed together very well in the exhibition.


The following day Christina and I met up with two of my good friends from the Rome program, Kiara and Sean. The four of us started the day with the Lourve. Since we arrived about twenty minutes after it opened, we were fortunate that there weren't too many people. Since the museum is so incredibly large we mapped out what main pieces of art we wanted to see. First, we headed straight for the Mona Lisa. It was amazing to be able to see Da Vinci's work in person. I had seen this masterpiece in multiple books, but the real thing was something else. The look on her face was so intriguing, if it wasn't for the crowd surrounding the painting I probably could've stood and starred at the painting for hours. Other pieces of art that I saw included the Venus de Milo, The Seated Scribe from Saqqara (dating to 2600 B.C.), The Nike of Samothrace (190 B.C.), Antonio Canova's Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss, numerous sculptures by the great Bernini and paintings by Caravaggio and Gentileschi. We spent about three and a half hours in the Museum, and even then I felt like I had only seen about half of the whole thing. It is the most overwhelming yet fascinating museum I have ever seen.

After the Lourve, we headed to the Cathedral of Notre Dame. We walked all the way to the top of the cathedral where the wonderful gargoyles of Notre Dame peered out towards the view of Paris. The gargoyles were by far my favorite part of the cathedral, every one was different and all had a different facial expression. We walked to the bell tower where the great bell was on display. It was much thicker than I pictures and I can't even imagine attempting to ring something so enormous.

That night the four of us decided to a buy some wine and what better than to drink it by the Eiffel Tower? I sipped wine on the steps overlooking the Eiffel Tower and just about pinched myself. Eleven o'clock struck, the sparkly lights went off, and all four of us cheersed to the beauty of Paris. Now I can officially say, bucket list item number one -- check.

Paris was the number one city I wanted to visit while in Europe. Overall, I think it was my absolute favorite city out of every one that I have visited so far. Although I feel as though I say this after every place I visit, I'll say it again. Paris was an amazing city, but I can't picture myself studying there for four months. Rome still feels like home to me and the more I travel the more sure I become that I fit in just fine here :)

The City of Colors

I arrived in Madrid this past Friday with my apartment mate Christina and my other good friend Claire. Our hostel has been amazing so far, we get breakfast in the morning and unlimited internet(which is hard to come by in European Hostels). The hostel is really clean and has a little kitchen that is open all day in case you want to fix your own food. Belle!

The first thing I noticed about Madrid was how incredibly colorful everything is. The buildings range from cream, to pink, to green, to blue. The railings along the apartments are usually painted a bright color and some of the walls have decorated textures.

The first day we went to the Prado Museum which had paintings from all different time periods and regions throughout Europe. One of my favorite was the painting by Orazio Gentileschi ´The Finding of Moses.´ Orazio is the father of the female artist Artemisia who I have been studying for the past five weeks. It was really exciting for me to recognize a painter and be able to apply the things I have learned from my classes in Rome. This museum also had Raphael and Caravaggio, it took us around three hours to make our way through the entire thing.

Maeg, my roommate from Rome, also happened to be visiting her best friend in Madrid that Friday so that afternoon we all ended up meeting and going to what is called ´tapas´ which consists of a drink and little appetizers for a fixed price ranging around 3 euro. The appetizers we had were paia (the Spanish rice dish usually with a type of seafood) bread with ham on top, and potatoes. That night the five of us went to dinner then met up with two of our other good guy friends who also happened to be in Madrid that night. So the seven of us went to a cute little bar Maeg´s friend knew about. One thing about Madrid is the people here don´t go out until about 1 or 2 a.m. A little different from my sleep pattern in Rome. Around 4 a.m. we decided to go to a popular chocolateria that is open 24 hours. We ordered a large dish of churros that comes with hot chocolate that you dip it into. Finally around 5 a.m. we headed home, and needless to say that was the only night we went out that late because we were so exhausted the next day.

Saturday we went to the famous Royal Palace of Madrid. It is the official residence of the King of Spain in the city of Madrid, but it is only used for state ceremonies. Christina and I took a full tour of the palace which was absolutely breathtaking. As we walked in we were greeted by overwhelming architecture and intricate designs. Everything was designed perfectly in every room. One of the rooms had decadence corral cushions and gold outlining of every chair, painting, table, and mirror in the room. I was wondering what this amazing room could be. Possibly a room for formal meetings? A place only used for holidays? A guest room for highly esteemed guests? Well, it turned out that this was just an alternate lunch room available for the King. I mean don´t get me wrong food is a very important thing in my life, but I would´ve been happy as could be if this ´lunch room´ was where I lived.

Overall, the palace was amazing and right next to the palace was the Santa María la Real de La Almudena which is a Catholic cathedral that was built in 1870. A Mass had just gotten out right before I entered the cathedral and it must´ve been a special occassion because there were probably around 300 nuns running around after the service ended. I have never seen so many nuns in my life in one place, and every single one of them had to be either 5 foot or shorter. It was the funniest thing I´ve seen.

It was very interesting for me to see a Catholic church in camparison to Rome´s. It was very diferent in terms of both the art and architecture. The Cathedral had more of a gothic style and the walls were pure, plain white marble. But here comes the best part, there were numerous glass stained windows and because the walls were plain white, the light reflected the colors from the windows throughout the entire cathedral. We were extremely lucky with the weather and happened to be visiting the cathedral when it was midday, there wasn´t a cloud in the sky and the sun was shining as bright as could be. I sat down in the back of the cathedral and looked around as green, purple, blue, red, yellow and green rays of light lit up the walls surrounding me. As I looked forward over numerous rows of oak, brown altars a large cross stood at the front with a gold statue of Jesus. The image was so overpowering that I had to sit down for at least thirty minutes to take everything in.

Afterwards Claire Christina and I went to a Mexican restaurant that Maeg´s friend who studies abroad in Madrid recommended to us. It was hidden in the very back of a plaza and was incredibly crowded, we knew it had to be good. So all of you in California right now, please go eat a burrito for me because I have been going through Mexican food withdrawals since I´ve arrived in Rome. Its incredibly hard to find here and when you do its usually too expensive. Anyway, we found this amazing hole in the wall Mexican place and ordered a huge dish of nachos with cheese and guacamole. I also split fajitas with my friend and oh my goodness I was like a kid in a candy shop.

Sunday we went to the Rhea Sophia Museum which has numerous famous paintings such of those of Dali and Picasso. I was able to see three rooms full of Picasso´s work and one of his most famous paintings ´The Guernica.´ We also went to the park in Madrid which is enormous and has a little lake in the middle. In the lake there are a ton of little blue row boats that you can rent for a few euro, so obviously we had to try it. We rowed all around the little lake and ate our jelly sandwhiches we had packed for the day. On Sundays there are also all sorts of street performers in the park which was really fun to watch.

Last night I was able to meet up with of my good childhood friend Jenna who is studying abroad in Madrid. She had recently been in Morocco, Africa the past few days. We had a little sangria and caught up a little, it was really nice to see a familiar face in such a foreign place!

I have taken about 200 pictures so far, but unfortunately I can´t post them because these computers won´t connect to my computer but I will post a lot of them right when I get home!

Tomorrow I will leave for Paris around 7 a.m.! Christina and I will be staying there for three nights, and the last two nights two of my friends from Rome will also be staying in the same Hostel as us. Christina has a friend in Paris who we are meeting for dinner tomorrow night and who wull hopefully also give us some good tips for touring the city. Our plan is to see all of the main sites in Paris and to go to Versailles on Thursday. Paris was definitely my number one city I wanted to visit while in Europe and I cannot wait to try their crepes! Adios Spain and bonjour Paris!!

Madrid and Paris!

Tomorrow I will be getting up around 3 am for my flight to Madrid! A few of my friends and I will be staying in Madrid for five nights and traveling to Toledo for one of the days we are there. On Wednesday, my apartment mate Christina and I will be leaving for Paris and staying there for three nights. We will also be meeting up with a few of our good friends who are in our abroad program and will be be staying at the same hostel as us. Paris was definitely my number one city that was on my list to visit when I decided I was studying abroad. I believe I will have internet at the hostels I am staying at so I will be able to update my blog a few times throughout my visits. Tapas, churros, crepes, and the Eiffel tower here I come!!