Last Days in BCN

I cannot believe it but my program officially ends on today. I begin my travels to Prague, Budapest, Berlin, and Greece on Monday. This experience has gone by so fast and I do not have much time to take it all in but I know I have grown a lot, experienced a new way of life, and tried things I never thought I would do. Barcelona has been a great place to study abroad because of the people, culture, and history. My one regret is not traveling to other part of Spain, like Sevilla and Granada. It is such a beautiful country with so much to see, but unfortunately time or money didn't allow this. This just gives me a reason to come back. BCN will always be my home away from home and I feel I have a very special connection to it all now. I am excited to go home and see friends and family and how everyone has changed but apprehensive too. Part of me does not want this chapter of my life to end, but these last four months and have been awesome and I would not trade them for anything. 

 

Spring Break

haWe began our spring break journey in Rome. In Rome we saw the Vatican, which is still one of the most amazing churches and buildings I have seen in general. Entering the old roman walls the view of the Vatican at 7 in the morning was an amazing and enlightening experience. The architecture was so elaborate and ornate and made me feel like I was in a palace. We arrived very early around 7pm in an attempt to beat the crowds. This was a great ideas because not only was it pretty empty, but we got to see the exterior of the Vatican as the morning sunlight hit the arches of the buildings. It was absolutely breathtaking. It was such as massive building that we did not know exactly where to begin. I remember saying that oh this definitely will not take more than a couple of hours but I soon realized that a tour through this building was no small matter. Many nuns and monks passed us, which made me realize that this was more than just a popular tourist destination. This was a special place where people of Catholic faith went for spiritual connection to God and was still being used. We started off with the Saint Peter’s Basicalla. It was pretty amazing to see the tomb of the St. Peter in the bible that betrayed Jesus. Another cool thing was getting to see the recent and late St. John Paul II’s tomb. It was very popular and many people knelt and cried in front of it as we walked by. This church took us about an hour and a half to navigate. We decided to take the 500 stair climb up to the domus of the church. It was worth the tiring effort. It was a gorgeous view of the church and the scenery around the church and the front courtyard of the Vatican as well as the Vatican Museums. After this we decided to find Michaelangelo’s Sistine Chapel. I was very excited to be seeing this first hand as it is something I have grown up learning about but never thought I would actually get to see in person. The hike up to the chapel took about 15 minutes. When we arrived we meet a very , very long line. Luckily, it was moving fast and we only ended up waiting about 15 minutes. The journery to the actually chapel took some time. We went through some rooms with amazing paintings on the ceilings and walls. We went through the Raphael Rooms that were gorgeous in their own right and got to see some of his famous works like the one of Aristotle. Finally after going down some narrow stairs and a path, we arrived in the Sistine Chapel. There it was on the wall. The massive painting of “The Last Judgement.” It is something I will never forget. I was actually seeing this famous piece of artwork up close and personal. It was gorgeous. There was so much to look at, I didn’t know where to start. Luckily I found this nice woman with a book, which layed out the names of all the different paintings on the celings and walls. I found out that the ceiling was a depiction of the book of genesis starting with the creation of the earth, sun and moon, then even, then adam, and then the original sin and the life of moses. Right in the middle of the ceiling. was the famous touching of the fingers between god and eve. On the sides of the walls were famous scenes in the bible like the crossing of the red sea. It was like all the stories I have learned about growing up in Sunday school had come to life. I could have spent an hour in that room just looking and observing but it was really crowded and we had to keep on moving. We ended our journey in the Egyptian museum and got to see old mummies and other cool Egyptian statues.
After the Vatican, came the Colosseum and Roman Forum. This was another amazing site, This time we wanted to learn about the history behind these building so we decided to join a walking tour. We learned so many kool things and heard many kool stories about the Colosseum and the way the Romans lived. For example, woman would always stand, while the men sat and about the chosen virgins. Also, the correct way to write the number four in roman numerals is IIII and not IV. The Christians had changed it for a shortcut. The old Roman Forum was very kool I learned about this in my Past and Present Class. Seeing the ruins of the old city really put the old Roman’s way of life in perspective. In Barcelona, you do not see the city as it actually was. You just see bits and pieces of the remains that were preserved. But in Rome, you can actually see a full view of the Roman Forum. I learned that the marble used to decorated the walls and mosaics in the Forum and city were taken out and used to make the sculptures and statues in St. Peter’s Bascilla. It made me wonder just how beautiful the old roman city must have been decorated with all the marble and pieces of artwork.
Our next journey was to Pisa to see the leaning Tower of Pisa. We had to take an overnight train to get there which was an interesting and very sketchy experience. Being up most of the night and sleeping on an uncomfortable train made me feel like a real traveler for once. We arrived around 6am just in time for the sunrise. After grabbing a cappuccino we began our treck to the tower just as daylight was hitting. It was about a 30 min walk but was so worth the wait. After crossing a beautiful river that reminded us of Girona we finally saw the leaning tower in the distance. We even passed a deutshe bank on the way. The sunlight on the tower was amazing.
In Florence we went to the Uffizi gallery. We also saw the original David statue by Michelangelo which was massive and glorious in its own right. We had to go to academia to see it. We found this out while taking a free tour of the duomo church in Florence given by this study abroad student. She gave us neat little tips about what to see and do in the city. The ceiling of the dome of the church was spectacular and depicted scenes of the seven sins, the judgment. The artist began with a B. We also saw the Raphael work of dante’s inferno on the side of the church.
I got a kool sketch of my name from this man on the street for only two euro. After we went to see the ponte vecchio at night, which was damaged and still stands. It was a bridge unlike any I have seen before because it has actual stores on it. It was very beautiful at night and we got a great view of the many different bridges. Not to far was one of the oldest gelaterrias in Florence where we got some really great gelato. On our way back to our hotel we listened to this man play the flute near the Uffizi gallery.
My first day in Paris I learned that everything really is super expensive. A cappicuino goes for no less than 2 euro unless you go to mcdonalds. We went to the pantheon, bastille, and louve. The louve was awesome and massive. My favorites were the mona lisa and the mesapotmia and Egyptian rooms. You can spends hours in this museum just navigation all there is to see. The mona lisa was smaller than I expected and I remember not knowing why it was so special. I felt like I was walking through time when passing from the romans to the Egyptians and other cultures. The sculptures and paintings were breathtaking and so much care and effort went in to them. It made me want to see them in their natural habitat. The louvre was worth the six euro admission fee. Unfortunately for us they just changed the free on Friday night rule a week before we came to only apply to European citizens. Just our luck! On Sunday morning we went to Easter Mass at Notre Damn, which was quite an experience. There were so many people and it was hard to walk. The inside of the church was beautiful and although the mass was in French and I could not understand it, I was glad to be in church on Easter Sunday. We went to the Eiffel Tower and night and waited in line for about 30 minutes and tried to go to the top but unfortunately only made it to the second level. They have this complicated system where you can buy tickets for the elevator to get to each level and we thought we bought a ticket to get to the top but it was only to the second floor. We were kind of disappointed but soon realized that we were on the Eiffel Tower in Paris…something a lot of people never get a chance to experience. We went to the Palace of Versailles which was were all the royal French families lived. The bedrooms were absolutely gorgeous and we got to see the famous hall of mirrors. Something new I learned was that the mirros in the house were strategically placed across from one another so that when you looked into one of them it looks liked you were looking down a hallway. It was really cool. Afterwards we went into the massive garden, which was sooo beautiful. Seeing all the statutes and sculptures was like walking through another city. My favorite was the statue of ecledeus. We slowed down quite a bit for the next two days and slept in because frankly were exhausted and running out of money. The next day we took a 1 and half hour walk to the Arc de triomph, which truthfully puts Barcelona’s to shame. It took us a while to figure out how to actually enter as it is in the middle of a huge circle road. We realized that there was an underneath passage way and it so happened that there was a special procession taking place for veterans underneath the arc. We walked down Champs Elysees, which is famous for its luxury shops and is similar to passegi de gracia in Barcelona. We took this street to the Alexander III bridge which is probably one of the prettiest bridges I have seen thus far. We crossed the bridge to the site of Napolean’s tomb, but did not enter because it was closed.

Spring Break was an awesome time. I learned some valuable lessons. (1) Definitely plan ahead and look up costs so you know what you can and cannot do. (2) Be leery of how much stuff you bring because European flights are very strict on their hand luggage requirements. (3) Lastly, budget your meals and don't splurge in the beginning because you will definitely run out of money. Go to the supermarket to get get breakfast items if necessary

It's the End

We just got back from our spring break trip around Italy and France. I never appreciated family vacations until now. It is hard traveling around on your own with 3 other people. Makes you miss the all inclusive hotel and resort stays with the parents. But I had a great time, and I have many pictures and videos to remember the adventures.

This week was our last week of classes and I cannot phantom how fast our time went here. Now that fantasy land is over, and we will be back to the U.S. with real priorities and responsibilities of encroaching adulthood upon us, I am very grateful for my time away and encourage any student to take advantage of study abroad experience.

London Continued

Here are the videos from the London Bridge and Abbey Road...My most favorite parts of our adventure in London.

London Bridge!

This week we traveled to London to visit friends and family. There is too much to do for just a week in London. The best part of being here was seeing my sister! And also my aunt and cousin I haven't seen in 8 or so years.

My lovely cousin Doyin, took us around most of the weekend. Every time we asked her what something was, she did not know, she just lives here. It was quite comical.

The first site we visited was the Tate Modern Museum, and we stumbled upon art works by Black artist. Our favorite one was "No Woman No Cry". When we were looking at the painting, the tour guide was having trouble remembering who wrote the song, "No Woman No Cry" (Bob Marley) My group knew the answer and then the tour guide asked us to sing it. We hesitantly sang the 4 words we knew of the song "No Woman No Cry"


Highlight: My sister almost burning down my aunt's flat, and me saving the day by putting the fire out! ( Thank God I go to Cornell...we thrive under pressure)

Low point: There wasn't one, I was with my wonderful and lovely sister for 5 days.

Accomplishments: 1.We walked Abbey Road, 2.I got a picture of a stereotypical English woman, 3. We sang and danced "London Bridge is Falling Down" and Fergie's London Bridge song on the London Bridge.


I will post again with more that I can remember later...pictures and video are coming! I have a spanish exam in the morning I should be studying for right now! (I also had to change my flight to fly back on Sunday instead of Monday as I originally planned because my study abroad program decided to give a final on Monday...)

Lesson in Art History

The works of Gaudi are absolutely stunning. I recommend seeing La Pedrera or Casa Mila, Casa Batllo, Parc Guell, and of course Sagrada Familia. You will be blown away by the amazing architecture. Pictures do not really do these building justice. 

I did not realize how intrigued I was by art and architecture until coming to barcelona. Getting to see the architectures, painting, and sculptures by some of the most famous artists in the world is something that I will appreciate and remember for the rest of my life. From Miro, to Dali, to Picasso, and Gaudi all of them have helped me to view art from a different perspective. 

I am very excited to see the works of Michaelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci, Botticelli, Rembrandt, and Van Gough when I go to London, Italy, and Paris.

I feel like I am really getting to know the history and culture of Spain now. As my teacher was discussing different building in Barcelona, I was able to recall what I knew from visiting these places and follow along as an active participant.

Almost Vacation TIme!

March! I am amazed that it is March, I remember( ha I have to write I remember) my first week here and getting lost around the city. Now I can trek all over the city without a problem.

The Good: The Sun is out!
The Bad: My Spanish has progressed but falls greatly short of fluent.
The Ugly: My metro pass got swiped...I had to buy a new one, it was very expensive :(

After watching 11 seasons of Top Model, I believe I have gander enough skill to be classified as an amateur photographer. Here's a sample of my work...

Today we went to La Padera the apartment building designed by Catalonian Architect Gaudi.

Next week I get to see my wonderful and beautiful older sister in London!