After Ireland (delayed)

Well I've been back in the US for over a month now, and now classes back at UD are in full swing. While I was in Ireland instead of posting, I recorded everything in a journal for a course requirement, and I guess I just never had the time to upload it all. I loved Ireland, though! I got better quickly and got a chance to travel to every corner of Ireland- Dublin, Cork, Galway, Northern Ireland, and London, England. I really had a wonderful time, and can't wait to return to the Emerald Isle and the United Kingdom.

Now that the chaos of the semester is setting in it's nice to have a real routine instead of bouncing from place to place every week or so. Still, I can't seem to stay in one place for too long any more- I'm off to visit New York this weekend for an Art Department Field Trip! I'm done with this blog, but not with my travels.

So far we've been taking it easy here in Dublin. Erin's parents left Sunday, and since we've mostly just taken things slowly and relaxed- kind of dreading the start of classes Thursday. (Tomorrow, Wednesday, we go to UCD).

We've gone to Glasnevin Cemetery, to Castletown House in Celbridge (it's a really cool old estate), and I went to a med clinic (without much result). We've also gotten to watch a lot of Irish and British TV. It's been interesting...

The game shows are fun to watch, because occasionally the questions will be very specifically British. What's the northernmost county in England? What British game show was based on the game Knots and Crosses? The humor we've seen, or should I say, the humour, is interesting. I love many British shows, and typically love (and understand) a decent portion of British humour. Some of the Irish humour is a bit more bizarre. For instance, we flipped channels and found a strange Irish skit- type show that included some commentary on the current Irish financial situation but with cuts to, for instance, a drag-queen version of the (female) Irish president going back in time and head-butting and English landlord.... and it all has those Monty Python-esque quick cuts that can leave you disoriented if you don't know what's going on. We end up a bit confused, but I still like it.

Tomorrow we actually have to go to the university and get ready for classes. I 'm also supposed to go back to the med clinic on Thursday so they can see if I'm well. I have a suspicion that my ears will still have pressure in them, like they have for almost a week now. Oh well. I can still tell I'm getting better, it's just been a very long process.

It's been a while

Well, it's been quite a while since I last posted. Since my last post I've left Angers, left France altogether, gone to Florence, gone to Munich, and then finally come to Dublin. It's been pretty busy. Let's see if I can be a bit more specific....

Back in France:

The day before finals we went the the Cointreau factory. Then we went to a group dinner. Then at night, we studied for finals. That I wasn't to fond of- I like having actual study time for finals.

I don't think I did well at all on my French final, I have to say. I know I learned a lot in 4 weeks of study, but in class was discussion based, and the test was mostly vocabulary and conjugations. There was very little similarities between the class and the test, in my opinion. Oh well. After the test my teacher Muriel asked (in French, of course) if I did I did well, and I just said "Uhh....." Then she told me that she knew I'd made a lot of progress compared to my first day in Angers. So hopefully my grade will be alright...

Econ went very well, although it was a very long test. That's Barbara John for you.

That night we (Dana, BJ, Rachel, and their visiting friends) went out to get crepes.

Since my Easyjet flight out of France had been cancelled the day before, on Friday I slept in a bit in Angers, took an afternoon train to Paris, and a night train to Florence to meet Erin. While sick. Worst. Idea. Ever. Just a word of advice: if you are ever so nauseous you can't eat all day, don't take a night train. Attempting to sleep in a crowded couchette is not a good idea, especially when the bathroom is a jump down, walk along a narrow hallway, and wait in line, away. I didn't get a lot of sleep. Another contributing factor is that the porter takes your passport away for the night when he takes your ticket. That make me very uncomfortable- since I was getting off hours before the last stop in Rome.

In Florence after the night train disaster, I couldn't muster up any energy to sightsee. We sat in the hotel room most of the day exchanging stories, and only briefly took a walk to the Duomo. Fortunately, I've seen Florence before, so I didn't feel gipped by the experience.

Then, we flew to Munich- me on a last minute flight we booked the day before. All I knew was I couldn't possibly handle another night train. So, instead, I waited in the airport for 5-7 hours or so. When I finally did get on the plane, it was technically business class. (It was literally the last seat on the plane). That was infinitely better than a night train, I'll just say.

In Munich we met up with Erin's parents, saw several churches, went to the Hofbrauhaus, and went to an art museum. It was lovely. I missed Germany.

And now, finally, we are in Dublin. Have been for a few days. We've walked a lot of the city so far and done: more churches, the Guinness brewery, the Jameson distillery, Dublin Castle, the Book of Kells, and more.

My summer so far has also been brought full-circle.... the other day we were eating shepherd's pie in an Irish pub, and the song "Istanbul (not Constantinople)" came on. I have to say, even in wonderful Dublin, I still miss Istanbul....

I'm excited to be in one place for a while. One place that speaks English. It's going to be weird.

Well, the internet doesn't work in our hotel room and my power is about to run out here in the hotel pub.

I should write sooner next time.

Last Days in Angers

I'm ready to get out of France. Not that it's not lovely...

For the most part this week has been just more of the same- more sick, more cold/rain/clouds outside, and more and more homework. Part of my desire to leave France stems from my desire to be done with my classes here- Econ and French. Honestly, I can't see myself returning to either of these subjects, so it's hard to continue to work at this intense pace to learn the information. I'm ready to move on- I'm already getting into the Irish mindset. Yesterday I started reading one of the books for my Irish philosophy of literature class, and it is SO much more interesting than graphs or conjugations. That plus the Flogging Molly I listened to on the bus are just making these next few days feel like an eternity... sigh, I'm sure it's just overall exhaustion from being sick and working too much. The weekend was nice, though. Yesterday we went to the lake her in Angers, and that was great. We swam around, jumped off of the docks, and laid out in the grass. That was wonderful.

Friday and Saturday nights we went out to 2 different pubs to watch the World Cup games- France vs. Uruguay on Friday and US vs. England on Saturday. We weren't expecting to see excitement for Saturday's game of course, but we were expecting to see some excitement for Friday's game with France! This is a European country, and the World Cup, after all- how could there not be enthusiasm? Yes, there was a pub or two filled with people watching the game, but they were downright silent. There was no cheering, no yelling- a few times we heard disappointed sighs when a kick went wrong. That was it. When the game ended in a 0-0 tie, everyone walked home quietly. We had been expecting the stereotypical European football fans.

Here are a few stereotypes about the French that appear to be true (to our very limited observation and of course not applicable to all French):

Baguettes. According to our own supermarket observations, the French really do buy a lot of baguettes- at least 50% of the people we noticed were buying baguettes. The baguettes also appear to be larger here as well.

Horizontally-striped shirts. You know the cartoon image of a Frenchman standing at an easel with a beret and a horizontally-striped shirt? Well, the beret is of course ridiculous. The shirt, on the other hand.... so many people here where horizontally-striped shirts! You literally can't turn around without seeing another one. Perhaps it's a global fashion trend and we're just noticing it here...

Smoking. Yes, the French do smoke quite a bit more than the Americans, as long as we're making sweeping generalizations.

Last and most tricky to explain: rudeness. Of course, there are rude people everywhere. Of course, the vast majority of people here are extremely nice and helpful. But....

We get a general feeling of being judged wherever we walk here. There is a lot of staring. Even when we don't speak, we apparently wear giant signs declaring our nationality. Well, declaring our foreign-ness. One time some people complained about us being Spanish tourists... but usually the complaints are about Americans.

How do they know? Once Dana and I stood at the curb silently waiting to cross the street, and a teenager ran up, linked arms with Dana, and shouted into her face "HOW ARE YOU?" When we reacted, he ran away to his friends laughing and shouting back to us "I don't want to f*** you anyway".

One of the boys on our trip was walking alone- silently- wearing only clothes purchased in Europe- and women behind him complained about the "American". Seriously, how do they know? These are just two recent stories out of many, many similar incidences here in France.

What motivates these select few to be so obnoxious towards Americans, anyway? Some Americans may be rude to tourists in the US, but I can't imagine, for instance, a New Yorker grabbing a tourist and screaming in the tourist's native tongue. Sigh.

I know full well that these odd people do not represent the French as a whole. I've met many many polite and helpful French. The vast majority do in fact have common courtesy. It's just this small but vocal percentage that make us feel so unwelcome....

Oh well. On Friday I fly off to Italy, then it's Germany, and then the Emerald Isle. I'm excited to speak English without being judged. Well, at least if I'm judged it will only be for my accent, not the whole language.

First days in Angers

I'm in Angers! and sick. Colds and study abroad trips are not a pleasant combination. Angers is nice, though. From what we've seen, it's very quiet here- all of the students have left for the summer, so it feels like the city is pretty empty.

Today we were given a walking tour of the city (while wearing our backpacks for school, which was not so fun) and a tour of the school and a bit of the surrounding area. Then we went to class, and I had my first french class here in Angers. It's still intense. Today we talked a bit about French culture and politics, and she corrected our pronunciation a lot, which was great because I have no idea how to pronounce the words properly. At first she spoke very fast, but the more blank stares I gave her, the slower she spoke, the more I could pick up from what she said. Hopefully I'll be able to learn quickly enough for this class.

We also went grocery shopping by the school. I do love shopping for groceries in foreign countries. It's kind of fun when you have no idea what's going on. Well, it's kind of fun until the checkout. Then you just feel like an idiot when you can't understand what the cashier is trying to tell you. Still, though, that's one of the great experiences of living abroad- trying to figure things out when you're clueless.

This experience is one of the many reasons I prefer to stay in one place for a while rather than bounce from city to city, from hotel to hotel. I don't think I really gained all that much from our travel days in Austria and Germany. They were great, and the cities were awesome, but it very quickly became WAY too much touristy stuff. In a finite period, there are only so many castles and churches one can take, and there are only so many hills one can climb, because after a while, all of the valley and river views blend together. When you bounce from city to city, your view of the world just becomes flat. You don't see anything out of the ordinary in a city, you just hit the tourist high points, and those are in no way an accurate depiction of the town or the culture. Everything gets oversimplified, and there's no struggle, because in the tourist spots, everyone speaks English to you. I need to spend real, substantial time in a place.

As difficult as they will be, hopefully I will enjoy these next (almost) two weeks in Angers.

A whirl of wind

This past week has been crazy. We haven't stopped since we left Budapest, it's been a whirlwind of travel! Since my last post I've been to Vienna, Salzburg, Rothenburg, Bacharach, Trier, and now, Paris. Sunday we leave for Angers, and it's back to classes. There has been no stopping!

and now I will attempt to describe these past few days:

Vienna

We went to the open market to eat when we first arrived, and then wandered about. The next day, we went to the Spanish riding school and saw the horse performance. Then we went to Shonbrunn Palace (in the pouring rain, and I had forgotten my coat). I had seen it before, so I wasn't really looking forward to it, but it was absolutely amazing. We went to a strudel-making demonstration first, and then since the rain had stopped we walked the palace grounds. We ran through a hedge maze, played on the playground, and then walked up a hill to the Gloriette. Then, we actually went inside and did the standard tour of the palace. That night we ate at an open-air restaurant, that is, a restaurant with a retractable roof and vines for a ceiling.

Salzburg

If you are ever in the Salzburg area, go on a salt mine tour. It was awesome! I'd also been to a salt mine before, but in Poland, so it was a very different experience. The one we just went to in Salzburg had a train thing to take you into the mine, wooden slides to take you to different levels of the mine, an underground salt lake, and allowed us to go to Germany underground! You also get to (well, have to) wear white coveralls down in the mine.

The city itself is pretty quiet, but it was nice. Between Salzburg and Rothenburg, we stopped at Dachau.

Rothenburg

This is a gorgeous city! We stayed at the bottom of the hill of the town, in a hotel made out of a restored mill. It's a preserved medieval town, and it is very nice, if also pretty quit. We took the "night watchman" tour in the evening, which was extremely touristy, but interesting. The next day we went to the medieval torture museum, which was surprisingly fascinating! For example, we saw a drunk tank, chastity belts, and devices for dunking witches.

Bacharach

In Bacharach we stayed in a hostel on a hill that was once a castle, and took a boat tour. The next day was a holiday in Germany, so when we got on the train to leave the city, it was packed to bursting with vacationing Germans and their bikes.

Trier

Trier is a city in Germany near France, and is filled with Roman ruins. We mostly walked around and saw sights- churches, ruins, etc. There really just isn't enough time to get much more done when you're only in a city for a day! I did get a sketch in, which was nice.

Paris

And here I am right now, in Paris. Perhaps it's the past week of hectic travel, or the fact that I've already been to Paris, but I don't see all of the touristy things as totally necessary in Paris. Today, we knocked out a lot after our train arrived in the afternoon (and then we took our luggage on the metro to our hotel.....). We went to Notre Dame, then to the Louvre to hit a few specific pieces- Mona Lisa, Venus De Milo, The Raft of Medusa, Hamurabi's code, to name a few. I wish we could have spent more time, but the group just wanted to hit the highlights, and I'm a bit too tired from travel today to enjoy the Louvre like I should. I was glad to see more pieces from my art history classes, though!

Then we went to the Eiffel Tower (which is right by our hotel), sat in the park for a while, and then walked up to the 2nd level (about 400 feet up, or, according to the internet, 719 steps).

It's been a long day, a long week, a long summer so far. I may only have two weeks left in this particular trip, but I'm not even halfway to the end yet! It's gonna be a whirlwind.

Vienna waits

I'm going to miss Budapest. As I write this it's just after 7am here, and I've woken up early to finish my packing, so this will be a short post- in a few hours we leave for Vienna.

Everything here in Budapest has moved fast, especially these past two days. Thursday after classes we took a field trip to the Unicum factory where we learned the history of the drink and the Zwack company, and then were given three different samples- Unicum, Unicum next, and a traditional Hungarian drink called polinka. After that, and a lecture on the EU, we went to a lovely dinner on a boat at a restaurant called Spoon, and then to another boat for a night tour of the Danube.

The Danube is absolutely gorgeous at night.

It was also a bit interesting doing economics homework after going on the Unicum field trip....

oh, college.

After classes on Friday, we went to get hot chocolate despite the warm weather, and then (after a long attempt to return clothing to a store) we saw the shoes sculpture along the Danube- in memory of the Jews shot along the Danube during WWII.

After that cheery final sight-see we went out to a nice dinner to say good-bye to the city.

I'm excited to keep moving, but it's strange to think how much of the summer has already gone by. I'm already about half-way through this study abroad portion of my summer. Yikes.

The Opera

So we just got back from the Opera. Well, the first half of the Opera. and then gelato. Let's just say, the show was a testament to the fact that a good tech crew can make a show, while a bad crew can destroy a show.

We saw Handel's Xerxes, and we only paid 900 Forint, or about $4.00 for it. We wanted to go to the Opera because we live a block away, and sometimes at night I could here the singing, and the sining sounds amazing. The opera house is an absolutely gorgeous building- the exterior has amazing statues all around it, and the interior has frescoes on the ceiling, a gorgeous chandelier, and wonderfully old seats and balconies that you can tell have been there forever.

The pit was open, so you could actually see the orchestra, unlike in most shows I've seen in America. The orchestra was wonderful, too. The singing in the show was also amazing. These were definately professional opera singer on stage. What the opera singers were not, however, is professional break dancers, despite their apparent attempts to relive scenes from some kind of bad 90's musical.

That's right. The set design, costumes, and choreography to the opera appeared to be set in Egypt in 1992. The costumes were odd and brightly colored and consisted complete with baseball caps, hoodies, and harem pants. There were a few sequined hats and jackets as well. The set consisted of a purple overpass and a ghetto apartment complex with air conditioning units and arabic graffiti. The choreography was basically poor attempts at breakdancing.

Perhaps we would have understood the design choices if we spoke Hungarian, since the show was part Italian (with Hungarian subtitles), and part Hungarian. Still, I doubt the design choices were ever justified. I just don't personally think Handel goes with a bizarre 90's theme.... This is why good techies are important.

Anyway, we left at intermission. After and hour and a half. Still, for about $4.00, there's no real loss.

The rest of the day was great though! We had econ class at this Aztec chocolate shop and had hot cocoa while we talked about taxes. Then after classes we went back up to castle hill and Barbara John, Rachel, my roommate Dana, and I had a great lunch on the hill. Tomorrow we all go to the Unicum factory on a field trip, then to a dinner and a cruise on the Danube.

I'm 20, and I like rivers

I am 20. It doesn't really feel too different, but it is a bit strange to think about. It's just too bad I still have 364 days until I can enjoy certain legal rights in the US that I can exercise here in Europe... The weekend was so crazy, it was nice to have a bit of calm on my actual birthday yesterday. Late last night we all went out in the rain and got gelato- my professor bought it for me!

The trip yesterday was amazing- at Visegrad we went up to a castle (Visegrad castle) with the most amazing views of the Danube bend- the point at which the Danube river (In Hungarian, it's name is Duna) switches from flowing East to flowing South. At Visegrad, The Danube is the border between Hungary and Slovakia, so we crossed the bridge and I got to return to Slovakia on my birthday! (We stopped briefly in Slovakia for lunch when I came abroad after my freshman year of high school)

The River Steward in me is loving the Danube.

Today, after an Econ test and a slightly overwhelming French class, I took a long walk along the Danube, which in the city separates Buda from Pest. I was reminded of my time in Boston last summer- when things got overwhelming, all I needed to do was walk and sit along the Charles and everything would calm down. Rivers are so universal- cultures all over the world build along the river for a number of reasons. A river both divides cultures- dividing countries or cities, for instance- and brings them together- everything along a river is connected.

Well, that's enough rambling about rivers. Now look at these pretty pictures:

The view from Visegrad:

a quick little sketch I did of the Chain Bridge on my walk this afternoon

Weekend in Budapest

So much has happened since Friday afternoon, It's hard to remember it all!
After I finished my last post, I went up to Castle Hill in Buda (Budapest is divided into two parts by the Danube river. The side we live and go to school on is Pest. Across the river is the very hilly part, Buda). I went with Barbara John (our professor/ site coordinator) and Rachel, her daughter and the only other student in my classes. Everybody else was in class. The hill was beautiful. There were a lot of great views of Pest, and at one point I pulled out my sketchbook and did a really quick sketch of Parliament. BJ was actually really impressed, and says she might get me to do more sketches of sites so she can put them in the catalogue for next year! It started to rain, so we took refuge at this wine tasting place- we walked through old caverns and read all about the history of wine in Hungary. After that we saw the Hungarian Dance Company perform a ballet version of Carmen that was amazing. In Hungary, there is apparently a weird tradition about clapping at the end of a show... everyone claps in unison. The is no standing, and there weren't cheers either. Instead, the clapping just got faster for the bigger stars. Unlike the American slow-clap, though, it never built to regular applause, it stayed in unison the entire time. It was pretty interesting. That night we looked out from another apartment's balcony and relaxed.

Saturday morning we went to the zoo. The enclosures were depressingly small, unfortunately, so that part was sad. The animals didn't look very healthy, and many of them were pacing around or swaying strangely. We got to feed giraffes though, so that was really cool! We also took pictures right next to a gorilla that happened to be sitting right up against the glass posing for photos. Later we went shopping at a huge mall, and then Saturday night three of us went out to a club two blocks away called alter-ego. We had a ton of fun!

Unfortunately, we got very very little sleep last night, because we got up early to go to Skansen. It's an open air museum thing, sort of like Conneor Prairie in Indianapolis, but bigger. And Hungarian. It had a lot of booths and events for the holiday weekend. It was ok, but the time it took us to get there- on subway, train, and a bus with at least an hour wait- was more than the time we spent actually there. We were all also exhausted from going out last night.

On our way back we bought tickets to the Opera, since it's just around the corner from our apartments. We're going to see Xerxes Wednesday night, and the tickets were only 900 Forint, or about $4 US.
Well, I'm still exhausted, and I should be napping. Tomorrow we visit the Danube Bend.

It's Friday!

Yay! It's Friday, and the clouds in Budapest have parted! It's sunny! Even though I'm pretty burnt out from this week, today is a great day! For French class we (our professor Judith with all two students- Rachel and I) went to a restaurant. We read the english translation bits of the hungarian menu, told Judith what we wanted in French, and she ordered in Hungarian. So many languages! Of course, I only know about one word in Hungarian- köszönöm (thank you). It comes in handy, though. A lovely day and a lovely meal that was paid for by UD because it was technically a field trip. Bon.

The weather this weekend is also supposed to be nice, and I am very appreciative. On Monday, we're going to Esztergom & Visegrad (no class on my birthday!).

Once again I'm staying a bit after class to use the internet at school. I miss reliable wifi.... Back at the apartment, I keep wanting to look something up every time I have a question and I can't. The lack of internet, the fact that no one in the group other than myself has a cell phone, and the fact that Hungarian VH1 shows nothing but music videos- from the 80's and 90's- makes me feel a bit as if we travelled back in time a few years. There is something kind of nice about it.

Homework Homework Homework

I'm writing this from the lounge at the school- ESSCA. There is actually internet here! So far this week has been pretty intense, what with attempting to do classes and visit different places in Budapest. Luckily, Monday is a holiday in Budapest (and also my birthday!). After next week, we get a break from school to travel through Austria and Germany. I am seriously looking forward to a break. The classes are much faster than they would be in a normal semester, because we need to learn a semester's worth of coursework in four weeks of classes. The Economics isn't too bad, because it's a lot of recap from what I've already learned in high school. The french on the other hand..... I feel like I have a lot of catching up to do. The pace is SO much faster than anything I experienced when learning Spanish... I wish there was another pure beginner in my class so I wouldn't feel so incompetent.

What is strangest for me isn't being in a foriegn country, it's learning subjects that I'm not used to. Neither of these subjects is even close to my real major, Visual Communications Design. I feel like when I go from one class to the other I switch areas of my brain, and neither area is one that I exercise regularly. What I really miss right now is my own major- things I understand, and in a language I understand. I've had a tendency all trip to examine the typography on signs. Here in Budapest, as well as in the airports, I absolutely love to look at the differences in the design of symbols- the walk symbol, the exit sign, etc. It's just too bad that Dayton doesn't offer any VCD study abroad courses. I suppose getting a piece finished overnight isn't as easy as filling out a worksheet overnight, but still, I think there is totally room for Art History or History of VCD over here in Europe.

I finally pulled out my sketchbook yesterday and did a quick sketch from the balcony of my apartment, and it was extremely relaxing, just to return to the area in which I've been training for two years now. I have yet to break out my nice new camera, but hopefully I'll have time to get around to it. I just don't want to find myself taking snapshots with it.

Budapest is lovely, though. We went out to eat last night and had absolutely wonderful chicken paprikash as well as a very strange apricot and honey drink. There was also an amazing violinist playing in the restaurant- the Hungarians are amazing at stringed instruments! In this leg of the trip I'm continuously reminded of my visit to Hungary after Freshman year of High School on the band trip. I remember being amazed at the violinists then to, at that horse ranch with wonderful homemade goulash. I also keep seeing souvenirs at the stand that I remember buying five years ago... and how I never used them. I'll probably buy souvenirs eventually, but I won't be tempted by the wooden animal on a spring or the lace bowl-thing I bought in high school.

Well, I have a decent bit of homework homework homework to do. Sigh. Luckily, the weather in Budapest is still pretty gross- so I don't feel bad that I'm not out and about right now. Of course, I do hope it clears up soon!

Budapest

I'm in Budapest! and have been since Sunday, but the internet connection here is precarious, so this is the first chance I've had to post. It's cold and rainy here, so we haven't done too many outdoor touring activities. We are also back to school, unfortunately. Yesterday I started French 101 and Microeconomics. The French is a bit intimidating, because I've never taken it before, and our professor speaks only Hungarian and French, with a few words of English. Other than that, everything is good. Today we went on a tour of Parliament and the House of Terror- a wonderfully done but depressing museum all about Budapest under both Nazi and Soviet occupation and all of the horrible atrocities committed.

On a more positive note, Budapest is home of the first underground (subway) in continental Europe (England was first, as our English tour guide of sorts bragged to our Hungarian school advisor on our bus tour in). It's easy to use, and we've been using our train passes everywhere. I found it interesting that there is no swipe card system of payment to get on a train or tram- you show your pass to a guard standing at the entrance, and if there's no guard you could technically get on free.

We're living in apartments, so we're going to the market around the corner to by groceries. When you don't have a recipe, and you can't really cook, it's hard enough to buy groceries. Then you put all of the labels in Hungarian.... shopping gets amusing. Butter is surprisingly hard to find, because some of the tubs look more like cream cheese. Laundry detergent was also impossible to distinguish from stain fighter and fabric softener (there is a tiny washing machine in every apartment).

It's very busy, with classes and settling in, and on top of that wanting to go out and see the city. Hopefully it will all be better in warmer weather, if it ever gets warm here.

Well, I've got things to do, and little internet (I'm in another apartment right now).

I'll post pictures if and when the connection gets better!

Asian Adventures

Istanbul is in both Europe and Asia, with the Bosphorus (straight) separating both the city and the two continents. Today, we took a ferry and officially went to Asia. We climbed up a very very big hill to the remains of the castle on top, and from there had a great view of the Black Sea. That's Europe on the left and Asia on the right and in the foreground.

When we came down the hill/ mountain, we had donut-hole-like things, and fried muscles. The Asian side is the same as the European side, but still very cool. The only not so nice part of visiting Asia was the WC (water closet (restroom)). Like in most of Europe, we had to pay to use the WC. That's fine. After we had paid, however, we found that it was only a squat toilet. Not an experience I would like to have again.

Once we got back to Europe we went to the Spice Market and then had Turkish delight in the park. Tonight we go out as a group.

Tomorrow we leave for Budapest. Monday we start classes. I'm really going to miss Istanbul! The call to prayer heard throughout the city from the mosques, the adorable school children on field trips: "Hello! What is your name?" the sweet typographic characters of Turkish and Arabic, the hookah at night, the wonderful tea throughout the day, and all with no classes. Oh so much to miss.

A few shots from Yesterday: the Harem in Topkapi Palace

The best part of Topkapi Palace was the Harem, as you can tell by the sweet pictures. It was where all of the Sultans hundreds of concubines lived. We also saw Muslim relics at the palace- including the old doors to the Kaaba, Moses's staff, and the footprint of the prophet Muhammad.

So apparently we saw Ayasofya (Hagia Sofia) yesterday- in fact it's right by our hotel! When I learned about it in Art History last year, I never would have thought I would see it in person! We went in today, and also into the Sultan Ahmed mosque (we only walked the courtyard of it when we wandered yesterday). We went the the Grand Bazaar and underground in the Basilica cistern. "Rick Steve's Istanbul" actually had some great information for the tours. His restaurant advice? Not so good. My luggage arrived when we came back this afternoon, though!

The view of the Asian side of Istanbul from breakfast (at our hotel's sister hotel across the street)- how often can you eat breakfast in one continent while looking at another?

Inside Ayasofya (Hagia Sophia)
Underground in the Basilica cistern

Wandering about our little part of Istanbul

So much has happened since we stepped off the plane! We Wandered the blocks near our hotel and saw a bit of this gorgeous city! Even in this small section of a city the size of New York, it really seems like Istanbul is truly the center of the world! It seems like every aspect of world history and culture is right here. It's where Europe meets Asia meets the Middle East, and it's obvious with every step! We heard the call to prayer, stood in a courtyard of a mosque and walked the ruins of a Roman wall, and this is all just aimlessly wandering!

I think we'll actually learn what everything we saw today is within the next few days, haha. We also had great Turkish food at a street cafe, went to an open air hookah cafe with a Whirling Dervish! I love Istanbul already! It's midnight here, and I'm about to go to bed, because I haven't slept since I left. Which was yesterday morning. Good Night! Or as they say in Turkish...... well never mind, none of us can pronounce Turkish anyway.

Istanbul (not Constantinople)

I am save in Istanbul! As of yet my luggage is not. But oh well. It should arrive tomorrow. That's what you get when your transfer time is cut to 30 minutes because you have to go North above the volcanic ash cloud... Eh, hopefully the luggage will get here in the morning. Not the end of the world.

So far we've arrived totally exhausted. The weather is perfect, though! The first thing we did after dropping our stuff was go a wandering, and found some sweet stuff! I'll add pictures later. Off again!

Off We Go (The people in the airport think that I'm crazy)

So I'm currently sitting in the airport. In a few hours I will be sitting on a plane. Eventually (after another plane) I will be in Istanbul, the start of my wild study-abroad experience. I'm decently nervous, but I think this summer will be very interesting. Hopefully. Probably. Right now, I'm just sitting. In the airport. Yup.

Ok so the plan for this summer is as follows:

1. School of Business Study Abroad: Istanbul, Budapest, Germany/Austria, Angers

2. Wandering off "alone": Florence, Munich

3. Center for International Programs: Dublin

So that's the plan. I will attempt to post my thoughts, photos, and other findings on this blog throughout the summer. Hopefully. Probably.

Oh, and for the "song" that's been stuck in my head for the whole time I've been in the airport go to 2:40 in this vlogbrothers clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHx5axpxPkg

I would do that "the people in the airport think that I'm crazy" dance myself, but I have no working webcam, despite buying one (and subsequently returning it because it didn't work) from an airport store. And if I'm not recording anything, I don't look crazy yet. So I will not, unfortunately, do the dance.

Well, almost out of battery power already. Off we go!