This was after I took a shower one day! It is very late of an upload!
Liz Spath

I’m finally started to get comfortable in Spain after being here for 2.5 weeks now. It’s definitely different than the U.S. There is so much we take for granted. Just simple things like A/C & water are luxuries here. It’s near impossible to get a cold drink around here because ice is rarely used. Public bathrooms also are nonexistant. If you need to go to the bathroom, you will usually only find them in restaurants, in which case you are going to have to buy something to use it.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a 3rd world country, it’s just different than the U.S. It’s not impossible to get used to, just difficult. Slowly but surely I’m adapting to the culture.

This weekend, I went to Costa Brava with ISA, which is the stretch of coast line that starts north of barcelona and continues all the way to France. It’s absolutely gorgeous. We took a boat up and down the coast line and saw some of the most beautiful houses built into the hills like you typically think of being in Greece or someplace like Cinque Terre. The water was absolutely gorgeous. Torquiose blue.

One of the biggest things I have noticed here is that you walk everywhere. & don’t think taking the metro helps you to avoid the extravagant amounts of walking, it doesn’t. I found that out the hard way. First of all, you have to walk to and from the metro, and you also have to walk several flights of stairs and down many long hallways to even get to the metro…. then you have to walk more when you switch metro lines. Needless to say, it’s impossible to avoid walking when in Barcelona, it’s just an unavoidable part of their life here. On the plus side, I’m getting tons of exercise!

The eating schedule has been one of the hardest things for me to adjust to. They eat a light breakfast as soon as they get up and then don’t eat anything, not even a snack, until lunch around 2 or 3 o clock. Then, one again, they don’t typically snack, and don’t eat dinner until around 10 o clock at night. Sometimes even later!

I’m taking 2 business classes over here (International Business & Cross-Cultural Management). They have been extremely interesting and insightful into the cultural differences between the different countries of the world, and of course the different norms of business and the way it is conducted. The classes have been extremely helpful for gaining insight into the way one should do business with a person of another country. Overall, very valuable to my business education.

I still have 3.5 weeks to go, and I’ve already learned so much about not only the country of Spain, but the people, the culture, and even about myself. It has been an extreme challenge to adapt, but such an incredibly rewarding and eye-opening experience.

So far I have been in Spain for only 10 days, but each day has been amazing.  We (ISA) started out in Madrid, and stayed at the beautiful hotel  NH Nacional.  The hotel is in a great location surrounded by parks, shops and restaurants. That night, we went to a little taberna nearby where we sampled the local paella.  The next day we visited El Museo Prado that houses one of my favorite Velasquez painting.  The day after we headed to the beautiful historic town of Toledo.

After Toledo, we took the nine hour bus ride to Barcelona (I recommend Dramamine for sure).  I am now settled in my fantastic Barcelona apartment.  I definitely recommend staying in apartment or dorm.  Barcelona is a huge city!  There is so much to do and you will never be bored.  You have to check out the beaches.  The further you go from the Barceloneta stop the better.  Gaudi’s masterpiece La Sagrada Familia is a must. Park Guell is also a must do while in Barcelona.  Las Ramblas is one of the main shopping districts filled with great gelato and shops.   I’ll post more spots soon.

Classes are great.  The Econ course is super interesting, but a little fast paced.  International Marketing is great as well.   We are going through a bunch of case studies on local companies.  Overall barcelona is amazing.  Everyone should go at least once, but may never want to leave!

I arrived in Spain a little over a week ago w/ ISA. We started off in Madrid, where we only spent 2 days. 2 Days is absolutely not long enough to see Madrid. It’s such a beautiful city that seems to be torn between the renaissance and modern day. Despite the renaissance age art & architecture, Madrid is a relatively modern city. From it’s version of Central Park, “El Retiro” to the Prado Museum, it is an absolute must see.
From Madrid, we traveled to the medieval, former capital of Spain, Toledo. Even though little to no people actually live in Toledo anymore and it’s been entirely taken over by tourism, the city itself with it self remains completely unchanged since medieval times. It’s a beautiful walled in city with some of the most incredible “vistas” you will ever see.
After an entire day on a bus, we finally arrived in Barcelona. How do you even explain this beautiful, eclectic city with its proud natives? Barcelona is one of the most diverse, fascinating cities you will ever see in your lifetime. None of its several neighborhoods even closely resemble each other. From the beach to the gothic neighborhood, to Gaudi’s modern architecture, you will never see a plain sight in this city. It’s absolutely gorgeous. As the capital of Catalunya, the majority of the natives speak Catalan, a language with similarities to French and Spanish, but do not mistake it for either. It is its own independent language and the Catalunyan people are extremely proud of it. Although the Catalunyans prefer to speak their native Catalan, nearly all of them speak regular spanish, or Castellano, as they call it in Spain. Though most of the natives speak both of these languages, hardly anyone in Barcelona speaks English. Needless to say, I should achieve fluency by the time I return home.
Though Barcelona is known as the pickpocket capital of the world, if you are safe and protect yourself from pickpockets, you will soon realize that despite this, Barcelona is one of the safest largescale cities in the world. I feel very safe walking around on my own. I walk everywhere here, whether it’s to class, to the gym, to eat, shop, whatever.
Unfortunately I do not have a metro stop near to me, nor is my homestay apartment situated anywhere near any of my friends in the program. The homestay is definitely something to get used to. I personally do not reccomend it. Aside from the obvious practice of the spanish language that I get daily, due to the fact that hardly any of the host families speak english, it is hardly an ideal situation. Several of my friends have had decent situations as far as homestay families go, with the homestay “mother” being very flexible. Mine, though nice, is not very flexible and is a very busy woman.
The Catalunyan style of living is very difficult to get used to. As Americans we take so much for granted. Water is an actual luxury here, as they often have shortages.
So far, I have had the opportunity to go to the beach, travel to the Cava Winery, and Sitges, a little beach town south of Spain.. The Cava Winery is absolutely incredible. Cava is the spanish term for Champagne. We got the opportunity to go underground and see the miles of fermenting bottles of Cava. It was a very neat experience.
Overall, my experience so far has been very eye opening and enjoyable.
Now it’s time to see what else Barcelona has to offer me!

I’ve almost been in Torino for two week, and it already feels like a lifetime. I’ve easily grown accustomed to the habits of the local people and I’m proud to say I can get almost anywhere (by walking mind you- people generally don’t use cars or anything here unless they are going to the complete other side of town because everything you need is so close) without having to look at the map. It’s sad to think that I only have about 9 more weeks left here… but enough of that.

I spent last weekend in Florence, and it truly made me appreciate the city I chose to study abroad in. Yes, Florence is absolutely beautiful and there are so many things to see but it is such a touristy town. I didn’t feel like I really got to interact with any of the locals and when I tried to speak in the little Italian I know from taking my class here all the people would just talk back to me in English. Torino is so different, it’s like a really authentic experience, many people know English, but many do not and unless you know basic Italian and some of their customs it’s hard to interact.

We visited the Academia Gallery, which among other things holds the Statue of David. He is absolutely breath taking; I literally stared in awe for about 5 minutes. We also walked up the Duomo- I think it is the hardest bit of exercise I had to do in my life… imagine walking up these stairs for literally twenty minutes straight with no break and the closer to the top you got the steeper they got.

I had my first cooking class today, and it’s objective for us is every lesson to learn to create a full Italian meal and learn what wines to pair with the food we eat. We made 4 antipasto’s, 2 pasta dishes, 1 dessert, and got to taste two different kinds of wine. It was absolutely amazing, but I literally ate as much as I normally eat in like three days. The recipes for everything we made were so fresh and simple(I don’t think any had more than 5 or 6 ingredients) and yet they tasted better than anything I’ve ever had in America.

This weekend I’m visiting the Italian Riviera (Genoa, Portofino, and Santa Margherita) as well as Cinque Terre, which I’m super excited about- I can’t wait to try the see food! I’ll make sure to post something about my experiences there.

After I returned home from my glorious Trinidad and Tobago experience I realized a few things.

• Importance of relationship building
• Importance of culture
• The impact we are able to leave on people
• Learning experiences we can gain from interacting with people across cultures

I was bummed out returning home from beautiful Trinidad and Tobago, but I was happy with the relationships I brought back with me. After making new friends and getting valuable new world experiences, I feel like I have became a better person. Thank you to everyone who made this possible and to the friends that I will never forget.

I would strongly urge anyone thinking of participating in the ISLP program to do so. If nothing at all at least gather information about it because it was truly one of the best experiences i had at UofL

-James Parrott

Today was a big one for me. I woke up at 7:30 and got prepared to head out to Santa Maria Novella where I effectively navigated the Rail System by myself. I was able to figure out everything I needed to conservatively travel to and from Venice for under €70. The ride to Venice wasn’t bad and I got there by noon as planned and once I left the train station I couldn’t believe it. I walked out onto a plaza of the epitomized views of the Venetian waterways that I grew up picturing. I am glad that I have had a major fascination with this city and believe that it was one of my favorite place to visit this entire trip. What was better was that I was doing it on my own for once. Kind of a rite of passage in the world of independence.

I quickly realized the intricacies of the city as there are two types of traveling. Extensive water travelling or navigating the narrow and dead-end alleys that maze their way through the city. After getting my ass kicked by my lack of natural direction in Venice I succumbed and bought the overpriced €3 Mappa di Venezia. Really though, it didn’t help much I still got lost and ended up on the south end of the city which opens up to the gaping and dramatic Adriatic Sea. I couldn’t believe it. I can still think back to when I was a kid and I used to dream about this city and the gondolas and a giant Vaporetto buzzing down the aquatic streets. I made friends with a British couple on their honey moon and ran into Salute (the stature of the boy holding the frog) It’s insanity that I have seen that image many times only to stumble upon it while seeking Saint Mark’s Square. Everything next to the water was exactly as majestic as I was hoping for. There was a lack of hustle and bustle and I had forgotten that Venice is the largest city in the world without cars.

After finally finding a Vaporetto station on the north side of the peninsula I ventured my way to find tickets and couldn’t! In a nervous moment I just hopped on the Vaporetto to cross the Grand Canal. It was notably one of the coolest things that I have been wishing to do. From there I was left off at Saint Mark’s square and luckily no one checked my ticket for the ride.

Plazza San Marco had a sullen and rustic façade due to the grey overcast skies that hung lowly above indicating the rain we would get. I swiftly made my way into Saint Mark’s Basilica before the rain and loved every minute of it. The pale golden ceilings faintly glimmered with the rustic stories of the centuries past and I got that feeling again. The one where I feel God’s hand on my shoulder. That’s what I am exploring is on sentiment and that I should be investigating the causal roots of my faith. From there I made my way to St. Mark’s tomb and felt an overwhelming sense of appreciation for my Catholic roots. I took the time in the pews to really lay my heart out there and Lit a Prayer Candle at Saint Mark’s for grandma.

Finally in the pouring rain I went to go under an overhang and it turned out to be the Doge’s Palace which sat so serenely against the Venetian canal. The marble encrusting the ornate fixtures was impressive and the best part of the whole square was the traditional modeled lightposts speckled throughout. After exploring the castle for 50 minutes the rain made it evident that it was not clearing up and that I would be forced to brave its fury. Upon crossing Ponte Academia I randomly stumbled upon the Bridge of Sighs to reflect. It was quite possibly the most important 20 minutes of the day. I realized that I am not better than the people I am around. There is a grand and giant world out there that needs me and I am always going care. It is what I am good at doing.

Ok so the first week is completed! During the first summer session I am currently taking international finance and beginning Spanish 1&2. The international finance class seems to be smooth sailing but however my Spanish class is going to test my abilities. In the very beginning when I had to sign up for my classes that I wanted to take while studying abroad, and one thing that I made sure to do was to choose the Spanish classes that were taught in English. Come to find out that the ISA study abroad program here in Sevilla does not have any Spanish classes taught in English. Now I don’t quite understand how someone who came to Spain with no ability to speak Spanish (me), to learn to speak Spanish is supposed to do so when they don’t know what the teacher is trying to teach?? But oo well. I guess the coordinators just want the students to concentrate harder and pay closer attention to the Spanish culture and piece words together, because frankly it’s a head ache. Overall day by day I learn a little and a little more. By the end of the 2nd summer session the goal is to be able to fully speak Spanish. And besides that being my only complaint, Sevilla is AWESOME and if anyone has the opportunity to do so should then you shouldn’t hesitate. I have been here for 8 nights and I love it!!!