I left the US on May 23 and arrived in Madrid, Spain on May 24. The plane ride was okay but really long and really uncomfortable I couldn’t really sleep well at all. Madrid was cool, we were there for a couple of days. There was a lot of people and I started feeling culture shock while there because of the time difference and internet issues I had there. I couldn’t really get in touch with my family like I wanted to so I was kind of bummed out. We toured around the city and saw some awesome architecture! El palacio real is absolutely beautiful! That is the royal palace in Madrid. It was interesting to see American restaurants there too like McDonalds and Burger King. They were right by our hotel. We looked at the menu and it was interesting to see the menu items which were different from home.

Once we left Madrid we went to Toledo and I absolutely fell in love with the city!! It is beautiful and Toledo is the image that comes to your mind when you think of Old World Europe! The people were so friendly there which was unlike Madrid. Madrid reminds me of a  large busy city like New York and Toledo is much smaller, friendlier, as well as prettier! I loved it! Unfortunately we were only there for one day, I wish we had been able to spend more time there. I plan to go back one day, maybe not during my study abroad but definitely one day I will visit Toledo again.

After Toledo we were on our way to Sevilla which is where I am studying. We arrived and my room mate Cortney and I met our house mother Marie. She is so sweet and I absolutely love her! She has lived in Sevilla her entire life and has a beautiful home! She has three grown children and three grandchildren (one on the way due in July). My room mate and I were surprised when we arrived to her house to see how big it was. We were already prepared to have a small amount of space during our stay and we assumed we would be sharing a room. We actually have our own rooms and we have a lot of space! She lives in an apartment but to me this is more like a condo. She has so much space! She’s really awesome and she has embraced Cortney and myself as her Spanish daughters. She doesn’t speak much Spanish and sometimes we misunderstand each other but we are learning. She has had many students here with her before so she is very patient with us. We are experiencing all of the differences in culture compared to back at home. There is a difference in the eating schedule because the largest meal is lunch which is around 2 PM and then we don’t eat again until around 9 or 10 PM and dinner is usually a light meal as is breakfast. I am still getting adjusted to that because sometimes I get hungry in between that time. They don’t really snack here and that is also something I’m not used to. Also the home is not used as a hang out  spot like back at home. My room mate asked our house mom if she was okay with some of our friends coming over and she didn’t want that to happen. You hang out with your friends outside of the home. There’s many other things that we are learning but like I said our house mom is very patient with us.

The weather is Spain is beautiful except it gets REALLY hot some days. The other day we were walking around and it literally felt like we were walking in an oven! It was miserable! The plants and flowers over here are very beautiful however. Classes are going well, I am taking International Finance and Marketing to finish my International Business minor. My professors are pretty laid back and I know this time will fly by in no time!

I discover new things everyday and that makes it so exciting! I am so thankful and blessed to have this opportunity and I am cherishing my time here because I know that it will be over before I know it! We are traveling to Morocco this coming Thursday so once we get back I’ll have to post about my experience there. Until then hasta luego!

This weekend we traveled as a group to several locations around Panama. Between these excursions and my experiences in Panama City, I have learned a lot about the language barrier. More specifically, I have discovered that how Panamanians respond to those who don’t know Spanish is very different from how people in the United States respond to individuals who don’t know English. Overall, I have noticed that the people here in Panama are much more understanding and willing to help those who struggle with the native language.

One example that comes to mind when I think about this from a North American standpoint, I think of a situation that occurred in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that made national news. The owner of Geno’s Cheese Steaks refused service to individuals who did not order a cheese steak in English. While this seems like a simple situation, it has a meaning from deeper than what it appears to be on the surface. It shows that North Americans are far less tolerant of people who don’t know the native language, in our case, English.

To compare this idea to Panamanian culture I think about the conversations I have had the last few days. At restaurants, servers have been extremely patient with me in terms of getting my order correct and helping me learn the words in Spanish. For example, I really don’t like onions so to order my food without onions I now understand I just have to say sin sebolla (without onions). I was able to pick up on this quickly because the people have been so helpful. During our two most recent excursions the Panamanians have been really understanding and have taken their time explaining things to us to make sure we understand. While this was not something I previously knew about Panamanian culture, it doesn’t come as a complete surprise. Panamanian culture is built around relationships and helping others, even complete strangers. Thus, it is not hard to believe that Panamanians are far more tolerant than North Americans when it comes to language barriers.

– AJ Bucci

Yesterday, a group of us decided to go explore the city. Early on we decided to try to walk to the coast line to take some pictures. Since we had no idea where we were going or how to get there, we had to ask for directions many times along the way. This is when I reinforced something I had learned early on about Panamanian culture. I quickly discovered that people were very friendly and willing to help.

The next thing I noticed was the general charm that Panama City offered. Here you can find anything from an old restaurant to a brand new sky scraper. We even saw a building with a twist design. I had never seen anything quite like it before. When we finally made it to the coast it did not disappoint as we took some beautiful pictures.

While the people and the buildings were great, they did not provide the most valuable lesson on this little excursion. What I learned most was what it feels like to be a foreigner in someone else’s country. As we walked around the city many people stared and even pointed at us, because we truly were foreigner visiting their country. Though this may seem simple, it really was a valuable lesson. I was, for basically the first time in my life, able to put myself in the shoes of those who immigrate or simply visit the US from other foreign countries. Because of this experience, I have gained a greater respect and understanding for what foreigners experience when they come to the US.

– AJ Bucci

There are two types of colleges in France; there are grand écoles and universités. The universités are public and very affordable. I’ve heard that it costs a 1000 Euros ($1300 to $1400 depending on exchange rates) or less to attend a université for a whole year. The grand école students look down upon the université students because they feel that their more expensive school is better. I think there is some merit to this because the grand écoles are ranked higher than the universités. As one would expect, a better school comes with a bigger price tag. I’m not sure if the pricing is similar for all grand écoles, but Bordeaux École de Management, a.k.a. BEM, is a private school and the students pay 8000 Euros ($10400 to $11200) per year.
The structure of schooling at BeM is quite different from anything in the U.S. and I hear it’s even different from other schools in France. This structure might be changing due to the merger of BEM with another private school. The current structure goes as follows. The school year is divided into ten sequences, four from September to December and six from January to June. Each sequence lasts three weeks and you can only take one class per sequence. For an exchange student this setup is ideal, but I don’t think I would like it for U of L. In the three week sequence you have 45 hours of class time, but it is not split evenly between the weeks or days. It is purely up to your professors to decide how the class will be divided. I say professors because you typically have more than one for each class; it tends to be split between three professors. You could have 27 hours one week, 12 hours the next week, and only 6 hours the last week; with the final exam usually on the Friday of the third week. Now there are positives and negatives to this set up. On the negative side you can have 6 hours of class a day for four out of five days on those heavy weeks. On the positive side, when they load up the hours in one week you usually get several days off on the next week. There have been times where I would have off from Wednesday of the second week to Tuesday of the third week. Another great thing about having the sequence set up is that with only 10 possible sequences there tends to be many one week breaks throughout the school year, especially during the spring. I was there for four sequences from January to April and in that four month period I had four one week breaks.
If you decide to go to BEM, I hope that they will have fixed the one issue that seemed to bother all exchange students, their wifi or lack thereof. They do have free wifi for all students to use, but the problem is that it doesn’t work very well. It seems that their wireless routers cannot handle heavy traffic, because it seems to work fine in areas where there are many students on computers. For the most part, I stopped carry my laptop to school because the wifi never seemed to work. One professor even said once “if you have wifi you should try to download the document I posted.” It’s funny that even the faculty knows the wifi is bad. I’ve also had professors try to pull up web pages during class and not be able to. The worst is when a professor assigns a group presentation early in the day before lunch and you have to work on it during the day to be presented later in the same day, and you have trouble researching the material needed to do the presentation.
All in all I really enjoyed BEM and the wifi is the only complaint that I have. I would definitely recommend going there for your study abroad experience.

If you come to Bordeaux, make sure you do all of your shopping early. I really had a hard time getting used to how early everything closes. All of the Grocery stores close no later than 10pm and most aren’t open on Sundays, except for a few which close by 1pm. The retail stores close by 8pm or earlier every night. Whatever you do, do not get hungry late at night. I have only found one place to be open past midnight that serves food and it is called Royale. It is located just to the east of Place de la Victoire on Cours de la Marne. It’s not like in the US where you have many 24 hour fast food restaurants and some 24 hour grocery stores as well. You can sometimes find an epicerie, which is same as a corner store, that’s open on Sundays and sometimes find one open late but they are few and far between.
Another thing that I had to get used to, was how specialized all of the stores are. Your neighborhood markets only stock, food, alcohol, toiletries, and kitchen and bathroom supplies. You can get bread in the market but if you want fresh, good, real French bread you have to go to the boulangerie. A boulangerie is literally a bakery, but they specialize in bread, bread, more bread, and a few pastries and sandwiches as well. You can also find pastries and chocolate at the market, but they will not be as good as the ones from the patisserie or the chocolaterie. For those of you who smoke, you can only buy cigarettes at specialty shops/cafes called Tabac stores and they are not open on Sunday, so plan ahead. Tabac stores have red diamond shaped signs and they also sell lottery tickets, stamps, newspapers, and metro tickets.
There are exceptions to many rules, and Auchan is the French exception. Auchan is similar to a Target or maybe even Walmart. They have almost everything except otc medicine, Tabaco, and maybe one or two other things I’m forgetting. There is an Auchan in downtown Bordeaux near the Meriadeck stop of Tram line A. Auchan and a few other markets don’t provide free disposable bags for your groceries. You have to bring your own bags to these markets, or buy the reusable grocery bags that the store sells.
If you have a cough or maybe an upset stomach you cannot go down to the market for cough syrup or Pepto. You have to go to the Pharmacie for anything related to medicine, and be prepared because it seems that they are ALWAYS busy!

Well, I’m actually in Beijing China now, but I had some posts I didn’t get to make about Bordeaux. It seems that I let the fun times and my French roommate distract me too much. I figure the important thing is the content and not the punctuality. I will also follow with some posts later about Beijing.

Bordeaux is an amazingly beautiful city. Most of the buildings in downtown Bordeaux were built in the 1600s, when Bordeaux was a thriving major European port. The buildings are gorgeous and you can almost feel the history as you walk through town. Most of the major streets are modern, but there are also many streets that are still composed of cobble stones. Every day I marvel at the beauty of the city, and every day it seems that I notice something new. France was still a monarchy when Bordeaux was built, so there are these arches, which used to be gates it seems, posted at various points around the city. On some buildings you can find the street names etched in to the building just below the modern signs of the same name. There is actually one Building that has two street names etched in to the building just beneath the new street name sign. The first street name was made under the monarchy, second street name was etched after the revolution, and the third was placed by the modern government.
Bordeaux is located on the Garonne river, and the area next to the river gets heavy traffic especially when the weather is nice. They call this area the quais which literally means docks. You will find people walking, running, and biking along the Garonne most of the day. There is one area called miroir d’eau, which means water mirror. It is a space about the size of a basketball court, where there is a constant thin layer of water that looks like a mirror. People like to take pictures here, because the water is shallow enough to stand on and it gives the appearance that you are standing on water. If the sun is out and the weather is warm, you will find people spread out around the grassy areas all along the Garonne. You will also find skateboarders and skaters doing tricks and stunts. At night the younger generation brings beer and they hang out in clusters with their friends.

While I was sitting on the balcony at the Las Vegas Hotel this morning, I saw a taxi hit a man riding a motorcycle and knock him off his bike. Many individuals who were around the accident at the time came over to help this man as his leg was obviously injured. Once they got the man to the sidewalk, he and the taxi cab driver had a discussion about the accident and seemed to be understanding with each other as there was no screaming or shouting involved.

At almost the same exact time of the accident, another taxi stopped in the middle of the street as it became obvious that his car broke down. The taxi driver was struggling to get the car off of the main road and out of the way of traffic. As he struggled to push the taxi, a man walking on the sidewalk across the street noticed what was happening and went over to help push the cab without hesitation. After pushing the cab to a parking spot, the man talked to the cab driver and walked away.

One thing that the accident taught me about Panamanian culture is that people really do handle disputes amongst themselves. As mentioned in class, individuals will talk out problems amongst each other (like in the example of this car accident) until the problem is solved. Another thing I learned was how willing Panamanians are to lend a helping hand to those around them. Both incidents personified what it means to be a member of Panamanian culture. Out of all the volunteers involved, none of them were responsible for the incidents that occurred. However, they were willing to lend a helping hand to those in need. This is something that you do not see with every culture.

– AJ Bucci

Today our UofL group went to take a guided tour of Ancon Hill. As we made our way up the hill, we saw some really interesting animals including toucans, spider monkeys, and vultures. Upon arriving to the top of the hill, we had to opportunity to see a spectacular view of Panama City. After a group picture, we went to another part of the hill and were able to get a get view of the former canal zone.

What was so remarkable to me was not so much the physical beauty of the scenic landscapes we saw, but what the buildings and areas represent. Our guide spoke with us about the rich history that took place in the former canal zone. Prior to leaving for this trip to Ancon Hill, I also read the novel Panama for Dr. Futrell’s course. Between our guide’s vast knowledge of the canal zone and the informative part of the novel, I was able to get something out of the view that had a deeper meaning than a beautiful imagine.

I believe that history is extremely important because you gain a more valuable and complete understanding of someone or some thing if you know the story behind its origin. Even in listen to the tour guide and reading the novel, however, I still did not gain that full understanding. Maybe it’s true that seeing is believing because once I saw that view of the canal zone from Ancon Hill, all of that information presented to me from those two sources came together. I now have a far greater respect and understanding of the history of Panama, both from a country perspective and a political perspective, because of my trip to Ancon Hill and the view of the canal zone.

– AJ Bucci

I was given the opportunity to travel to Trinidad & Tobago this semester as part of the ISLP program through the College of Business Marketing department. Out travels took place over spring break so we were given the first half of the semester to prepare for the symposium at the University of West Indies and the elementary schools in Tobago in which we taught the importance of social responsibility. I had never traveled outside of the country prior to this class and wasn’t sure what to expect. I love traveling and volunteering so this course allowed me to do both. Traveling to Trinidad and Tobago was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life thus far. I was not prepared for how much of an impact this trip would have on me. It was eye opening to experience the differences in culture and also see how other people live outside of the US. One of the most significant differences is in the way they live their everyday lives. The people of T&T are not as dependent on time as we are in the states. Their lifestyle is very laid back and they are more concerned with developing lasting relationships with family, friends and neighbors than they are about making a lot of money. In UWI, when discussing social responsibility, I found that the citizens were mostly concerned with upholding their culture and beliefs when making changes in their community. Additionally, in Tobago, people were even more concerned with making sure the well-being of the people in their community was maintained. Teaching the kids in Tobago was one of my favorite parts. The kids were some of the sweetest people I have had the pleasure of meeting and they were so receptive to learning what we had to teach them. The irony of it was that in our attempt to teach them something, they actually ended up teaching me to enjoy the moment and not get so hung up on deadlines, time constraints and superficial goals that often drive people in the states. I am very grateful for the opportunity to participate in the study abroad program offered by the COB and hope that it is continued for many years to come so that other people can experience this life-changing experience like I did. Here is a picture of the beautiful Tobago coastline: