Buenas de Madrid:

My name is Alex Riedinger, and I am studying this semester in Madrid, Spain, at Saint Louis University Madrid Campus.  I am a third year student at UofL and feel so blessed to have this awesome opportunity.  I have been here for one week, but already so much has happened.  I am living with a host family, so my Spanish is becoming more natural and fluid.  I am trying so many new foods…all of which I’ve liked so far- especially Paella (a mixture of rice and mariscos- shrimp, crap, clams, etc.).  The food here is very healthy and filling.  Moreover, we walk everywhere, so it is constant exercise and I’ll probably come home in good form.

I love Madrid!  Plaza Mayor, the main plaza in the city, is gorgeous and so relaxing.  The weather is amazing here.  It only gets hot around the noon hour, and there is never any humidity.  I have also visited two towns so far: Segovia and Toledo.  Segovia is popular because of the aqueduct, which was built by the Romans nearly 2000 years ago.  Toledo was the former capital of Spain and boasts a beautiful castle & Gothic cathedral.

It has been a blast meeting incredible people from all over the world- Germany, Turkey, Morocco, Spain, Switzerland, Bulgaria, the States (of course), and so on.  I have enjoyed hanging out with all of them- traveling, going out to “Tapas” Bars (Tapas- are basically Spanish appetizers, and very popular during the dinner hour- which is 22:00 here!), and just hanging out in general.

This semester, I will be taking International Finance, German I, Honors Great Books (we’re studying Homer, Virgil, and Dante), International Business, and Business & Professional Speaking in Spanish.  I am very excited to see what this semester holds for me!  I start class here at 10:00, so I must get some sleep, but I will be updating you all soon!

I also will update you on what it was like to prepare for this trip at some point…it is most certainly an interesting story to tell!

Hasta luego,

Alejandro

Hope everyone enjoys the video! There will be plenty more in the next four months…

Shawn Edelen (Den Haag, The Netherlands)

LINK :http://www.youtube.com/user/Bschoolbloggers

This is Emily reporting to you live from Argentina!  It is 3:30am here, and 2:30am in Louisville (well, it was when I wrote this note before my laptop crashed)…and Argentina has recently won the GOLD medal in soccer in the Olympics.  I have just come back from the centro, where I filmed a short video of the celebration.  As you can imagine, folks were in the street in the centro dancing and jumping up and down.  Cars were honking wildly.  It was really fun to be here for it.

I wish I could upload it, but it seems this WordPress application has not been allowing me to upload pictures, let alone videos for the last few months!  I have played around in the help me files several times to no avail.  I can upload a file, but once I do, it’s corrupted.  But this post is about….Congratulations Argentina!  And have you ever noticed how North–centric it is to call the Olympic summer games by that name when it’s the middle of winter in other parts of the world?

Germany is beautiful, especially where I live.  My flat is Hattenheim which is about a 15 minute bike ride from EBS.  The entire town is surrounded by vineyards, wild blackberry bushes and the Rhein River.  Hattenheim is very small, but very cozy.  Everyone is really nice and people always greet you with a smile.  However, most of the locals don’t speak a lot of English so it’s a good idea to know a few German greetings before you come.  In Hattenheim it is also very popular to ride bikes.  We are guaranteed to see at least 15 to 20 bike riders every day on the way to school.  EBS has two campuses, The Schloss and The Burg.  The Burg campus is really beautiful too.  The school is surrounded by vineyards and EBS also has their very own wine cellar with a wine tasting club.  When you first get here though, you have to take an intensive German class and that is located at the Burg campus.  The classes are really intensive, but they really help in getting around the city.  Another great thing about the classes are that you meet people from all over the world.  I have met people from China, Canada, Guatemala, Spain, Mexico, Poland, Sweden, and more.  And everyone is really nice.  EBS also plans lots of activities for us during these two weeks.  They have already taken us to a local winery for dinner, a boat tour around the castle in Radesheim, and next week they are taking us to Frankfurt.  That’s all for now, and I will post later with hopefully some pictures!

I hopped a plane from Michelle to Cristina.  (Michelle Bachelet is the president of Chile; Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is the president of Argentina.)  I figured that was a good sign for a solo female traveler.  In Chile, I picked up an Economist in English for a full $10!  Still, I needed some familiar reading and to get back into current events.

Four things I LOVE: maps, navigating public transportation systems (here I bought a Guía T in a local kiosko for about USD $2), speaking Spanish, and urban centers.  Using the combination of the three to navigate myself around the latter has been quite an enjoyable adventure.

FOR THE RECORD, a little myth-busting: I want to comment on the EXCELLENT service I have received so far as an international student at Argentina’s public university.  Everyone told me that I should try to enroll in a private university because surely there, I would find much better assistance and services.  I was told that the public system and bureaucracy would be a nightmare to navigate.  So far, so good.  I have found the class lists online with little difficulty and have navigated their website easily.  I was given a list of requirements to apply, which I fulfilled, and when I arrived, there were no surprises about some form they needed.  I showed up to my Facultad (college) yesterday my first day; I thought class enrollment could be a potential nightmare.  I was given one, (again, that’s ONE) sheet of paper to fill out with my desired classes, which it seems I’m guaranteed as part of the services and courtesy I receive being a visiting student.  ¡Que gentileza!  True, finding the office of International Services on the 2 ½ floor above the graduate school offices was tricky, but it was a pleasant adventure wandering the halls of the lovely, old colonial building.  At every step along the way, I encountered kind people willing to help direct me and/or chat.  La Secretaria directed me to the foreign language school, and I am enrolled in an intensive Spanish class for a month until the beginning of September in Level 7 of 8.  So far, Universidad de Buenos Aires….te amo.Early on in January, I attempted to contact the Universidad de Palermo, a private university.  I got bounced emails and unhelpful responses, sometimes no responses.  I got responses that the woman in charge was on vacation.  Apparently, she was on vacation for months.  I tried to get help from their MBA offices, explaining I was still an undergraduate.  All I got was their newsletter – which I still get.  I STILL have not heard back from them.  In short, a private university, UP, whose MBA program costs maybe $15,000 a year has – terrible service.