Ever heard of that song Old Macdonald had a farm? Well I can confirm Old Macdonald really does have a farm and it consists of sheep escaping over a fence and being herded back (literally through the barbed wire fence) by a sheep dog, cows mooing all night long, good company, and New Zealand stars filling up the sky. 

Photo of Old Macdonalds Farm Park by Eric Madson (taken while I was playing cards in the tent).

            This past weekend, my program took a field trip to the cities of Fes and Meknes. Although we had a lot of great experiences and saw some incredible sights, I wanted to share some highlights here. If you ever visit Morocco, these are cities you shouldn’t miss.

 Consumed by final papers, projects, and exams, it has been difficult to find time to fully digest the reality that my final days in Buenos Aires are here. Somehow, an entire four months has managed to pass and it has felt like a matter of a few short days. I feel like I have written in every previous blog post my awe and amazement as how much time has passed—first month, six weeks, etc.—but I did not really imagine the ending of the semester. I mean, I knew it would happen (or is happening) but it feels a little like a daze.

As I sit here and type this blog post, I have been in Vienna for 21 days, and unfortunately, I depart in a short 23 days.  So by the time this gets posted, I will be exactly halfway done with this journey.  That being said, I did some more exciting things this past week and have many more adventures planned for my remaining time here.  Here’s this week’s update!

"I grew up in a forest. It's like a room. It's protected. Like a cathedral... it is a place between heaven and earth." - Anselm Kiefer

If I were to list all of the things that made me love Barcelona, this post would be giant! Instead, I decided to make a little graphic with some of those reasons, and I also listed a few fun facts about Barcelona. I hope it will be helpful for some of you guys:

As I sit here, thinking about all the things I need to get done in the next few days before I leave for France (and obsessively looking up Arles on Google Maps), I keep telling myself not to stress out. I may have a lot to do, but I know that I also have a lot to look forward to.

        In many ways, I am realizing that although I am living in a country with deep struggles and divides through race, violence, and poverty; I am continuously sheltered from these experiences because of my privilege  Last weekend, our program organized a trip to Gugulethu- a township created during apartheid that is known for its high crime and violence rate.

For the first half of the semester, I was doing my best to never go somewhere twice. I did this because I wanted to experience as much of Sydney as possible. But now, as the time winds down, I am pretty much only going to places I’ve been before. You could say the first half of the semester was about finding myself in Sydney and finding my niche; whereas in the second half of the semester, it’s about how easy it was for someone to find me in Sydney.

Last weekend I made two bucket lists. The first, my bucket list for when I’m back in Texas was because I felt a little homesick. My younger brother graduated from high school, my uncle got married, and the TCU Horned Frogs won a really important baseball game – that all happened in the same day, within a matter of less than an hour actually. That homesickness has subsided, though, as I travelled around the city yesterday and went to a chili pepper festival, reminding me how amazing this city is and how much it has to offer.