March 15^th 2015

              My past few blog posts have centered on isolated (albeit memorable) adventures during my time in China.  To keep things “fresh” on the illustrious forum otherwise known as my blog, instead of writing the usual story this week I will riff on cultural differences between the Upper-Midwestern United States and Shanghai, China.
 

Line Etiquette (or Lack Thereof)

During the nearly 15 day February vacation, my friends and I decided to venture outside of Nagoya. Instead of going to 北海道 (Hokkaido) to see the famous さっぽろ雪まつり (Sapporo Snow Festival), we went to 東京 (Tokyo). By bus, it took us about 6 hours to get there from Nagoya. We rented out a small apartment and spent nearly every day somewhere new.

So my entire experience here was been so incredible it is hard to imagine it getting any better and then a day like this past Saturday comes along to make it even more perfect. Our perfect day started with a quick train ride to Pisa. While it definitely was super touristy like everyone says, it was interesting to see a city with a more renaissance rather than medieval feel to it. And just like everywhere else we happened to find a little market with fresh food and cheese samples.

So where do I begin with this one. Well to start off there is no better food on this planet than Italian food.

So last weekend I had a small vacation from Siena and went to Barcelona to meet up with my friend Steph. For only spending a few days in Spain I got to see a good amount of the city and get a taste of the culture and experience the Spanish night life. Barcelona isn't like any other city I've seen before. While it definitely has modern aspects the architecture on the buildings that have been preserved isn't really identifiable and reminds me a bit of a Dr. Seuss- like world.

Just twenty miles outside of Barcelona, a little slice of heaven sits on the southwest coast of Catalonia. Sitges, an old fisherman’s village, is home to world famous events such as Carnival and the Sitges Film Festival. As summer slowly announces its arrival here in Barcelona, I decided to speed things up a bit and head south to Sitges for a healthy dose of vitamin D (sun) and Omega three’s (fresh seafood, of course). 

I recently went on a Nanzan organized trip to the Nagoya City Science Museum and Planetarium. It was my first time going on one of these Nanzan organized trips, but there have been many more from going to the Toyota Car Museum to the Ise Grand Shrine.

Many of my most recent posts have centered on the incredible people I’ve met here in Barcelona. Forming new relationships with the local people is an amazing experience — one I have continued to cultivate. However, today I want to share a little more about the city itself. I have been living in Barcelona for just over two months, and I’ve had the opportunity to explore some really cool places.

Studying abroad offers students an opportunity to extensively travel throughout Europe. Every weekend, groups of students take off for various European destinations. Whether it’s skydiving in Interlaken, Switzerland or exploring the Louvre Museum in Paris, France, students brilliantly take advantage of the ease of travel in Europe. Yet there is a peculiar foreign destination just outside of Europe that is gaining immense popularity with study abroad students: Morocco, Africa.