This past weekend, a few friends and I travelled to Madrid to explore Spain’s capital city. Despite planning the trip in about 3 days and the strike the bus company ALSA surprised us with, everything worked out perfectly, and although we were exhausted by the end, we managed to check everything we wanted to do off our list!

TO DO IN MADRID:

√ Watch the sunset and moonrise from the Templo de Debod, an ancient Egyptian temple that was rebuilt in Madrid in 1970.

Kasha’s March update

This is a video answering three questions about my study abroad experience so far. The scene is set on a sunny day in Hyde Park. The questions focus on how my world view has changed because of the study abroad experience and how I felt interacting with locals.

St. Patrick’s Day, the holiday of green food and clothes and excessive drinking in America, has come and gone in Ireland. St. Patrick’s Day itself, which took place on a Monday this year, was only the end of about four days of cultural pride and heritage festivities in Dublin. Starting somewhat on Thursday, but mostly on Friday, celebratory activities and attractions sprung to life around the city, providing both residents and tourists alike with good ways to take advantage of a three day weekend.

This past week, we had a three day weekend. A couple friends and I took this opportunity to head out of the city. Our destination, Ningbo. Why Ningbo, a small city an hour south of Shanghai? Because we went to a place called the Nanxi Wenquan, which is a hot spring resort. While it was an adventure to get to the resort, as we had to take three different long distance buses, the trip was quite worthwhile.

A few weeks ago, I went to Krakow, Poland for a weekend where I visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps. I do not think that I could adequately express the depth of my experience. I saw the gas chambers, the jail cells, the sleeping quarters, and the endless rows of barbed wire surrounding the facilities. I walked the road of death, the same road that many before me had walked only to never come back again.

These past few weeks my Facebook newsfeed seems to be filled with links to different webpages containing all sorts of lists. These lists are quickly becoming a huge phenomenon that make reading faster and easier, which I guess is crucial to gauge the attention of a world engrossed in all forms of media. And so I decided to make my own list. I am currently half-way through my time here in Italy, and so this is the most appropriate time to really reflect on what I have learned thus far.