This past weekend I traveled outside of northern Spain for the first time to the “New York City of Europe.” As my plane glided through cotton field skies over connected pastures of lush green and brown, I couldn’t have been more excited. I thought about how my mother always used to tell me about her travels in her 20s; I realized history is repeating itself, and now it’s my turn.

I can’t believe that I’ve already been in this country for three weeks! It’s been so busy, and so much fun, that I nearly forgot about my blogging obligations!

There’s so much to tell that I won’t even try to fit it all into 500 words.  Here are some of the highlights from my first week here.

The “honeymoon” phase is well over — Barcelona is no longer a foreign curiosity or a brave new world.  It is where I live and study, work and play, where I ride buses and trains and walk, sometimes with my eyes glued to the asphalt.

Today was Election Day in Ecuador (presidential and parliamentary)! Rafael Correa is now officially elected for a third term, which is unsurprising, as the majority of the country has been in support of him (though that doesn’t include my host mom).

Since I was curious to see how elections here compare to elections in the United States, I accompanied my host mom to the polls. It turns out that Ecuadorian elections are quite similar to American elections; however, there are still some differences:

So I’m thousands of miles away from the United States, even further away from Latin America and immersed in a Goulash of leagues of European Culture, swimming and walking gleefully in the illustrious Central European capital of Prague, bent on discovering the treasures and charm of the “old world.” Yet, to my surprise, my ears pick up Andean flutes and Latin rhythms, and all of a sudden I hear my brain shout that indeed I am listening to Colombian superstar Shakira, in the middle of Central Europe!

Spain ’til You Drop

My friends have been in school for 4 to 6 weeks, and I still have two more to go before I start classes. BUT I am finally on my way to Australia! It’s been a loooong wait.

As I sit in the airport ready to board, I wonder if I can get any of my planemates to teach me some yoga during the fifteen-hour flight. I figure it will keep my legs from molding to the seat and it’s a relatively contained activity—potentially suitable for the aisles. We’ll see what the flight attendants have to say about it.

This has been a very Shakespearean week here in jolly old England! In my Shakespeare class this past Monday, we got a tour of the Globe Theater in Bankside. As most people know, this is not the original Globe, Shakespeare’s stomping grounds in the 17^th century (that burned down in 1613), but a reconstruction made to very closely duplicate it. I didn’t realize the extent to which it is so exact, though, using the same layout and all the same materials as far as we understand about the original.