Study Abroad: Just Do It!

              Not to be too cliché and steal Nike’s slogan or anything, but seriously just do it! Last week when I was skyping with my cousin’s high school level Spanish classes, I was amazed by how few students raised their hands when I asked who wanted to study abroad when they got to college. Maybe it’s just the way I’ve been brought up; to fully appreciate traveling and seeing the world and learning about other cultures. Or maybe I just take for granted the opportunity I was given to study abroad. But I was certainly flabbergasted to say the least when only a couple of students raised their hands saying they were interested in studying abroad. I fully understand that not everyone has the opportunity to study abroad for various reasons: their field of study, college athletics, or finances (although many times studying abroad can be cheaper than taking classes at your university for a semester), but if you do have the opportunity to do so, I greatly urge you to do so.

            Studying abroad was one of the greatest experiences of my life thus far, and I have a feeling that it will continue to rank highly up there! It was such a wonderful experience for me that it is hard to put into words exactly how amazing it was! As I said before, I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity and for everyone who gave that opportunity to me I am eternally grateful. I not only learned another language while I was living in Spain, but I also learned so much about another culture and people and about myself as well. I would absolutely not be the same person I am today if I had not studied abroad. First off I would not be bilingual, which is something that I highly value in my life and think is extremely important (and it makes me so upset when people don’t see the benefit in being bilingual, both in your personal and professional life). I would also not have met many of my friends and the people that I know today if I had not studied abroad. And I certainly would not have the same goals and aspirations as I do today in my personal and professional life. I would also most likely not have returned to Spain, not once but twice and would not be (hopefully) returning next year. So if you are reading this and are A) in college and considering studying abroad, B) in high school, or C) know someone who is in either of those previous situations, I highly urge you to study abroad. Follow Nike’s take on it and Just Do It!

This Goes Out to All Those 90s Kids.

Any child who grew up in the 90s will surely appreciate this wonderful and hysterical website. So many awesome things happened in the 90s (well certainly with TV, movies, and games), and I am thrilled beyond belief that someone created a website devoted just to that!


If you love the 90s, click here.

Platform 9 and 3/4

This past weekend Diane and I made our way to one of the greatest cities in the world, London! Diane’s cousin lives there and my aunt and uncle live there as well so we went to visit some family and enjoy being able to speak the language and not get stared at everywhere we go. We just went for a quick visit, Friday through Monday and it certainly wasn’t enough time to see everything in London, although you could easily spend a week there and not see everything. That was my 8^th time to London and I continue to see and do different things every time I am there.  Friday morning we caught a bus at 7 am (after running to catch it haha) and went to Zaragoza where our flight was leaving. We ended up miscalculating the time and were the first ones at the airport, even before the workers! Luckily the cafeteria was open so we got some bocadillos and just hung out and waited for our flight. Diane’s cousin was nice enough to pick us up from the airport on Friday afternoon and we just hung out near him on Friday night. He lives in Milton Keynes, which is a bit outside of the city so it was a pretty low-key night. We had some beers (which were delicious) and some burgers (which were even more delicious)!

            Saturday morning we woke up early and caught a train down into London to meet up with my aunt and uncle. After we met up with them we walked along South Bank and went to Borough Market (heaven in market form), where we had some amazing chicken sandwiches and chocolate. Then we headed off on Adrian’s very own pub-crawl and headed to the Market Porter right by the market. After some delicious pints we headed to The George, where Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare (or Chuck and Bill as A refers to them haha) used to hang out and drink. The weather was unbelievable so we were able to sit outside and enjoy our beers! We walked down towards the Tower of London and then headed to Gordon’s Wine Bar, the oldest wine bar in London commissioned in 1364. It is one of the coolest spots (in my opinion) in London and the wine isn’t bad either haha. We enjoyed a bottle of vino and some chocolate once again sitting outside. After dinner we headed to the bars in Leicester Square, although most of them closed around midnight so it was an early night. Sunday we woke up and met back up at the Tower of London where we went inside. I have been inside the Tower before but it had been a while and I forgot just how cool and historical it is! And the royal jewels are amazing as well! After the Tower we took one of the double decker tour buses, which was a fabulous way to see the entire city in a very short time (2 hours to be exact). Sunday night, after some more beers in the city, we headed back to Milton Keynes where we grabbed dinner and headed to bed.

            Monday morning was an early morning, as we had to catch an early flight out of London. We left in plenty of time to catch our flight, but with traffic it took us almost 2 and a half hours to get to the airport, so by the time we got there we had to (once again) sprint to catch our flight haha, but luckily we made it! It was a fabulous visit, albeit too short and it was so wonderful to see A and E and Joy!

London Eye with Parliament and Big Ben

mmmmmBeer!

Tower Bridge

Having fun in the Tower of London

Yes of course we went to Platform 9 3/4!

Where Are You From?

            A couple of weekends ago some of our friends here in Logrono decided to have a ‘Where Are You From/De Donde Sois?’ party. It’s certainly a great idea since there are people here from all over the world, not just from the U.S. And those of us from the U.S. are not all from the same place. We have people from England, Wales, Ohio, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Colorado, Oregon, and Chicago just to name a few. The costumes were great and ranged from a cowgirl to Eminem to space to (quite literally) a sperm and egg haha. Cait and I decided to represent Chicago in the most worthy of characters and dressed up as the Blues Brothers. We even had our own little dance segment to ‘Shake Your Tail Feather’ in the middle of the party. It was certainly a fun night, complete with sing along and dance party.

Blues Brothers breaking it down!

Snooki from Jersey Shore and the Blues Brothers together in harmony.

Too Much "Teacher Voice"?!

            Perhaps that is what has caused me to lose my voice again.  It always amazes me that no matter how many precautions I take, I still lose my voice and will most likely lose my voice for some period of time for the rest of my life. This is something that I am not thrilled about especially since I enjoy talking so much! But maybe that is why I love talking so much, because I know that at any moment I could lose my voice and not be able to communicate. Before I had my vocal cord dysfunction I took for granted the ability to communicate with your own voice. I now know just how important that is. It is quite humorous, in a sense, because a couple of weeks ago I was listening to a TAL episode about communication and the importance of it and it really seemed to hit home with me. So as I sit here in my room, downing copious amounts of water and tea with honey and doing my vocal exercises, I once again am reminded of how important it really is to communicate with others. 

A Warm Welcome 'Home'...

            After a mere 26 hours of traveling from Chicago, I finally made it back to Logrono last week. And as wonderful as it was to be home and see family and friends, it was really nice to come back ‘home’ to Logrono. As much grief as I have given this place since I have been here, I really am starting to consider it home and truly love it here! It has been nice being back and seeing everyone here, being able to go out for pinchos, get amazing wine at cheap prices, and to practice my Spanish again. And nothing quite makes you feel so loved as a room full of screaming and excited 1^st graders running up to you and giving you a hug when you walk back into the classroom after break. Ah yes it’s good to be back!

Oh Ira, You Cut to the Core of Me...

   I have never been a fan of listening to radio shows, morning talk shows, sporting events, just all sorts of radio shows. However that has all changed thanks to one man, Ira Glass, and his amazing show, This American Life! I had heard about the show, but since I wasn't a fan of radio didn't think I would be interested in listening, however the more I heard about it the more intrigued I became. Cait was the one who finally got me hooked on it by "sharing part of her soul" as she so aptly put it. I am now obsessed and can't imagine missing a week of it. Every week they pick a topic and have different stories on said topic. The topics include everything, from Christmas stories to stories about money and everyday things about American life. Even only listening to it for the past month I have bawled my eyes out in the same episode as laughing so hard my stomach hurts. It really is something that everyone can enjoy. And Ira Glass the host is simply amazing. He gets to you in a way that you didn't think possible, so much so that I feel obligated to donate to help keep the show running after only listening to it for a short period of time. I suggest you all listen at least once to see what it's about, and let's be honest once you listen to one show you will be hooked for life! You can either download the free podcasts to Itunes weekly or listen online to the streaming episodes. They also have a TV show, which I can imagine would be just as good. So for those of you who have never listened to it, give it a shot! And for those of you who have already listened, you know exactly how I feel!




To help you get started:  This American Life