EL FIN

Don't know where to begin to end!

With exactly 1 week to go, I don't know where to begin to conclude my study-abroad visit to Palma de Mallorca. Its funny because I look forward to retuning home, but its so wild to actually be leaving. It all passed so quickly, and now I'm just trying to enjoy every final moment to the fullest. Most of all, I will miss the care-free environment that is Palma and the people. I'm running around taking pictures of everything I can and saying my goodbyes. Its all so surreal!

Firenze!

Please allow me to explain. The beautiful city of Florence, Italy is actually known as Firenze in Italian. (Yea, I didn't know that either) Landing in Zurich, trying to find my connecting flight to F-L-O-R-E-N-C-E, I was a little lost. However, once I landed and saw the signs everywhere, I concluded that this "Firenze" must be the place. I went to Italy to meet up with two of my closest friends, Allie and Ellen. This trip was so important because we are all rowers and are studying abroad this fall semester, a BIG deal for any student-athlete. Allie is studying in Athens and Ellen is in Brussels. Florence, Italy is in the middle of the three of us and where we held our reunion weekend.

I came in at night, and from the drive to the hostel, I knew that we chose the perfect place. For the night, we share pizza and pasta, and went to bed early. Saturday morning we hit the pavement at 7AM. We had an appointment with The David, yes the one and only at the world renown Galleria dell'Accademia. It was amazing to see this historic work of art up-close. I couldn't believe that we were so lucky.

After we finished visiting with David and all his glory, we went to the main market to shop and meet up with Ellen's good friend, Garrett. We did some serious shopping, nothing like Italian leather goods to put you in the gift giving mood, even if it is a gift for yourself. I cleaned up! We were very lucky to have Garrett as our guide. We walked and saw everything. He took us to the german Christmas market for lunch, then we went to the first of two gelato shops, and afterwards, it was on to our next museum, the Uffizi Gallery National Art Museum.
This museum is best known for holding The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli. Along with this famous work of art, the museum holds about three floors of thousands of pieces of statues and paintings. We took as much of in as we could, but you need about 24 hours in that museum alone. We still had so much more to see and do!


Because of our early rise, we were starting to lose steam after the Uffizi. However, onward we went to visit the oldest bridge in Firenze. It is now a beautiful tourist attraction with lots of shops and street vendors. It was bustling with lost of people and attractions. We decided to have a late lunch and recharge. It was a quick, but worthwhile bite to eat, and we were off again to make it to the Duomo. This is the cathedral church of Florence, also known as The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore. Although we did not make it in time to view the inside, I took plenty of pictures of the outside, which is just as beautiful.

By this time, everyone was in need of a nap. So, we went back to hostel and slept. Two hours later we awoke refreshed and hungry. (Always with us) We dressed for the evening and met Garrett again. He took us to this great Asian-fusion restaurant for Aperitivo, an italian, buffet style of eating. It was delicious with vegetarian options! I was content. Sitting there, I couldn't believe that actually pulled this off. I remember thinking, "Here we are, laughing and talking together in Florence, Italy!"

Needless to say, we enjoyed a wonderful day in Firenze. What else can I say? I felt so fortunate to be able to meet up with these lovely ladies. When we said goodbye the next morning, it wasn't sad at all for we knew that we will see each other very soon on our next reunion trip to Augusta, GA. Until then, ciao bellas!

The other Capital

That's right, BARCELONA! I actually did it; I spent my Thanksgiving in the other most famous city in España. Today, I returned to Palma on a flight at 14:20. I arrived in Barcelona on Thursday at 21:00. In the meantime, I enjoyed about 41 hours in Barcelona. The trip was so quick but that much more amazing. However, jet-setting is a tough job. I literally hit the ground running, from one mode of transportation to another. It was really easy to get from the airpot to the city on the bus. From the bus stop in Plaza de Catalunya, I took the metro to Diagonal, one of the longest streets in the city. Here, the hostel was located about a block away. Yes, that's right! I stayed in a hostel for two nights, a very good experience actually. I recommend that all student/young travelers try it at least once.

After I found the hostel and dropped my stuff, I left to find my friends. I was excited to see Barcelona, but most of all I was excited to see my friends that I haven't talked to in about a year. We were in the same program on campus freshman year and kind of lost touch sophomore year, but that didn't mean a thing this weekend. In fact, I now know just how fortunate I am to have such great friends who welcome me anytime and anywhere. With Christin, Martine, and Mel, we were off for the night. First, we hit up their favorite bar, which is now my favorite too. Just check out the menu and their wide variety of choices to see why! We stayed, we enjoyed, then we left. We walked around some after that, but surprisingly the streets were very quite for a Thursday in. Likewise, we were all tired from the week. I wanted to get some sleep in order to get an early start in the morning to see as many sights as possible. So, back to the hostel I went.

In the morning I woke-up feeling good. Even better, it wasn't raining! It was going to be a good day in Barcelona. First, I went to La Rambla, the main street for tourist to see street performers, vendors and artists. Here's a picture of the main sign, welcoming visitors off the metro. I didn't really have an itinerary for the day, more like a list of places to go. Also, I didn't know where anything is located. I knew it was all close to La Rambla, so I just walked, more like wondered in awe. It was such a perfect day. I walked all along the water front. I made it to this mall, passed the awesome aquarium, and finally stumbled upon this cool looking museum. It was even better on the inside. The Museum d'Historia Catalunya is a four story building dedicated to the history, evolution, and modern culture of Catalunya, the autonomous community within Spain. Before visiting Spain, I knew of the language of Catalan, but I had no knowledge about the entire community nor its history of political autonomy. It was all very interesting to see in this very modern building. Its an interactive museum where the kids come to learn during class time, and they can play with all the exhibits. I had fun playing too, but I had to get going. I was meeting Martine that afternoon to start making the dessert for our day-after Thanksgiving feast.

Yes, that's right. As American students, we celebrated our holiday in style with all the traditional trimmings. Christin was the gracious host in her very spacious apartment. She made a great vegetarian stuffing and cooked a turkey. Yes, it was a full bird! She and her friend Christanna spent literally all day caring for this 20lb bird. The best part was that all the side dishes were vegetarian. We ALL ate WELL. I was so impressed because it all turned out so great. It was a good meal that I did not expect, which made it even better. It was also great to meet all their friends who are in their program or just visiting like me. I was in good company with great food. We ate, talked, and laughed for hours, stuffed ourselves silly of course. That's what the day of thanks is all about right? We all took advantage, and than we napped. After a full day of walking, there is nothing like a warm meal to put me to sleep. I napped too. I had to rest up for the night.

After dinner, Christin, Martine, and I took this photo, one of my favorite pictures from this weekend. We're spelling out W.L.P. which stands for Women's Leadership Program. How good are we?! After sleeping off the meal, we had lots of desserts for everyone to eat. Martine was very determine to "make" something and made chocolate rice krispy treats. We also bought a pie and tons of cookies. There was something for everyone. However, we were all ready to walk/dance off all that good eatin'.

We had a fun night at this popular club. It was group of us, and we stuck together through all the floors and different rooms. This place was huge, and we almost shut it down. We only left early to beat the crowd to the metro. Finally, at the end of the night, I had to say goodbye to everyone on the metro because of course I had a flight to catch. I was sad to leave so soon. I didn't even see a third of all the museums and attractions that Barcelona has to offer. It really is a beautiful city with a great culture. I will be back soon with more time to spare and a really good map.

¡No me digas! ¿Sólo un mes más?

Well look at that! I am in the final month of my long-awaited study abroad experience in Palma. Just like that, I am at the beginning of the end. Yet, there is so much more to see, learn, and experience. In fact, if I had to articulate my current state here, I would use the diagram of a narrative plot. Being the protagonist of course, I'm in the falling action of this short story/drama/comedy.

And the climax, the one event in my entire time here that I can call the "the turning point," has to be our impromptu, unoffical excursion to Inca for the Festival of Fire. Inca is the second largest city on the island, north of Palm in the center. It was a cold and rainy night but unexpectedly, a GOOD TIME!

Check out this video of the fireworks

No, not just a costume...

To celebrate Halloween in Palma, I was Michelle Obama! Naturally.

Yesterday I woke up, and my country had elected a new President...

...and I helped!
November 4th, OBAMA '08.
WE MADE HISTORY!