I am deciding to keep blogging about my ongoing travels. Even though I am not abroad anymore, my travels in Chicago will hopefully be interesting to the audience that is following me and it will keep you updated with my experience of living in Chicago for the first time. I will also be interning with Kraft Foods Inc. this summer!

I arrived Saturday the 19th in Chicago and moved in to my new loft! I live above an upscale shopping center and the word on the street is that some Chicago Bulls players live in the same complex as I do! So far it has been an amazing experience, and everyone I have met so far has been extremely nice and easy to talk to and has shown me a very welcoming time in Chicago thus far. Throughout the course of my time here in Chicago, I will also be taking more pictures to give my readers a better and more visually appealing idea of what I am doing and where I am traveling here!

I spent my final day in Barcelona in the city purchasing various things, getting a portrait drawn of me and reflecting what this whole experience meant.. I stayed on the beach at the AC Hotel Gava Mar and it was the perfect way to end the study abroad “experience”. It was a sad day but also a very happy one, VERY bittersweet. Upon arrival into the U.S, I experience bad reverse culture shock and the best way I can describe it is that they were feelings I had never felt before in my entire life and for the very first time, home wasn’t the same home I had known for 21 years.

After flying into Indianapolis airport, I went to Bloomington to see my older brother graduate from the MSIS program and to see other friends that were graduating and moving away and it was great to see everybody, but I began to really miss my friends in Barcelona and the city itself but I knew it would get better with time (it has) and eventually I will make a trip back there.

After Bloomington, I went back to my hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana and prepared for my move to Chicago in a week!

As my time abroad is nearing to an end I look back at two highlights of some of my last days in Europe and those are my trip to the restaurant Tickets and my trip to Portugal!

Tickets was an astounding and palate pleasing experience that will be sure to tickle my taste buds and leave American food tasting bland and like a rice cake. I had to wait three months to eat there and had to suffer from walking by the ‘culinary palace’ several times per day per I lived right next door and it was on the way to the metro. Needless to say, every time I walked by, I saw guests enjoying the dining experience of a lifetime and soon enough that would be my friends and I. Unfortunately some of the pictures from my dining experience became corrupt and I am working on fixing them and they will eventually be up on my web album with captions of what delectable tapas we consumed that memorable day. All in all it was an unforgettable dining experience and something my taste buds and senses will never forget.

Lisbon, Portugal

Lisbon was without a doubt the most beautiful city I had seen while on my time abroad. With the mountains, architecture, bay, and bridge (that looked like the Golden Gate Bridge), wherever one was in the city, it was a site to see! I was there for three days and boy, did we make the most of it. We rented a buggy (car/golf cart) and drove around the city of Lisbon, even on the main roads! Quite scary at first from not driving in four months and let alone in a foreign country!! Luckily, we didn’t have an accident and were able to see nearly all of the sights in just 5 hours.

Once again, I am going to talk about the food because, what better way to reflect on the culture of the city than to experience their cuisine? The seafood in Lisbon was the best I have had and was more of what I was expecting in Barcelona. Even though it was good in Barcelona, it was more than good in Lisbon and also very unique. To find out what I ate, look at my photo album from Lisbon! Currently these pictures are also being repaired also. Overall, if I had to pick a city to study abroad in from the list of ones I visited while I was abroad other than Barcelona. It would have to be Lisbon!

Today marks less than two weeks to go! Now is the time to make the most of it!!

Carpe Diem!

It’s definitely nice being back in Barcelona. Traveling between all of those countries was exhausting. This week my  program had a tour of the FC Barcelona football stadium. Even though I’m not a huge football fan, it was still cool seeing everything. We are also beginning to have great beach weather so my trips to la playa will start increasing!

I went deep sea fishing yesterday, and let’s just say we didn’t fish at all and it was a complete waste of my time and my friend Annie’s time. We are getting a refund. If you wanna know what happened, just ask! It is a great story!!

Today will mark less than three weeks in Spain……. Hopefully it will feel like three months!

I haven’t been able to post in a while because I have been so busy lately between my classes coming to an end and trying to make every last day count here. In Spain the majority of your presentations/projects/papers are due at the end of the semester. One thing I forgot to mention is that I rode a camel in Morocco and before I left for spring break, my program gave us a cooking class on traditional Catalan cooking consisting of Paella, Catalan cream, bread with tomato and soup.

Spring break was quite an adventure!! Liverpool, London, Malta/Gozo, and Italy (Bologna, Rome, and Milan)..

Liverpool

Liverpool was definitely a destination that I can now check off of my non-existent list of places to go before I die. As a Beatles fan, I always talked about someday going there and seeing Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane, but I didn’t think I would actually ever go. It was one of those things you would always talk about but never do. But RyanAir made it possible with a 15 Euro flight there! Upon arrival into Liverpool, the other side really is cold and damp according to Ringo Starr’s song, “The Other Side of Liverpool”. It ‘s littered with factories and nuclear power plants. However, the nice side of Liverpool, across the water, was a great U.K. city.

I met my friend Nick Card an IU student studying in the U.K. at Canturberry who is also an avid Beatles fan. We went on the Magical Mystery Beatles Bus Tour. It was a retro bus from the 60′s/70′s and took us to popular places such as the home the fab four grew up in and Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields! After the tour we went to The Beatles Story museum which captured their careers and lives before/during/after their careers. They couldn’t have done a better job representing The Beatles for truly what the stood for.

The nightlife in Liverpool was absolutely crazy. Among experiencing in America and all over Europe, Liverpool takes the cake and ice cream too topping it off with the wildest people, young and old just getting intoxicated out of their minds! After listening to a Beatles tribute band at The Cavern, the pub where they started off at it was off to London the next morning! The concert was amazing! They all did a near perfect job of sounding and acting like the Beatles!

London

I was especially excited to go to London for the second time during my semester abroad. I loved it so much the first time I couldn’t keep myself away. Especially this time with reservations to the world famous restaurant St. Johns! Number one on Anthony Bourdain’s top 13 places to eat before you die. It had to be the most unique best meal I have ever had. My friend and I had roast bone marrow with parsley salad (what they are famous for), rabbit, brill fish and chips (best fish and chips in London), and pigeon which tasted like filet mignon. We also had an appetizer with bread and melted cheeses/sauces on it along with an apple crisp, blood orange sorbet with Polish vodka, and madeleines for dessert. YUM!

We also visited the Victorian-Albert Museum in London after our lunch.

Here is the link to the 13 to-die for restaurants – http://www.menshealth.com/nutrition/must-visit-restaurants

I now have been to #1, #12, and #13.

Malta

From London it was off to Malta. A tiny tropical island south of Sicily (http://g.co/maps/4grmn). I also visited the tiny island Gozo next to it and my friend Annie was lucky enough to go to the tiniest of the three islands Camino. Some highlights of Malta were that we went mountain biking all over the island gozo, ~15 miles of hilly territory we covered. The food there was tasty also, experiencing some authentic Maltan dishes mostly featuring rabbit as it was their specialty. I also tried a fish pedicure, if you haven’t had one, try it! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_fish) . However, my favorite thing that I did was scuba diving! I dove in a coral reef and it was my first time diving other than surface scuba diving in Disney World. I was underwater for almost an hour and it was one of the coolest things I have ever done. I saw tropical fish, jellyfish, schools of fish, sea urchins, and all different types of coral. I have pictures but I need to get them developed since I took them with a disposable underwater camera. So they will posted in a few weeks! It was then off to my last destination Italy, the finale of my spring break.

Italy

Italy by far won the award for country with best food that I have visited abroad. Over a period from Friday-Monday, I visited Bologna, Rome, and Milan! I had a half day in Bologna and used this time to explore the city center and try Italian food in Italy for the first time. After eating my heart out, I caught the train to Rome and stayed at a NICE hostel this time, kudos to my older brother Michael for picking it out and also recommending basically every delicious place I ate at!

Rome was all about the Romans (obviously). I toured the coliseum, and the roman forum and listened to some amazing roman stories about the coliseum and forum. After exploring those areas I went to the Vatican City to check it out on Easter Saturday and loved it so much I decided to go on Easter Sunday, for mass and the popes speech. Going to Rome wasn’t in my original plans but I decided to go there since it’s Rome after all and it was great timing that when I would be there it would also be Easter.

The finale of my spring break was in Milan. This is the city my brother studied abroad in when he was my age. Milan, overall, had the best food out of any city I have been to this far. When I was there, I tried every single typical Italian food/pastry and they were all delicious, especially the pizza. I checked out the city center, Milano Cathedral, and castle while I was there and it was a great place to culminate my vacation within a vacation.

To sum things up, this was the best spring break I have ever had. I am very thankful that I was safe traveling and navigating Europe, especially when I was traveling alone in between destinations. It is good to be back in Barcelona and it is now time to live it up in my remaining weeks here!

Morocco was the best trip I have taken so far. It was a life-changing experience that will be very hard to put into words. (That’s why I took a lot of pictures B)   ).Even though I knew what to expect culturally as far as food goes and hospitality, I was in culture shock for the first time. To have the privilege of being in a developing country is one that I won’t have again for a long time and my experience in Morocco was amazing.

The places we traveled to were Tarifa, Tangier, Rabat, the Rif Mountains, Chefchaouen, Ceuta, and Algeciras. Some of the highlights of our trip were taking a boat across the Strait of Gibraltar, staying with a host family for a two nights, the Hammam (public baths), Roman ruins, and the food (of course). The host family was very welcoming and had a great sense of humor. Our host mom made us delicious dishes in a Tajin including cous cous. The Hammams were especially different. They are public baths, one for females and one for males. Females go topless and males wear their boxers. However, reports from my female friends said all of the Moroccan women were naked, however, none of the men were. The best way I can describe the Hammams are that they are like a giant sauna divided up into three rooms, each of varying temperature. The custom is after scrubbing yourself with a pad, you are supposed to dump the hot water on yourself. I did this several times, but the last time the water was scooped from the bottom of the tank and I didn’t check to see how hot it was and proceed to dump the bucket over my head. You can then picture me jumping around and violently shaking the water off of me because it was HOTTTT! I ran to get cold water and dumped it over my head and I angered a group of people in the baths because I got freezing water all over them also. Quite a funny site this was to my friends in the baths with me also. The place was also very unsanitary in general but it was a once in a lifetime experience that I overall enjoyed.

The food was amazing and so were all of sights and scenery that I got to see. One of the days we hiked up the Rif Mountains and had a lunch with a Moroccan family and got to ask them questions about how their life was and they got to ask us questions also. Meeting Moroccan people was one of the highlights of my trip. We met students to old people and it was very interesting having a conversation with them.

Overall, Morocco was a life changing experience because the country was a developing one and it was insightful to experience a culture that is ‘governed by religion’ and  that is so radically different from Spain’s culture or America’s. As a Moroccan college student said to us, “God gave us a brain, two hands, and two feet. Go out and help people who don’t have these things and be thankful that you are blessed enough to have this.” (More or less what he said). Also one other thing that stuck with me is a college students response to the question, “Where do you see yourself in 10 years”. He started his response with, “Well if I am still alive by then”. They value their lives like everyday is their last and are very very close to their family, however, they put their entire trust in God and are completely contempt with death.
To get a more descriptive idea of what I did/saw check out my photos!

I just got back from Morocco, Africa and I will post up a detailed account of my trip soon! I leave for spring break in four days and a shout out to my mom for her birthday today!! Happy Birthday Mom! Love you and hope you have a great day!

Spring break is finally all booked!

Liverpool with the Magical Mystery bus tour and a Beatles tribute band at The Cavern 2 days

London – St. Johns restaurant, ranked #1 on Anthony Bourdains top 13 places to eat before you die 2 days

Tropical Island Malta for 4 days

Finishing off in Milan/Italy for 4 days!!

What a week it has been! My two friends have just left Barcelona and are headed back to the U.S. It was a great time having them here as guests and being able to see two familiar faces. The last week and a half were probably the busiest ones I have had in Barcelona this far. We were out all day (and night!) for almost a week and a half exploring Barcelona and getting cultured. We hiked up Montjuic to the National Museum of Catalan Art with my class, and went up to the other mountain Tibidabo to Can Marti which is where we had a Calcotado (traditional Catalan meal with calcots). We went to a giant labyrinth maze in a park, Park Guel, a park near Park Guel that gave you a 360 degree view of Barcelona, inside Sagrada Familia, la playa, and many more points of interest in Barcelona. Be sure to check out the pics of our adventurous week!! The week went by so fast and I wish they were still here!

It’s only three more days until my program and I depart for Morocco! I can’t believe I am going to Africa! It is gonna be an adventure.. I am also progressing in my salsa class quite well. Two more classes to go!!