Long time no see!

August 04, 2014 - I have modified the original post to remove the broken photos. Most of the text remains, except where it references the photos. 

I apologize for the delay in updates. It seems that everything that could go against me - did.

My computer broke. This computer is less than 3 months old and cost me $1000. I purchased it in August. I opened the lid and found it in this state. Now, I know enough about LCD screens to recognize that as bad. But this is where it gets funny. Not more than two weeks before, one of the other girls in my group, came back from a Mexican restaurant and found her computer in the exact same state. This is the kicker: She has the same model, purchased around the same time, from Best Buy as well.

I have never purchased a Toshiba before this - and, unless they stand by their product and actually repair my computer with the warranty - I will never have another Toshiba anything again.

My final paper for International Law had been finished - but I still had a final paper for International Relations to write and research. So, I was now at the mercy of the school computer. Where Becky's computer had half the screen (thank goodness for Windows 7 snap to fit!) to work on her paper with - mine only had the top 1/4 - the rest of the screen flickered in a way in which I couldn't see anything (I could fumble the controls enough to pull up iTunes and use my computer as a $1000 crappy radio).

Let me tell you about the computer labs at the Webster campus in Vienna. Firstly - they aren't made for all day research/writing considering the wooden chairs that are provided. The campus goes in waves - the computer lab gets extremely loud at some times. Usually around lunch (which means that it is break time for me once I can no longer drown the sound out with my iPod), and it is not 24 hours. Which meant, that my writing was at the mercy of the computer lab hours (8:30-9:30p if I recall correctly, except Saturday - only til 2:30 and Sunday its completely closed). When you have a major paper to write and can only use campus computers and you have limited days to write it - it was by far the most unbelievably frustrated thing.

And - not only did I lose my ability to work at home. I lost my ability to communicate with my family and friends - and I lost my entertainment on my 12 hour journey to Bangkok.

So, Toshiba is really high on my shit list at the moment. My dad is awesome and mailed my old laptop to Bangkok (Sony rocks!) - but I was pretty much sans-computer for all of October.

So, what all did I do between my (forever ago) last entry and today?

First, I went to Prague, Czech Republic. I have to say - the whole EEC/European Union/Whatever - is making me super sad. Mostly because I don't get stamps in my passport anymore. On the other hand - you know they could make some good money at the border selling 'souvenir' passport stamps. JS.

Prague was so beautiful! I met some awesome people at the hostel. I will say - this is an observation I have made after years of hosteling: Pretty certain there are no Australians in Australia. It doesn't seem to matter where in the world I am, when I am at a hostel, there are always Australians present. Not that this is a bad thing - I actually find it quite incredible. Anyway, I took a tour of Prague, it was a great tour of the city and the castle grounds. I also splurged on a river dinner cruise the last evening, where the musician hired to entertain us thought My Heart Will Go On was an appropriate song to play on a boat -_-. I also walked by the house of Franz Kafka, it was closed which was sad to me, and I didn't have time to visit the Kafka museum, but I have been a fan of Kafka since I read the Metamorphosis so it was cool to see that.

The astronomical clock in Prague's town center was phenomenal  though I would say it wasn't worth waiting around for the "show" at the top of every hour (if you stumble upon it great). Our tour guide taught us how to read the clock, though today I can not remember, I am sure it available on the internet somewhere.

What struck me most about Prague was how incredibly beautiful it was. It struck me in a bad way, because it made me realize that I was not expecting it to be beautiful. I think if you had asked me what I envisioned of the Czech Republic before going to Prague, the mentality I had probably would reflect more of a Cold-War-Era style of thinking about the Soviet Bloc. I tend to consider myself a very open-minded person, so anytime I am confronted with dealing with my own prejudices of any kind, it's always very unnerving. Mark Twain once said "Travel is fatal to bigotry, prejudice, and narrow-mindedness" and I think it most certainly rings true. Travel makes you confront your own misconceptions about the people and places outside of your walls. The process for me is unsettling because it makes me wonder what other pre-concieved notions I have about other places that I am not actively aware of. Prague was never high on my list of "must see" destinations, not for any particular reason that I knew of - but mostly because of this misconception I had that was rooted far deeper than even I knew. I am glad that my cousin, Laura, encouraged me to go - it would be a shame if I had missed it - because it is now on my list of must-return places, and quite possibly one of my favorite cities in Europe.

So: here are a few shots from "Pretty Praha" - you can see them all HERE and HERE

Prague was my last out-of-country excursion for the remainder of my time in Vienna.

Webster arranged for us to take a tour of the Jewish quarters in Vienna. You can see the photos of that HERE

I celebrated my birthday on September 27. I had an amazing birthday! This morning I went out to Mödling with Mom's friend's parents (keep up with me here). They gave me a tour of historic Mödling and then took me to their house for lunch. They stuffed me with the most A-MA-ZING traditional Austrian food - and all the veggies came from their garden - and fresh squeezed Lindenberry juice from their garden!

Then, they took me to a 12th century castle. Very - very Mid-evil castle! It was awesome. After, we drove to a 13th century monastery. All of this was a drive through the Austrian countryside. The leaves were beginning to turn - so the mix of greens, oranges, and yellows was spectacular! Afterwords, we went back to their place for coffee and pastries and conversation.

Kara and I went to Stephensplatz and found a cafe where Beethoven used to dine at - and had wine and desert. When we got back, it was insisted I go see Samantha - and I walked in and everyone was there - they had baked a cake and had Reese's Peanut Butter Cups for me - and made me a really awesome birthday card from a Vienna city map!

Here are a few photos from my day in Mödling, you can see the rest HERE

Me at a Castle - I'd look good with a castle!

Castle Lichtenstein from a distance

My gracious hosts!

My birthday gift to myself was a day trip to Salzburg for the Sound of Music Tour that weekend. Yes, it's overly touristy and campy - but it was so much fun. I highly recommend doing the tour because it gets you out of the city and into the "alive hills". Really the views were incredible. Here are a few shots, the rest are HERE

Do-Re-Mi Fountain

Me - doing the Do-Re-Mi pose at these statues

I took a break from my final paper writing to go on a Wine Tasting Excursion with Webster. We went way out into wine country - to Retz, which sits right on the border of the Czech Republic. It was a nice day. Photos are HERE

I also voted absentee for the first time ever - everyone I voted for won! YAY for Obama and Representative John Barrow in GA-12! Here's hoping that my ballot actually made it to the states! :-D

I finished out my time in Vienna with a trip to see The Marriage of Figaro at the State Opera House. I can't think of a better way of capping off an amazing 8 weeks in Vienna than that.

So, my first 8 weeks was filled with encounters with long-dead political heros, music, art, wine, opera, and new cultural experience. I will forever remember Vienna as smelling like fresh baked bread, and the abundance of waltz music. Vienna finds a way to make even their UBahn an experience.

Kurt, waltzing in the UBahn with some other tourists


Also - for my first term in graduate school - I got straight As!


I will try to update with my time in Bangkok very soon. I have two papers to write this week, mini-papers, but still, that writing has to take priority. 

Orientation

Okay, so now my journey really begins. So after the exciting journey over the summer (See Here) I finally started my year with Webster University in their Global MA in International Relations. My first stop was a 2 day orientation in Leiden, the Netherlands. 

Woke up and dragged my luggage to the train station to catch my train to Amsterdam (well, okay I caught a train that took me to the train that took me to Frankfurt, which took me to the train that took me to Amsterdam).

Beanie is all strapped in and ready to go!

It was my first real European train ride. My seat on the train was in one of the compartments too, which was really nice! It was just like Harry Potter! :-D German trains are incredible! One of the employees told me that the train was travelling at 300kph (186mph). But the ride is smooth as glass and so punctual. If the train says it arrives at 9:24, it arrives AT 9:24 - you can set your watch to it! It really is something spectacular.

6 hours later I arrived in Amsterdam. I then had to figure out how to get the train to Leiden from there. After fighting with the ticket machine for a bit (it wouldn't take my credit card) a Dutch guy behind me said "Do you need some help?" So he helped me with the machine, and then told me he lives in Leiden and is heading there now, so if I want to wait he will help me get there. He even carried my luggage up the steps for me, which was really very nice :-D

Don't get me wrong, I pride myself in being an independent girl, and up to that point I had lugged my nearly 30kg luggage (and backpack and purse!) up and down stairs in 2 train stations and on and off 3 trains, so I could do it, but after a day of doing all that - the help was great. We sat on the train to Leiden and talked about school, travels, the Netherlands, and he pointed things out to me on the ride. After we arrived in Leiden he walked me out of the train station and pointed out my hotel to me (which was visible from the station).

I got checked into the hotel and met one of the girls in my cohort, Mariah, who was my roommate for orientation. Then, I met with Kurt and Emily, also in my cohort, who I had been chatting with on Facebook a lot over the summer. Everyone got together to take a walk around the city.

Leiden is a gorgeous little city and super easy to walk, just beware of the bicycles! There were hundreds of bikes: people riding them, parked in front of restaurants and store, etc. It was a bit of a cloudy day, but it was still very pretty.

The Windmill

There are lots of these riverside/boat restaurants

Webster University Campus in Leiden

Pancakes for dinner - holy cow!

The great thing about the two days of orientation was the chance to meet the people from the other two cohorts! Since we travel in cohorts you really get to know the group you are travelling with over the year, but you don't get a lot of time to mingle with the other people in the program. It was kind of sad though too because you get the chance to met some awesome people and two days later you're all saying 'goodbye'.

I wish I had more photos but the saddest thing happened. At the end of the first day we went to the beach for a barbecue. I had been using my canon earlier that morning, but when I went to take a photo of everyone on the beach - the camera would not turn on. I figured it was a dead battery. But, when I got back to the hotel and put a new battery in, there was still no life. Three batteries, none worked.

I called Keith (former boss) in tears. He said to me "Carrie, you did this for seven years, you need to troubleshoot the camera the same way you would for any other customer with a camera that won't come on." Yes, but they've never come in with my broken camera!!

A former co-worker found me an address for a camera store in Vienna (since I didn't have the time to do anything about my camera while still in Leiden), so I spent the next two days sulking.

I do have my Olympus PEN as a backup camera, and I do love that camera - but, the Canon 40D is my *baby*. I worked very hard for that camera, and it has been a lot of places with me. I have a very sentimental attachment to it!

So, Saturday morning the majority of the people in my cohort had all booked the same flight to Vienna. We flew from Amsterdam to Belgrade, then Belgrade to Vienna. I am not entirely certain what they put in the water in Serbia, but the male flight attendants were *gorgeous* and then some of the guys at the airport were gorgeous too. I think I want to take a trip to Serbia!

Next post will be my first week in Vienna!

You can see the rest of my photos from Leiden Here

Spain - part 2

My last two weeks in Salamanca went by so fast and taught me an extremely important lesson. I am somewhat of a shutterbug (of course) but in Salamanca I didn't get out and take photos that much because I kept telling myself I have plenty of time to explore and photograph, since we were going to be there 4 weeks. Well, the 4 weeks went by and I had only a handful of pictures of the town I spent the majority of my time in. Lesson learned - time is relative and make the most of it right now. The last two weeks in Salamanca were filed with term papers and final exams.

My second weekend excursion was to Lisbon, Portugal. It was interesting to me, since Portugal and Spain are so connected, both physically and historically, I didn't expect to see many differences in culture between the two countries. I was very wrong. The culture from one country to the next was extremely different. The Portuguese are a very warm, friendly people (not to say the Spanish weren't but it was a different kind of warm). They were also very eager to help with my pronunciation of Portuguese words, because my Spanish would get in the way of proper Portuguese pronunciation. Though, it was amusing to me how they would have to add "It is very different from Spanish" after each "lesson". I started to wonder if it was some sort of law since everyone seemed to do it. The languages are very similar, but I was surprised how much more like French it sounded than Spanish.

It was wonderful being near an ocean! As much as I am *not* a beach person, I love the ocean. Though, unfortunately for my wallet, I tend to start craving seafood too, which is never "cheap" (at least not the stuff that is edible).

Lisbon = San Francisco. Hills and everything. Which is not a dig at all because I really do like San Francisco a lot. But it was very shocking to me how much hiking there was to do in Lisbon. There were some spectacular hills that were so steep I wasn't certain if I needed shoes or climbing gear to scale them. But walk it we did!

View from the old palace

 You can see more of my Lisbon photos HERE

Day 2 of the excursion we went to Cascais and got a chance to go to the beach. Again, not really a beach person. But me and my friend walked around the town. We had lunch, and I'm not entirely certain if I said this in the other post or not, but one of the things I adore about Europe is the "food culture". I love that I can sit outside in a cafe for hours, enjoy my food, and there is generally some sort of street music playing nearby. It's the most relaxing thing. You can just hang out without feeling pressured to "turn over" the table for the waiter.

After eating, we wandered around and got "lost". We stumbled across a book fair, which was selling antique books. All published in Portuguese, but it was still cool to look at. Later we found a coffee shop that had a rooftop terrace to sit on that had wonderful views of the city. We had coffee and just enjoyed the sun and the sea there for a bit. After a bit more wandering around we got on the train and headed back to Lisbon (our group left before we felt we were "done" with the city so we took the train back separately).

You can see more of Cascais HERE 

On the last day we stopped at a small town of Obidos, which is a walled in city. It also happened to be preparing for a Medival festival which was starting the next day (of course!). We also made a stop at Batalha Monastery. We visited a couple of monasteries in Portugal. They each had chapels which looked suspiciously like cathedrals (though they were not cathedrals). 

Photos of Obidos and Batalha HERE

My last week in Salamanca, I finished up my dance class and took my exams. Then wandered around taking photos the few days before we departed for Barcelona. 

Barcelona is an incredible city! Most definitely my favorite city we visited - I can see myself living there (and summering in Segovia!). I always sort of liked Gaudi, but seeing his works in real life was incredible! He is a visionary in every sense of the word. 

First off, La Sagrada Familia is spectacular! I didn't know where to even *begin* taking photos of it. Then walking inside was sensory overload. It was like walking into Wonderland, and it seemed like every turn I made something new and interesting was waiting to be photographed. But the exterior, the detail is astounding. From far away it looks like a melting candle. But as you get close, and the detail work begins to show - it's mind blowing. 

You can see all my photos of this masterpiece of Gaudi's HERE and see it at night HERE

Then we went to Park Güell, a park that Gaudi designed in the middle of the city, and finally we saw La Pedrera, an apartment complex he designed. All of his designs are beyond words. Though I found them difficult to photograph (at least in the capacity I was there - as part of a group) because they are so different from every angle - and capturing it was a real challenge.

Park Güell

La Pedrera

See more photos HERE

We took a day trip out to Figures to the Dalí Museum. I have never been much of a Dalí fan personally (apparently this is blasphemy), I don't dislike Dalí, but I have never really enjoyed his works. There are some motifs of his I have liked, usually the melting clocks, and there are a few pieces by him I like, but overall I wouldn't put him in my top 10 favorite artists. The museum though, I will say, definitely kept you interested because everything was so bizarre, and it seemed as if every corner was filled with something to look at.

See more of Dalí HERE

The final day in Barcelona, and my final day in Spain, was a free day. I wandered around getting lost. I really enjoyed my time to myself. After five weeks of being with a group, it was nice to have a day to myself, to wander around with my camera and get lost, get un-lost, and lost again.

My wandering photos are HERE

I also took the time to assess how I felt about the trip. I will say, in some ways I was a bit let down with Spain. I expected to fall in love with the country, much in the same way I fell in love with India. There is a passion that I can't help but feel when I talk or think about India. With Spain - I really enjoyed myself, but I wasn't in love either. I would go to Spain again, especially Barcelona, but I can't really say it changed me as a person either. It was an interesting experience. My Spanish definitely improved over my time there. I found myself much more comfortable with the language by the end of the trip, and more confident with my speaking abilities by the end of the trip. I was glad to get to go somewhere that speaks my language as a first language and spend a significant amount of time. There are things about the Spanish way of life that didn't "click" with me. For one, the concept of not going out until 1-2 in the morning. Call me an old fart (I am) but 1-2 in the morning I am winding down and ready for bed, not just getting started for the night. But it is an interesting country. It has an incredibly rich history (I was very glad I changed from Spanish Translation to History of Spain at the University) and I was glad I got a chance to study it a bit more.

Overall it was a wonderful trip.

For those in the Georgia area (or nearby) I highly recommend the program. You can find more information about it HERE.

The Rain in Spain

Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe are liars. The rain in Spain does not stay mainly in the plain. There is no rain in Spain! I feel cheated. 

Anyway, I apologize for falling short on my duties to update this blog. The first half of the trip  had spotty internet at best. The second half I was studying for final exams, writing final papers, preparing my senior portfolio, taking senior exit exams, and the like. So, I will try to summarize my experiences in Spain as best as possible in just a few posts. I will also link to albums with the photos in them. 

In Salamanca we stayed with host families, which was wonderful because it gave us an opportunity to get a feel for traditional-Spanish lifestyles (and not to mention the food!) and also saved us some money on food (as we were provided 3 meals a day from our families). The Spanish life is easy enough to get into. The first thing you learn is the ever-famous siesta. I have come to understand how this concept developed. Lunch (Comida) is served between 2-2:30, siesta is from 2-5. It is so oppressively hot outside during that time, that the best place to be is inside as it is. So, bravo to the Spanish for this wonderful idea! 

I am not going to comment much on my first family in Salamanca since half way through the trip my roommate and I had to switch houses. The second family I stayed with was a single mother of 2 (11 and 22) who works three jobs (and still takes in students for the extra income). The house was close to campus and the food was wonderful. It is always interesting to be reminded that people have the same people problems in every part of the world. The problems of raising children as a single mother are not unique to Americans.

Also, children/teenagers are the same in every country. Just saying. 

Salamanca is an interesting town. It is in the Castilla-León region and centers around the University of Salamanca, which is one of the oldest universities in Europe. It very much has the feel of a college town. It's small, so you are able to walk everywhere. There are lots of cafés and shops to explore. Of course, in the center of town is the Plaza Mayor, which is where much of the action takes place. The first day we arrived, Spain played the final match against Italy in the Eurocup, which Spain won. It seemed the entire town spilled into the Plaza after the win, in order to join in the celebrations! It was quite the spectacle to see. 

The Plaza Mayor, lit with Spanish colors, after the Eurocup win

More Eurocup Photos

The first weekend, we took a bus ride up to Pamplona for the Festival of San Fermin. I was really looking forward to being a part of the festival that Ernest Hemingway made so famous. I was not disappointed. Though, I will say, it was, by far, the single most disgusting event I've ever seen. We arrived on the first day of the festival and already, trash was thrown all over the sidewalks, our shoes stuck to the cement thanks to the sangria that had been poured all over people, and the smell was horrific. But, it was energetic, there was lots of music playing, people dancing, and having a good time. 

The encierro (the running of the bulls) was something spectacular to witness. The first morning we bought tickets to be in the Plaza de Toros and wait for the runners. Everyone was singing, chanting, and in some cases, fighting sleep (most of the people in my group had stayed out the entire night joining in the celebrations, I got separated from the group during the evening, so I had decided to return to the dorms and get at least a few hours of sleep). 

Fighting sleep. 

Shortly before 8:00, the doors must have opened outside because people came running into the arena. These were not actual runners, just people who had been waiting outside for the doors to open, so they could get into the arena for free. The people in the stands were wise to this and did not take kindly to it, greeting them with 'boo's and throwing things at them. At 8:00 the running began, and we were able to watch on screens what was happening in the street. About 2 minutes later the first of the runners began to pour in, followed shortly after that by the bulls. It was incredible to see so many people in white and red fill up the arena. 

Despite the controversy it may cause, I will say, that I did attend the bull fight that evening. It wasn't something that I particularly enjoyed, but it was something I wanted to see and experience for myself, and I am glad I went. 

You can see all of my Pamplona photos HERE and HERE

The Cursos Internacionales Program at the University of Salamanca offers several optional excursions for students. I participated in one each weekend I was in Salamanca. The first excursion I took was to the Andalusia region of Spain, more specifically Sevilla and Granada. 

If I thought I was frying to death in Salamanca, I got a rude awakening when I arrived in Sevilla. I am not entirely certain what temperature human skin melts at, but I am fairly certain I was hitting close to it. The problem with this excursion was it was a very long bus ride (about 6 hours) to get to Sevilla, and then we had a walking tour of the city, in which we hiked up to the bell tower of the cathedral (I was *so* over cathedrals by the end of my month in Spain!). All of this in sweltering heat. None of us wanted to do anything that night except lay in our air-conditioned room (most of us hadn't felt air-conditioning since we got to Salamanca). The next morning we visited the Real Alcázar gardens before heading out for Granada.

Photos of Sevilla | Photos of the Alcazar

Granada was amazing though. We arrived in Granada and were offered tickets to a Flamenco show in the Gypsy district. It was an absolutely spectacular show. Afterwords we took a tour of the city at night and saw the Alhambra lit up. 

Granada at sunset

Before leaving, we visited the Alhambra, which was what I was most looking forward to on the excursion. Arabic architecture has always fascinated me, even more so since I took my trip to India two years ago. The Alhambra was incredible.

Photos of Granada | La Alhambra 

Okay, so that is two weeks in Salamanca of the 4. I will post more very soon, as I am going to be heading off for orientation in the Netherlands next Wednesday, and boy do I have a story to share revolving around an emergency trip home!

Leaving home.

Plaza Mayor in Madrid

I've always been an adventurous, independent type. To be completely honest, when I decided to enroll in Webster's Global MAIR I didn't even consider that I would have anxiety about the traveling or living away from home. I was more anxious about my courses, and money. So, when I broke down in the airport, I surprised myself. All of it hit me at once, I was going to be gone for the next thirteen months, and in that moment it might as well have been a lifetime. I was going to be in places where I don't speak the language (short of my month in Spain where I do, in fact, speak Spanish and would be studying the language), having food that I wasn't used to, and I would not have anyone around that I really knew. It became, in that moment, the scariest thing I'd ever experienced. I was glad that my dad and my best friend were at the airport with me, though in some ways that made it a little harder. It is also nice that I am starting out with my undergraduate program, so my first month in Europe I have friends here with me, and will be staying with a friend before beginning at Webster. In the end, I am still very excited to be here, and wouldn't change my decision because of a little bit of anxiety.

Pablo Picasso

Toledo

 We spent the first few days in Madrid, which is an incredible city! We visited the Reina Sofia the first day, which is a modern art museum. I am not much for modern art, but I do love the cubist movement. The Reina Sofia also houses Picasso's  Guernica. I have seen plenty of prints of that painting, but in real life it is incredible and very moving. We took a half day tour of Toledo which I was excited to find out was "la ruta de Don Quixote", because Toledo is in Castillo-La Mancha. Additionally, and maybe it was the pathetic tourist in me, but I kept walking around thinking "Holy Toledo Batman!" Later, in my Culture class, I came to find out that Toledo is the Catholic center of Spain. Well then. We then visited the Prado, which, considering everyone has described it as a museum heavy-weight, I wasn't that impressed, though it wasn't bad either. A few pieces were pretty astounding. Goya's Second of May 1808 and Third of May 1808 were amazing, and Velazquez's Las Meninas was stunning. It really struck me just how *big* some of these paintings were. When you study paintings in books, you don't really get a good perspective on their size. 

And artist sketching Toledo. 

The last night in Madrid was something else, it was gay pride in Madrid, so we went down and checked out the parade. There were so many people there it was incredible! After a short nap we went out. It was a night to remember - I am still working on that though!


We left Madrid for Salamanca and stopped in Segovia. I have never been so astounded by a city before. It is by far the most beautiful place I have ever seen. I kept asking if we were on a movie set or in a theme park of some sort because it just seemed too perfect to actually be real! And the Roman aqueduct is impressive as well. It really puts things into perspective:  The Segovia aqueduct was built before Rome had invented cement, in the 1st century AD. Rome fell 1500+ years ago, the Moors invaded, ruled, and were driven out of Spain, Christopher Columbus discovered another country, Spain's empire expanded across the globe, Spain's empire fell, the world has changed so much - yet this structure still stands!

Aqueduct

Jana told us a legend relating to the aqueduct. It goes like this: This girl had to walk up the mountain to get water for the town everyday. One day, she made a deal with the Devil: if, in one night, he can build a way to get water to the town without having to go up the mountain, she would go with him to the inferno. As the Devil began building the aqueduct she began to realize he was going to finish before morning, so she prayed to God for mercy and for help. God sent a huge rainstorm and as the sun rose, the Devil was unable to lay the last stone in the aqueduct. The girl did not have to go with the Devil and the town now could get its water without having to climb the mountain.

Cathedral in Madrid 

Cervantes statue in Madrid

Gay Pride crowd in Madrid

Me in Toledo

Segovia

I will post more about Salamanca when I have photos. As it is, I haven't even really processed my Gay Pride or Segovia pictures. Since I am in Salamanca the next month, I haven't gone out and photographed yet, getting a feel for the city and getting an idea where to go get photos.


We are homestaying in Salamanca, and my Señora is the most amazing cook. I love that we get fed authentic Spanish food, plus it saves money not having to eat out the whole month. So far, this is starting out to be an incredible journey!

Post-Graduation Travels

My mother on the porch of Elvis' birth home.

My summer has been a already been a whirlwind of activity. The day after my graduation I jumped into the car with my mother, brother, and step-dad to drive back to Minnesota (my home-state). We stopped at Memphis and stayed a few nights to visit Elvis' Graceland, with a quick pit stop in Tupelo, MS (the birthplace of Elvis). 

Graceland itself is quite the visit, a tourist-trap of the best kind. I never have been a huge Elvis *fan*, definitely enjoy his music  and appreciate his contribution to the music industry, however, it is my mother and sister that are the fan-girls. Even so, Elvis' home was quite interesting, and the audio-tour provided some interesting insights into his life. If you are passing through Memphis it is definitely worth the stop. 

Love the Peacock stained glass in the living room!

Very 70s! Definitely want to be sober in this room though. 

After leaving Graceland we headed home. We took a rest stop in Saint Louis. I have never actually seen the Saint Louis arch, but I don't think I expected it to be quite as large as it actually was. It was quite fascinating. we did not have time to go up into it, but I went into the guest center and picked up brochures and other literature on the arch because I am sort of a nerd like that. 

Considering how long I will be gone over the next year, it was wonderful to get to spend as much time with my family as I did! I had a graduation party in Minnesota for the family and friends that could not travel to Augusta to celebrate with me! I was very happy that some of my family came that I don't often get to see on my trips home. I got to celebrate birthdays that I normally miss. All in all it was fun, but a bit chaotic. Our family in the last few years has gone from having *no* children in it, to having 8, with 7 of them under the age of 8! So family gatherings are quite the production and full of energy. It can be very exhausting.

As if I did not have enough going on this summer, we took yet another road trip! Here was a trip I didn't think I would ever have to make again: Minnesota to New Mexico and back. Growing up in Albuquerque we would make the drive back to Minnesota at least every summer. If you have never had to make the drive, I hope you never have to, it is a long stretch of dull piled on top of boring.

The upside to the long, flat drive, is that your first glimpse of the Rocky Mountains completely takes your breath away, as if the Rockies aren't breathtaking enough on their own merit! Unfortunately, we did not have enough time on this trip to stop in Colorado and really enjoy the mountains as we were on a time schedule. My sister was getting married. So most of my photos of the Rockies were shot through a window as we drove along side them.

Myself, my mother, and my sister at the state line

Sandia Mountains in Albuquerque

The day before the wedding, my sister invited everyone to come up to the Sandia Peak Tram and hike, or in the case of my mother, my aunt, and myself, sit in the restaurant and drink (vodka at 10400feet - not a great idea!). It is an incredible ride to the top of Sandia Peak! The tram is the longest tram ride in the world. Anyway, I thought it was impressive. 

Canyon Rock

The Sandia Peak Tram

Sandia Peak

Beyond that, it was an enjoyable month back in Minnesota. I spent a day with my cousin and her family at Minneahaha Falls (See Here), and did a "Trash the Dress" photoshoot with my younger sister as a sort of "moving on" ceremony after her engagement was called off (See Here).

Additionally, I did a lot of shopping and began to strategize my packing for my journeys the next year, which I will probably address in a future post. I have a feeling I will have to re-assess my strategy after I finish up in Salamanca, before I begin with Webster University.

Ciao!