Search results matching tag 'Study Abroad'

Eiffel Tower at night

ChristinaL — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 14:13:27 GMT

My last trip before I came back home to the States was a weekend in Paris with my girls! The city was really beautiful with all the Christmas lights - but of course nothing can outshine the Eiffel Tower at night! I went up inside the tower at night and got to see not only the panoramic view of Paris, but the interior of the tower as it sparkled with white lights on the top of the hour!

It's blue with yellow stars right now to look like the flag of the European Union - France holds the EU presidency for 6 months.

Sleeping with 11 other people (aka life in a hostel)

ChristinaL — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 14:10:25 GMT

Sleeping in the same room as other people really doesn't bother me. I had my own room growing up, but at Pi Phi, I sleep in our cold dorm which has forty of our beds in one dark, quiet, wonderful room, and during the summer I sleep on gym floors with 150 other students from my drum and bugle corps.

So, when it comes to travelling, I am totally down with staying in youth hostels, which are super cheap and fun accomodations for the young and cheap study abroad/backpacker crowd. However, hostels usually have dorm-style bedrooms where you have a bunk bed and a locker and you share with random strangers from around the world. This is a unique experience that is part of almost everyone's study abroad adventures, but definitely something different for most people. I thought I would give you a peek at the bunks in my favorite hostel that I stayed in - Palmer's Lodge in London (SO nice! stay there!).

Picnic on top of a castle

ChristinaL — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 13:28:14 GMT

In many ways, being a study abroad student living with a host family was like being in first grade again. We went on field trips almost every week, and for those days our mamas would pack us lunches with sandwiches and juice boxes, which we would of course compare to see who got the best ones.

When we went to the Alcazar in Segovia, which is supposedly one of the castles which inspired Disney, we climbed up to the top of the tower (the stairs were brutal!) and then sat down and had a picnic lunch on top of the castle. You know, just a regular day in Spain.

Flamenco!

ChristinaL — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 02:15:41 GMT

In Cordoba, we went to a flamenco show! The dancers were AMAZING, the musicians were great and the costumes were very cool. Definitely one of my favorite nights out in Spain.

Plaza de Espana - sun and Star Wars?

ChristinaL — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 20:36:01 GMT

One of my favorite places we went in Sevilla was this really cool plaza - it had painted ceramic tiles and these crazy towers and pretty fountains.... and it was apparently where the filmed Queen Amidala's palace for the new Star Wars.

When we were there in November, the weather was gorgeous (in the 70s!) and there was this great flamenco guitar player jamming. loved it.

Sevilla in the morning

ChristinaL — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 20:28:05 GMT

Sevilla was our second stop on the Butler Andalusia tour... It's a very elegant city with one of the biggest cathedrals in Europe and a history of operas (Carmen, the Barber of Seville...)

I took this picture early in the morning as we walked towards the cathedral and royal palace for another day jam-packed full of sightseeing.

inside the Alhambra palace

ChristinaL — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 20:20:54 GMT

Check out the beautiful interior of the palace with the fancy calligraphy... every room was just so pretty.

La Alhambra - Muslim palace in southern Spain

ChristinaL — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 20:13:05 GMT

Our Butler class took a four day trip to Andalucia in the south of Spain and our first stop was Granada, where we got to tour this beautiful palace built by the Moorish kings when they ruled the south of Spain in the Middle Ages. The detailed architecture was gorgeous and it was a great view with the snowy mountains in the background!

Inside a cloister

ChristinaL — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 20:06:12 GMT

In case you aren't familiar, cloisters are:

1) Enclosed gardens inside churches/convents/monasteries for nuns and monks

2) always very beautiful

Here are four of my BU classmates checking out a particularly nice one on our field trip to Toledo, the old capital of Spain.

My beautiful walk to school

ChristinaL — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 20:03:40 GMT

One of my favorite parts of my 20 minute walk to school in Spain was this pretty canopy of trees! Walking is not something we like to do on our compact Butler campus, but I grew to enjoy it in beautiful Spain.