Spring Break (first half)

Hey all,
I hope you're all doing well and everything is going OK back home or wherever you may be. I'm doing well here, having just gotten back from a 3-week vacation (or as we dubbed it- a vacation from vacation) to venture out and expand my studies of European art, food, etc.. Basically, I've been meeting a great deal of very interesting people here and on my travels, and love being able to speak to them in several different languages. My favorite mode of communication is Spapanese...or maybe Japsanol? I have two friends here at the university who are from Japan, and so speak only Spanish and Japanese- perfect! Those conversations do get a LITTLE confusing sometimes seeing as that mixing your second and third languages into the same sentence can have a strange effect on the brain. I've also been making a great deal of Spanish-speaking friends as well, and have truly enjoyed my times hanging out with them. I say"Spanish-speaking," because there's actually a pretty large contingent of Argentinians here whom are a great deal of fun to hang out with, and I hope to be able to imitate their accent before too much longer(yo me llamo John = sho me shamo sean).

My three weeks of traveling for spring break were truly amazing. At this point I think I've put up just about all of my pictures from my travels (about 8 albums worth on facebook lol) My impressions of each country vary widely due to a number of factors, not the least of which the venues in which I spent the night, the areas that I stayed in, the places I went, the people I met, the food I ate, and even the weather (it rained on my trip quite a bit).

After going on a day trip to Valencia to see the massive floats that are built (and then burned) for the "las Fallas" festival, I stayed the night to witness the most spectacular fireworks show of my life before taking the first train the next morning to Barcelona. I was in Barcelona a grand total of two hours before flying out for (hopefully) Athens. However, we flew through Milan, and unfortunately the Milan-Athens leg of that journey had been canceled for the day because of protests and demonstrations in Greece due to the government's pressing of a newpension bill (that would raise the retirement age for women from 55-->60 and would encourage men to work past 65). As I was keenly interested at the time (while in Athens), I read a fair bit about what was going on there and would be happy to share more later. Basically,the Greek government has been unable to fix an obviously ailing and porous pension system in years past because of public strikes and upheaval at any attempt to do so. The new prime minister, however, was intent to see this bill through, and so endured a few days of nationwide strikes in a great deal of industries. The bill ended up passing while we were there though.

So, my friend Brendan and I stayed the night in Milan on our way to Athens. Unfortunately, we didn't see a great deal of Milan, seeing as that we were exhausted from staying up the entire night before in Valencia, and slept for 16 hours to begin our 3 week voyage. We flew out to Athens the next afternoon, and arrived at the airport mid-evening. After that we boarded a city bus to take us into the middle of town (to Syntagma square) for what should have been a 45-minute ride, but because Syntagma had been closed due to the demonstrations, we were left off one subway stop away (which was thankfully running)...but after 2 1/2 hours on that bus. Needless to say, we made a few friends during our ordeal on the bus, but I can't say that the ride itself is a very fond memory. We arrived at our hotel, and promptly went to find our 8 or so friends that had arrived the day before, who were having dinner. I've now discovered that I'm a very big fan of Greek food, especially Greek salads (feta cheese, tomato,lettuce, olive oil) and any kind of grilled meet that they have, as well as a mayonnaise-looking sauce that you dip bread in (the name escapes me at the moment, maybe you know it). The next day was rainy, but we soldiered through the city taking in various sights and doing various touristy things, though saving our trek through the Acropolysfor the next day. The sun finally came out for a spectacular sunset,which we viewed from a large rock that juts out just below the entrance to the Acropolys. Athens was much, much bigger than I had expected, especially viewed from the Parthenon. Anyways, the nights we occupied ourselves with discovering some more of the local fare (namely a drink called Ouzo), which tasted a bit like licorice set on fire. Our last day in Athens, before my friends Brendan, Noelle, and I flew to Italy and the rest of our group went island hopping, the three of us went up to the Parthenon, and remained up there for a couple of hours drinking in the sights and the history that surrounded us. A few things were truly remarkable: 1.) the size of Athens (once again), 2.)the state of preservation (either bad- the Parthenon itself, or good-some of the other temples), 3.) the fact that at that moment I began really wishing I'd studied more Greek history, and 4.) the sheer amount of Japanese tourists.

The next day we set sail (ok, we flew) to Rome. In Rome I met up witha Georgetown friend (Andrea Wong) who is studying in London but was visiting Rome the same two days and her two friends. Together we explored the city over the next two days. It was pretty chilly and rained on us the first day, and my leather shoes that I had brought were still soaked from the first day in Athens, so I resorted to wearing a warm hat ,about 4 layers up top, jeans rolled up, and sandals. Needless to say,I couldn't feel my feet all day and elicited a great many strange looks from all of those travelers who had been savvy enough to bring "water resistant footwear". Duly noted for next time. However, I was pretty proud of myself seeing as that I had packed 3 weeks worth of clothes into a camping backpack and a smaller bag, both of which I could carry around with little problem. This fact made me grin every time I watched Brendan struggling with a large, heavy bag that had plastic wheels the size of cheerios - the entire break. Back to Rome- I have two favorite ways of discovering a country or a city-to discover a country, I absolutely love going by train. Being able to see the countryside and what kind of other people are on the train are both invaluable experiences. To discover a new city, I love getting a map from my hotel/hostel or a store, and setting off on foot- relying on my map reading and asking for directions.

Often times, like in Rome, I would get a general sense of where I was and the general direction of the next landmark I wanted to see, put the map away, and just wander. I feel like that is an amazing way to relax and stroll through a city without wondering if you're on exactly the right street, and many times you'll encounter great surprises without really even meaning to. During my two days in Rome, I visited a great deal of the monuments and landmarks: the Coliseum (from where you can see Palatine Hill), St Peter's Basilica (but not the Vatican museum- there was a 3 hour line due to the fact that it was museum week...I shall return), several huge buildings dedicated to one king or another, the Trevi fountain, the Pantheon (which I always get mixed up with the Parthenon, and vice-versa), the Spanish steps, the Plaza Navaro, and a number of fountains, statues, buildings, and ruins that were all amazing to behold and most of which I had no idea what they were. Here is the point where I began wishing I'd studied a bit more Roman history as well. (Yes, you can see where this is going, I eventually wished I'd studied more Egyptian history as well, but you're getting ahead of me there). At night, I stepped down to the small bar in the hostel in which I stayed, and made a few friends there who were a great deal of fun to hang out with and go out with into the city. Fortunately, one of them spoke Italian and sort of knew his way around. I met people in my room at the hostel as well, where therewere 8-10 of us per room. I feel awkward sleeping in the same room as someone else and not introducing myself, so I had a good hour-longconversation with a man from India, one from Mexico, and a couple ofAmericans from Nevada. One of the Americans knows a friend of minefrom Georgetown...it really is a small world.

Quick segway to a small slew of small world stories: 1.) One of my best friends from Georgetown is named Chloe. Chloe is from Noonan, Georgia, about an hour south of Atlanta. Freshman year, Chloe had her best friend from home, Lauren, come and visit. Lauren is one of about 5 people that I know that attend the very small school of the University of Georgia. I met a girl in my hostel in Athens from UGA that not only knows Lauren, but is also a sorority sister of hers. 2.)the people in my Rome hostel, 3.) My roommate from Georgetown from freshman and junior years is named Nick, who is from New York city. He, along with his sophomore roommate, Colin, are also two of my best friends. They were studying abroad in London for the spring (I visited them before spring break, but that's another story), and their program has recently ended and they're traveling all over Europe (Amsterdam,Berlin, Vienna, Athens, and many, many more places). I received a message from Nick while I was in Cairo telling me that he was sitting in an internet cafe in Vienna at the time of writing the message, right next to two of my friends from my program here in Alicante. (Almost done with the stories, I promise!) 4.) Ok, two quick stories from London- while waiting at a bus stop one dark evening with Nick, Colin, and several other of my friends, I felt a tap on the shoulder. I turned around to see two friends of mine from Georgetown who werevisiting London as part of Georgetown's spring break. In a separate instance, I was walking through London's National Portrait Gallerywhen I (almost literally) bumped into a different friend of mine from Georgetown who I had no idea was going to be in London at the time.

Where was I? Ah yes, Italy. After staying in Rome for two nights, I bought a ticket for Florence, and was surprised when I didn't have aseat assignment on my ticket. Not phased, I went to the second class cars and got myself situated into a seat. A couple of minutes later, a man came up and told me that I was sitting in HIS sit, and so I promptly moved to another seat nearby. The same thing happened again, so I moved to ANOTHER unoccupied seat. By this time the train was moving, so I assumed I was A OK, but I was wrong in this assumption.Two more seat-bumps later, I decided to lean against the seats and read my book until I got a better idea of the situation. Being in the middle of the car, I could look to either end, and what I saw there were other young, confused, and foreign-looking students. It figuresthat they would over-sell the trains in Italy and assume that we would know if we were left without a seat. Oh well, I had bought a ticket on the fast train, and so I only had to lean for about an hour and a half, which was nothing considering the bus ride I'd undergone inAthens. (I was reading John Grisham's "Innocent Man" at the time- a really interesting book, and his only non-fiction). Ohh, I've also finally just finished reading "Indian Summer",which was reallly interesting and in-depth talking about the yearssurrounding the Indian/Pakistan independence.

Anyways, I must now run to my direct-enrollment class in theUniversity, which is entitled "Introduccion a la Union Europea" (Introto the EU), and consists of (I think about 15 students), two of which show up for the two classes every week (I and a Spanish girl). I hope you're all well, and I can't wait to see everyone when I get back to the states! I'll write again detailing the second half of my Spring break soon!