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This week is fall break for my program, so I have been traveling around Europe with Bix and my roommate from Florence! My travel plans included Amsterdam, Cologne, Prague, Lisbon, and Barcelona.

Amsterdam was definitely my favorite city so far. Biking is the easiest way to get around. It was a little scary at first because  I didn’t know where I was going, but once you get the hang of it it’s super fun! Bix and I went on a river cruise tour, took pics at the I Amsterdam sign, and rode our bikes through Vondel Park. Of course when we got to Cologne (Köln) Bix made sure we went to a hockey game. The fans were really loud on both sides with each having drums and chants. (Köln won btw). 

Prague was next. I met my roommate in the city of a hundred spires. We had two full days to explore the old city, Prague Castle, Charles Bridge, the Lennon Wall, the Astronomical Clock, and other attractions. The architecture was pretty incredible because there are so many different styles all in the same city. It also felt a lot colder than I had expected so we ended up getting some hats to keep us warm. 

Today I woke up at 3am to get to the airport for my 6am flight from Prague to Lisbon. Even though we only had 24 hours in Lisbon, my roommate and I made the most of it and were able to take the tram to some scenic overlooks and have lunch in a tropical park that had the biggest ducks I have ever seen in my life. Tomorrow morning we are headed to Barcelona where we will meet up with some friends! I’m super excited to visit a 5th country/city this week to finish off fall break!

Stephanie

Greetings from a place where I’m still wearing summer dresses and Birkenstocks! (They’ve already put up Christmas directions in the street…but it’s like 75 degrees every day…)

This past weekend was a long one! I traveled to Amsterdam and Cologne, Germany with Steph! We both loved Amsterdam, even though we didn’t understand the little bit of Dutch we heard. We went on a canal cruise, rented bikes and rode around, went to the flower market, the Heineken Experience, and some other things. I also went back to Amsterdam for a day by myself and saw the Anne Frank house, which was very emotional and utterly amazing. It was surreal to be where she hid with her family.

When we were trying to climb up on the giant letters, I was having trouble fitting between the a and m while Steph was taking pictures…and there was a guy hysterically laughing at me behind her. What can I say, when you lift as much as we do, these quads aren’t fitting in a space that small! (I’ve included a picture for your enjoyment).

We also went to Germany…and understood literally nothing. SO MUCH GERMAN. But nonetheless, we had a good time. Good German food, chocolate, and most importantly…a hockey game. Needless to say I was quite emotional when we stumbled across the local team’s home game. There were two players on opposite teams that both played in Hershey, PA at one point, which is pretty cool (to me anyway).

Now I’m back in Granada enjoying (not really) catching up on all the work I neglected to do. I’m looking forward to taking a day trip with my program this weekend and then relaxing on Sunday. The weekend after that I’ll be headed to….Africa (Morocco) (as long as everything works out). I’m pretty stoked!

 

I miss you all so very much. I hope you all had a great Halloween and killed it at the costume lift! Hard to believe that I’ll be home in less than two months!

 

Xoxo, Bixby

你们好！

This past week was spent learning a lot about China’s ethnic minorities. We visited a village of the Bai (white) people. They are not actually white , but it is a prominent color in their clothing. It was incredible the amount of dancing we did this week, everyone, even the children know all of the traditional dances. We also went to a Daoist temple on a sacred mountain for a night. I was the only person in my group willing to wake up at 5am to practice Taiji with the monk on the mountainside, it was definitely a memory I will have with me forever. I was also in a rural home-stay in the village of Shaping. China has continued to surprise me, and this time I was amazed by the far out reach of its development. I was expecting an extremely rural town in terms of a lack of technology but I found quite the opposite. Sure the village is significantly less developed than the major cities, but it had paved roads, numerous cars, running water and my home-stay even had a 50 inch+  flat screen tv, meaning they obviously had electricity. Every household also grew corn for animal fodder and although it seemed to be quite counterproductive, all of the corn was de-kernelled by hand! This meant a fair amount of blisters. I also got to do a lot of planting and hoeing. I even herded my family’s cows! Despite these advancements, the bathroom was an outhouse so I’m definitely grateful to be back in the city now. We have one week left of our group travel, next stop Shangri-La!

<3 Elizazbeth

After reaching the top of the sacred Daoist mountain.

The monk with whom I did early morning Taiji.

Having fun in Dali.

The three pagodas of Dali.

Enjoying the view with some friends.

Picking tea leaves at a tea plantation.

Learned how to roast my own green tea!

The Bai ethnic minority in traditional clothing.

Everyone here has a cell phone.

Went to a bilingual school, Mandarin and Bai.

My rural host family’s shoes.

 

Hiked up the Bai secret mountain.

Loving every moment of it!