School’s OUT!!

Actually…that’s a really sad fact.  My study abroad program has ended this past week and all the people that I became really close with over the past few months have either gone back to the States to do productive smart things like internships, research, and summer classes, or traveling around until they go back home.  We had a few going-away nights, with a bunch of people from the program as well as with the close knit group I hung out with the most.  Most of the girls I hung out with and traveled either go to school somewhere nearby on the East Coast and for those of you reading this, I’m going to miss you all!  Luckily, it’s not too hard to hang out if anyone visit Boston or NYC!  BUT, Mel decided to stay an extra month (yay!), Analy is in an advanced program until June (you native speakers, you), and Paige and me are fulfilling our dream of going to Scotland!

So let me full you in on my plans, after this stressful week full of exams and 5 papers, I get to look forward to El Clásico tomorrow!! I’m very nervous since Barça needs to win to gain points for La Liga, but just last week both Real Madrid and Barcelona lost in their Champion’s League games, yikes!  I’m confident Barcelona will win though and I can go run to Fuente de Canaletas just like I did in June and rage in the street cheering for the best team in the entire world (that’s not my biased opinion, that’s a pure fact).

On Tuesday, I’m packing up my new backpacking backpack and flying to a little city really far from Munich…but Ryanair manages to call is “Munich West”…yeah it’s about 2 hours away.  After a bus ride to Munich and a few train transfers from there, that night I’ll be in a small town in the middle of the Alps in Austria seeing Nathalie!  I’ll spend a few days there, Nathalie will be working during the day but we’ll hang out and I’m explore as much as I can, from there I’ll take a train to Salzburg and frolic through the hills and streets singing (if you can even call what I do “singing”) “Sound of Music” songs just like Julie Anderson and the Von Trapp family.  From there I’m going to Munich for 2 days, one of which will be a day trip to visit some castles of Bavaria, including Neuschwanstein, the castle that inspired the Cinderella castle (the one that inspired the Sleeping Beauty castle is in Segovia- fun fact).  I’ve always wanted to see it and since I’ll be in Munich I figured it’s worth the scenic bus ride.  Did I mention it will be Fruhlingsfest (Springfest, spring version of Oktoberfest) in Munich during this time? 😉

From Munich, the next stop is Dublin, where I’m meeting Analy.  One of the days we’ll be heading to Galway to check out the awesome cliffs and Irish countryside [just saw P.S. I Love You this week during “girl’s night” at my friend Scarlett’s house, perfect timing!  Now I need to find a Gerard Butler in a countryside Irish pub].  From there we’ll be heading to Edinburgh and Paige will be flying in from Athens after her lovely Grecian cruise, meeting us there.  FULL IMMERSION!  I’ve had a weird obsession with Scotland since forever, maybe it’s the accent?  Maybe it’s cause it’s so green there and that’s my favorite color?  Maybe it’s the pub atmosphere?  I don’t know why, maybe I’ll find out.  Anyways, we’ll be there for quite a while, besides Analy who has to go to class at the Universitat de Barcelona on Monday, so me and Piage are planning a trip up to the Scottish Highlands and going to Loch Ness (no Paige, I still won’t go on the boat), I’m also going to a campus visit and meeting the director and professors of University of St. Andrew’s School of International Relations for a postgraduate Master’s program.  YAY!!  I wanted to go there since forever as well, didn’t work out for undergrad but HOEPFULLY I get a shot at a Master’s program there.  OK, well I have to go so that is all I’m writing for now.  I’ll update you all on my travels and my plans after coming back to Barcelona from Scotland (Kaskade is playing the night I come back, perfect!), more travels after that!! Cheers! xx