Barcelona with the Dewitts

Still in Barcelona, still on my balcony, I am trying to catch up to present day. I don’t want to have to be home and write about my travels. It will just make me miss Europe more. As much as I am excited to be home or back at Cornell, I will really miss all the traveling and the people I met and just the culture of Spain in general. It is truly a bittersweet ending to such an amazing experience, kind of like summer camp. You make friends with people from all over who you never imagined meeting and then you have to say goodbye. Oh well, I will try to make it to Bari someday.

Anyways, after one last night in Bilbao of exploring the Casco Viejo, I caught a bus to Barcelona and met up with Caitlyn and her mom. Sunday morning we pretty much dedicated to Gaudi. We saw Casa Batllo, la Pedrera, la Sagrada Familia and picnicked in Parc Guell. A relatively long siesta back in the hotel room (I stayed with the Dewitts my first two days in Barcelona), we wandered to Las Ramblas and Barri Gotic. Caitlyn’s mom then treated us to dinner.

It was at dinner that Caitlyn realized we were right next to a fairly famous shots bar. There is something called the Monica Lewinsky which I can only imagine. Anyways, not passing up some interesting shots, Caitlyn and I treated each other to a shot. I enjoyed the Comeme el Coño while Caitlyn had an Orgasmo de Monja. Parents, believe me, don’t translate those.

Day two with the Guapa family we went back to Las Ramblas to go to the Boqueria market. Fresh fruit, pastries, cheeses and meats. Delicious. I bought some ingredients for paella and we wandered around until it was time for the Dewitts to depart for Madrid. We said our goodbyes and I made my way to my hostel.

That brings me to now. I am rarely at this point, but it is nearing the end of my stay in Europe, so it is about time I make it this far. I have two more days coming up including a day of travel back to the ole US of A. Tomorrow I think I will hit the beach, seeing as I have seen a lot of what I want to see in Barcelona. The following day I catch a flight to Chicago on Pakistan International Airlines. Don’t worry, I am sure the flight will be fine and I will be safe at home in Wisconsin, eating a burger and enjoying a beer by Wednesday evening. Here’s to the last few days of Europe.

Final Stage: Tour de France

It was early July when I realized that I had off of work for another Spanish holiday on July 25^th. Hillary and I had already been looking at travelling to France over the weekend in order to see some of the Tour de France, and seeing that the final stage in Paris took place on July 24^th, we seized our opportunity.

Getting to Paris was probably the worst obstacle I have had in Europe. With no Ryanair and Easyjet not flying to Paris, we were left with the expensive train or the less expensive (but still relatively expensive) bus. Being only two hours from the Spanish/France boarder, I thought Paris couldn’t be too much farther. Wrong. The bus ended up being twelve hours each way. So Hill and I bought our bus tickets to Paris, leaving Friday right after work (and travelling overnight) and arriving back in Bilbao in Tuesday morning, right before work. Perfect! The things I do for travelling. And to see Molly I guess. That’s right! Molly met me in Paris.

Hill and I arrived in Paris bright and early. We headed to our apartment to drop off our stuff as we couldn’t check in until the afternoon. The receptionist told us our room wasn’t ready yet, as we expected, so he upgraded us to a bigger room which was ready, contrary to what we expected.

Let me just explain all of the room stuff now, so I don’t have to revisit it later. First I had problems flushing the toilet. After about fifteen minutes of struggling with the lever, I pushed it down as hard as possible (actually I am pretty sure Hillary did this), it flushed successfully. Molly checked in later in the day as she arrived from Spain after us, and she also had flushing problems. Great. When we got back to the room we tried to figure this out. Eventually giving up, we asked the receptionist to help us with this literally shitty problem. He asked if I pushed really hard. I assured him I did but to no avail. He told me the plumber doesn’t work Sundays so he would put us in another room. This ended up being another upgrade. To recap, we booked the smallest apartment and were going to have to rent an extra pull out bed. We eventually were in the biggest apartment, never needing to rent the extra bed. And most importantly, the toilet flushed, free of problems.

Okay, so that was a pleasant and fascinating story I am sure. Anyways, Hill and I made our way into the city center. We started off our weekend in Paris at Sant Chappelle. This is on the same island as Notre Dame, but is arguably less known. I am not sure why though, because this place is gorgeous. It has stained glass windows at least 20 feet high, filling the lengths of the walls. I have pictures, but they do no justice to the intricacies of the windows and the detailed paid to the rest of the church.

If my memory serves me correctly, we then walked towards the Arc de Triomphe. We walked along Champs d’Elysees to scope out the Tour route, but were somewhat disheartened to find that the boulevard was lined with stands that seemed like exclusive access. I guess we would have to find another place to watch from.

We made it to the Arc and decided to go up. I was told it was free for European students (as I am) and I love free things. We stood in line as Mother Nature, again, thought it was the perfect time to screw with my plans. It got cold quickly. The storm clouds rolled in and the wind picked up. She then let us have it, throwing rain at us horizontally, rendering my feeble umbrella useless. We stuck out the line, found out that the ascent was indeed not free, and then made an awkward run for it. By which I mean, we ran out of line away from the ticket booths, not up into the Arc.

The weather made us think that a museum was the perfect idea. It just so happens it gave everyone in Paris that idea. When we arrived at the Musee d’Orsay, the line was worse than New Year’s weekend. We decided to eat instead, hoping the line would shrink in time. Well, the line was still quite long, but the sun came out and we ended up just wandering the area.

We walked up to Pere Lachaise, the famous cemetery in Paris, and wandered about, trying to find the graves of some select famous people. After seeing Chopin’s, we were on our way to see Jim Morrison’s when we were abruptly cut off by a security guard saying the cemetery was closing. No! We were so close! Hill and I then tried going up a different way, with the idea of saying we were lost if we were caught by the same guard. Well, it wasn’t the same guy, but we were stopped again. Drats! Then a couple asked us if we were looking for Morrison and pointed the way. We made a quick dash for it. Admittedly, the grave wasn’t astounding, but there was a beer bottle on it which made me kind of happy.

Eventually we met up with Molly and saw Harry Potter. After the movie we were hungry but excessively indecisive. That was a terrible combination as we ended up walking for hours without eating anything. We ended up at the Eiffel Tower. Molly’s first words went along the lines of “Wow, that is awful.” I had never heard anybody have that reaction to the Eiffel Tower, but I guess we are all welcome to our own opinion. It turns out she really dislikes when the Tower is lit up at night and the lights are twinkling. A crepe and a metro ride later and we were back at our apartment and crashed for the night.

The next day was the day of the Tour. But first, we were hungry. Jane, a friend who studied abroad in Paris this past spring, recommended the Jewish Quarter, L’As du Falafel specifically, for food. I have to hand it to her, the falafel was delicious, but I cannot say that this is the best falafel I have ever had. This still goes to the Rei de Falafel in Padua. Sorry Paris, you guys were close.

After gorging ourselves on the side of the street we walked up Rivoli to see if we could find some cheap Tour shirts. They were cheaper than the official stores up on Champs, but disappointingly, they were not 8 to 12 euros like I had read. Eventually we found people lining up to see the race, and found our place along the road from which to cheer for. I draped the Spanish flag around me in honor of Contador and Sanchez, and waited for the bikers to arrive.

After what felt like hours with the sun beating down on us and burning my oh so fair skin, Molly met up with us and the bikers came by soon after. This was after a ton of sponsor floats and team caravans paraded by. Well, I have to admit, it was pretty exciting, but also pretty comparable to the Running of the Bulls. After hours of waiting there were only a few seconds of excitement. Luckily they passed by twice and I could actually see the racers. Unluckily, Contador and Sanchez took 5^th and 6^th. Ah well, I have to hand it to Evans. Congratulations.

After the Tour we tried to make it to Place de Concorde to see any part of the ceremonies, but all the roads were blocked off, thwarting our attempts. We instead went for food near Saint Michels. The biggest event of the night was probably Molly ordering escargot. All the tables around us stared as she wrestled with the snails. Come on! This is France! Haven’t you seen a girl eat a snail before?

After dinner we bought a bottle of wine and kicked back on the banks of the Seine as boats passed by. Eventually it started to mist and the wind picked up so we headed back to the apartment for a good night’s rest.

Our last day in Paris, Hill (wowza, almost Paris Hilton) and I went up to Montmartre area. We walked up to Sacre Coeur and took in the view until our stomachs got the best of us and were urged to eat. We feasted on cheese and baguette in the sex district and a middle aged British lady told us that we looked very romantic. As she walked away, I asked Hill, “Romantic, or poor?” Apparently there is a fine line.

We walked around a bit more, down to the Opera and over to Tulieres Gardens when it was time to catch the metro to the bus station. We were early, but then alerted that we needed to pick up boarding cards or something before we could actually board, despite having tickets for the bus. We hurriedly ran down to the ticket desk and picked up our passes, all the while getting stressed out as our departure time passed. The stress was all for naught, though, as the bus sat at the platform a good ten or so minutes more.

I wish the bus ride was as quiet and uneventful as the ride to Paris was, but it wasn’t. The driver deemed it in good taste to play an awful movie really loudly. The movie was called Hole in One. Look up the synopsis if you have never heard of it. Actually, I am pretty sure you haven’t heard of it, it seems like a straight to video type of movie. Anyways, it was a raunchy teen comedy about a college student who liked to bet during golf. He made a bad bet and lost, ultimately ending up with a pair of fake breasts. The rest of the movie he tries to raise money to remove them and also get with his love interest. Hint, his love interest isn’t a fan of tits on men. Anyways, that ended and I tried to get a little sleep before we pulled into the Bilbao bus station twenty minutes before work started. I rolled off the bus and stumbled sleepily into work for a thrilling day at the office. All in all, I would say it was worth it.

Molly Comes to Visit

It’s my second to last full day in Spain. Not really knowing what to do with myself in Barcelona (it being my second visit and a Monday when all the museums are closed), I am sitting on my hostel’s balcony trying to finish up some of my blogs before I get home. I might add, this might be one of my favorite hostels. Although it doesn’t have free breakfast, I am essentially in my own apartment with kitchen, living room and bathroom. We still have probably twelve people to the apartment in rooms of four, but the set up is much more intimate than sharing a room with fourteen people and one kitchen with the entire hostel. But even I had to share the main kitchen and other public spaces with the entire hostel, that would be okay too because the place is really nice.

I think I missed out on a weekend. I am actually positive I did. The weekend before my birthday Molly came to visit. So how do I show her a good time? Well, I take her to a clothing optional beach. Yep. I had been told over and over that Sopelana was a great beach. Having never been there, I thought I could explore it with Molly. Besides not knowing which metro stop to get off on and then how to get there from that metro stop, we eventually found our way to Sopelana. Sopelana is a town on the coast of the Atlantic, like all the towns outside of Bilbao essentially. I had read earlier that there were three beaches, a normal one, one for wind and water sports, and a clothing optional one. With the normal beach as the goal, we ended up at the clothing optional one. Eh, it wasn’t too bad. The beach was beautiful, a pocket beach backed by really high dunes. It had a strong current and we ended up getting yelled at by the lifeguard for going out too far, but it was a good day all in all.

We finished the day with Molly cooking me meatballs and watching Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs in my room. Molly is so romantic, isn’t she? I feel like she was trying to present the message that if we play with the weather and environment too much, catastrophic events like gigantic spaghetti tornadoes or junk food avalanches could ravage small, nonexistent islands in the middle of the Atlantic. A stirring story indeed.

The next day I thought it would be a good idea to take Molly to San Sebastian. We had had plans earlier to go to San Sebastian to meet Nerea, a friend from class. She ended up having to cancel due to family fun time, but we decided to go anyways.

Good thing we made such a good decision, because after an hour or so of okay weather, it started to get cold, rainy, and windy. A stellar combination if you ask me. We tried to stick it out by eating our packed lunches underneath the scant cover of some trees, but after some churros, we eventually gave up and let Mother Nature win this round. Back in Bilbao we ate more meatballs and enjoyed some Phineas and Ferb.

The next day I met up with Molly after work and repaid her by cooking fajitas and watching This is Spinal Tap. Arguably not as perfect as meatballs and Cloudy, but still a satisfying combination. The next day I had to say my goodbyes as Molly left for Barcelona, but I would see her soon anyways.

161 Things to Do Abroad

In honor of Cornell and what I am missing, I thought I would construct a list of my own 161 things to do while studying abroad in Santander, Spain. I will draw from my own experiences and those of the other Cornell students over the next year in northern Spain to document our experiences. Some of these will be specific to Santander or Spain, while others will be a must for any study abroad experience.

1. Miss your flight at Stansted Airport. Rage and blackout to cope with the pain.

2. The next day, throw out half of your belongings into a trash can at Stansted Airport. Imagine that there is now a well dressed homeless man sporting a dress and high heels while he looks at his new poster of Johnny Depp.

3. Attempt to enjoy the outdoors of the surrounding area. Get poured on while you are kayaking along the Sella River.

4. Talk to a Belgian and wish you spoke more than one language well, all the while wanting to mutter “waffles” under your breath.

5. Meet your Spanish classmates near the beach on a Thursday night. Have them tell you 3am is too early to go home.

6. Take shots in between classes at the café in the Caminos building.

7. Hang your clothes out to dry for four days because it keeps raining.

8. Meet people from Germany, Austria, Hungary, Greece, Czech Republic, France, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland, Norway, Spain and the UK in the same day.

9. Complain about siesta.

10. Love siesta.

11. Eat morcilla, turn into a vampire.

12. Have multiple conversations a day about internet access.

13. Move into a place because it has an oven. Forget to ask if oven works before moving in. Learn oven doesn’t work, then learn you are just stupid and it does work.

14. Make a chocolate hazelnut cake for a birthday, find that powdered sugar isn’t commonly sold in Spain so make the frosting out of whipped cream from a can and Norcilla.

15. Buy cheap liquor: .50 euro liters of wine, 4 euro bottles of Vodka or Gin, 3 euro bottles of flavored liqueur.

16. Make up a nonexistent shot of vodka, gin and tequila.

17. Almost pee your pants in Potes.

18. Drive 2 hours to get to the Picos de Europa only to find them hidden by fog.

19. Get followed by a local from bar to bar to churro place.

20. Search everywhere for peanut butter, Mexican tortillas, and maple syrup.

21. Encounter language barriers due to losses in translation.

22. Get your head rubbed by old Spanish women while sitting on benches.

23. Buy your study abroad country’s version of Monopoly.

24. Learn only the swear words in new languages.

25. List off all the words and phrases you know in a given language to a native speaker.

26. Butcher another language.

27. Read a classic in Spanish. My recommendations: El guardian entre el centeno, or The Catcher in the Rye or any Harry Potter

28. Forget how to speak English, reducing your fluent languages count to zero.

29. Get confused by the metric system, calendars starting with Monday, dates beginning with the day, and military time.

30. Hate the Oficina de Extranjeros.

31. Get your NIE.

32. Cook actual Spanish food.

33. Place in an international tortilla competition.

34. Go to Ribadesella for the races at the end of August. Camp out on the beach with a wet towel. Learn to be better prepared and to hate Ribadesella.

35. Compare everything to your stay at Ribadesella, admit that everything is better and you can’t complain.

36. Completely stand out in a crowd of locals.

37. Explore Cantabria. Visit Comillas, Santillana del Mar, and San Vincente del Barquero.

38. Drink sidra, vino, sangría, and calimocho.

39. Visit the Guggenheim in Bilbao.

40. Eat pintxos in San Sebastian.

41. Watch your favorite movies in Spanish.

42. See Shakespeare at the Globe Theater in London.

43. Go to every beach in Santander.

44. Write a blog.

45. See the aqueducts in Segovia.

46. Stay classy. See an opera in Madrid.

47. Eat Moroccan at Arabia in Madrid.

48. Decide to go to Morocco after eating at Arabia.

49. Learn that Moroccan food doesn’t actually include the falafel you had at Arabia.

50. Have a picnic in Parque Retiro.

51. See Guernica at the Reina Sofia.

52. Go on a pub crawl.

53. Stand at the middle of Spain. (The zero kilometer marker of Spain in Puerta del Sol).

54. Eat chocolate, beer, fries and waffles in Belgium.

55. Enjoy your visit to Bruges. Find out you might be slightly retarded or perhaps actually grew up on a farm.

56. Ride a camel in Morocco.

57. Break a bed in Algeciras.

58. Have a man throw money back at you.

59. Jam out with a French travelling band.

60. Pick an orange in Andalucia. Learn that nobody eats them because they are too bitter.

61. Worry that strikes are going to mess up your travel plans.

62. Almost lose your lunch after riding the ferry across the Strait of Gibraltar.

63. See real flamenco in Sevilla.

64. Walk across international borders like it is no big deal.

65. Walk Las Ramblas in Barcelona.

66. Go up the tower of la Sagrada Familia.

67. Get blown away by the Alhambra in Granada.

68. See the arches of the Mezquita in Cordoba.

69. Go on the Trineo Ruso in the Sierra Nevada or die trying.

70. Ride a gondola in Venice.

71. Don’t ride the gondola in Venice. That costs 80 euro. Instead take a gondola ferry across the main canal for 50 cents.

72. Buy Venetian Carnival masks.

73. Visit Verona, the setting of Romeo and Juliet. Grope Juliet’s statue. See the graffiti wall on her house.

74. Become a pilgrim and visit Saint Anthony’s Basilica in Padova. Wonder what Saint Anthony did.

75. Attend an anti fascist poetry reading in Bologna.

76. Look at the towers of Bologna, wonder if all towers in Italy are leaning.

77. Get hit on by an Italian heroin addict who used to teach at NYU at an anti fascist concert.

78. Attend said anti fascist concert in the basement of an unmarked building after filling out paperwork divulging personal information. Use fake personal information.

79. See the Duomo in Milan.

80. Couch Surf. Meet a wide range of people that you never imagined encountering.

81. Fall several months behind on your blog.

82. Vacation on the French Riviera.

83. Spend your New Years at the Eiffel Tower.

84. Laugh at the crowd surrounding the Mona Lisa in the Louvre.

85. See the Swiss Alps.

86. Eat an insane amount of gelato, pasta, and pizza in Italy.

87. Meet Italians that cook well enough you don’t need to go to Italy for food.

88. Learn how to cook that food from them.

89. Impress those Italians with chili and jello shots.

90. Pretend to be a Gladiator in the Coliseum.

91. Pretend to be a philosopher in the Forum.

92. Walk along the remains of the Berlin Wall.

93. Eat a ton of strudel.

94. See the schlosses (plural) in Potsdam.

95. Eat currywurst.

96. Be disappointed by currywurst, try a weisswurst.

97. Dislike the weisswurst. Decide Wisconsin does wursts better.

98. Celebrate Easter in Prague. See all the beautifully decorated eggs. They are real!

99. Celebrate Easter in Prague with the tradition of boys whipping girls with sticks and girls then buying the boys shots.

100. Walk around in Castle District in Prague. Notice the tower isn’t right at the top.

101. Cross Charles Bridge, rub everything that can be rubbed.

102. Drink too many liters in Munich, get lost in BMW Welt.

103. Enjoy a beer garden leisurely.

104. See a fairytale castle, you can’t beat Neuschwanstein.

105. Take an overnight train.

106. Eat paprikash and goulash in Budapest.

107. Debate weather London’s or Budapest’s Parliament building is better. (Budapest’s is.)

108. See a real opera in Vienna.

109. Drink port wine in Porto.

110. Be in Porto for the Burning of the Ribbons (massive party).

111. Actually go on the trip with the Caminos class.

112. Realize the Soviets took over almost all of Eastern and a lot of Central Europe and it sucked.

113. Go surfing in the Atlantic.

114. Hike in the fjords of Norway (read: go to Fat Camp).

115. Enjoy a home cooked meal in a foreign country by a foreign mother.

116. Sleep in an airport. On purpose.

117. Go to London. Study instead of sightseeing.

118. Find an apartment a day before you move into it.

119. Sneak extra luggage onto Ryanair.

120. Say goodbye to your foreign home.

121. Stay in Spain for an internship.

122. See the Tour de France.

123. Meet up with friends in another country.

124. Think you escaped the Ithaca weather only to experience the rainiest month in the history of Bilbao.

125. See a concert at the Guggenheim.

126. Clad yourself in red and white and head down to Sanfermines in Pamplona for the running of the bulls.

127. Take shots with your bosses at work.

128. Realize that you would never have had to get coffee as an intern in Spain.

129. Wonder how anything gets done in Spain in the summer when everyone goes on vacation.

130. Celebrate your 21^st birthday pointlessly. You could already drink legally.

131. Party in random pueblos in Spain.

132. Enjoy hour long plus lunch breaks at work. Try to beat the 4 hour 15 minute record.

133. Try calimocho ice cream.

134. Learn that Professor Snape is called Rogue in French.

135. Wonder at the stained glass in Sant Chapelle.

136. Keep in contact with your host family.

137. Search for the best falafel in Europe (top contenders imho: Rei de Kebab (Padua), Mr. Falafel (Brussels), L’as du Falafel (Paris)).

138. Go to a bull fight. Cheer for the torero.

139. Wonder what that person really meant when they said the first floor.

140. Try to see all 1000 Places to See Before You Die that are in Europe. Fail miserably but appreciate what you have seen.

141. Fly an obscure airline home. My pick: Pakistan International Airlines.

142. Wish you could respond "con mis ojos" when your boss asks you "como lo ves?"

143. Almost get used to boxed milk.

144. Look forward to finally coming to America.

145. Follow US news and change your mind.

146. Get a little grossed out every time you walk past the meat counter at lupa (pig feet, ears, cow tongues)

147. Make it on Spanish television.

148. Eat escargot in a French restaurant with everyone watching you.

149. Send a snail flying as you crack under the pressure.

150. Never see a lemming in Norway.

151. Get asked if you ever actually studied in Europe.

152. Wonder if you actually did.

153. Travel across Spain on your new best friend: Alsa bus.

154. Use a Spanish paddle ball set to play American baseball with German kids at the beach

155. Pop open a bottle of wine along the river in Paris. Take swigs with your friends.

156. Appreciate Nadine Porter for all she does. Send her a post card from Paris.

157. Meet some truly incredible people.

158. Wonder if you will ever come back to Spain.

159. Fly home at long last.

160. End up broke and happy.

161. Struggle on the last twenty of your 161 things list but in the end finish strong.

I also figured I should start a list of tips for people who are doing this program, or even more generally, any study abroad program. Some are common sense or maybe opinions, but this is some of the stuff I wish I had known before coming, or glad I did do just by chance.

1. Fly into Europe with someone you know. I flew into London a few days early with friends so I could travel a little before classes. It was a nice, slow adjustment to Europe. I had people I knew with me to ease the transition, and I was able to deal with the initial shock of being on a new continent while not having to deal with a language barrier at the same time. I found really cheap flights on studentuniverse.com from JFK to London Heathrow. The only problem was getting from London to Santander. RyanAir flies from London Stansted to Santander, and it is usually reasonable, but only if you are flying without luggage. RyanAir loves to kill you with luggage fees and are really strict about their luggage rules. EasyJet flies from London to Bilbao, which might be a better choice if you have a lot of luggage, because extra bags are a lot more reasonable with EasyJet, and getting from Bilbao is relatively easy by train or bus, it’s just a bit more of a hassle.

2. Which brings me to my second tip: pack your luggage in accordance to the rules of the airlines you are using. ALL of the airlines. Transatlantic flights are usually more generous in their allowances than flights within Europe, so be prepared. You don’t want to be throwing half of your belongings into a trash can at Stansted Airport, but it could happen if you don’t want to be charged outrageous fees. Know that you can always buy things over here. If you do over pack, wear your heaviest clothes and layer. You may be uncomfortable for a flight, but it could save you from tossing out even more belongings or seeing a homeless man staring at your poster of Johnny Depp wearing your old dress outside of the airport.

3. Cantabria specific: Come to the first language class if at all possible. I didn’t do this, but wish I had been able to. I missed it because my internship ran into August, and I wouldn’t have passed up the internship, but if it makes sense, enroll in the August language class. You get to have smaller classes, get better at the language, and have the best weather to enjoy the beaches. You also learn the city really well. A month in and I am still a little lost when it comes to the city, but the other Cornell students, who have been here a month longer, really know their way around.

4. Take your time in finding a place to live. I rushed into a place because I really wanted to settle into an apartment before classes started. Living with a host family is expensive, but it really helps to adjust to the culture and experience home life in Spain. That being said, I am glad I started searching right away. I both searched online and went to the piso board at the University. I found a decent place, but only looked at two places. I definitely feel I could have found a better place had I taken another week to look.

5. Live with Spanish or Erasmus students. This will force you to speak Spanish when you are home. Erasmus students like to speak English too, though, so make it clear you want to practice your Spanish.

6. Do everything you can in Spanish. Buy a book in Spanish to read. Watch TV in Spanish. If you keep a blog like I did, try to write the majority of your entries in Spanish. Speak as much Spanish as possible. Make the other Cornell students speak Spanish with you when you hang out. It is too easy to speak English, force yourself to learn the language.

7. Travel as much as you can. This includes within Spain in addition to Europe. Make the best of your breaks by planning ahead to save money and book better trips. Go to as much class as you can, but don’t worry about missing some days. You came to Europe to experience the cultures and travel, so take advantage of what is here.