Alright....  I know I haven't posted in forever again....  things are really crazy, sorry!   So Fall Break!  I went to Poland, which was absolutely unbelievable.  We started in Warsaw, then went to Torun for a symposium, then ended the week in Krakow.  All three cities were gorgeous.  I now love Poland as well (this is really a problem, I kind of love every city that I go to... Europe is gorgeous).  We did a ton in Poland though because it was almost a full week, so here goes. 

Friday: Plane got in and then we went to dinner and just walked around Old Town.  It was a really chill night, but a good first day in the city.

Saturday: We had a tour Warsaw and of the Jewish ghetto.  It was a really long day and a lot of walking, but our tour guide was awesome and very informative.  Even though I have read a lot about WWII and the ghettos and the concentration camps and everything, there is always something new to learn, and so much history from this time period. 

 These are around Warsaw where the old walls of the ghetto used to be

 Iconic but controversial building in Warsaw.  It was a gift from the Soviets.

 Map of the old Jewish ghetto

 View of Warsaw

 View of Warsaw

 View of Warsaw

 Giving Christine a dirty look (I don't remember why)

 But Pedro saw (SLA, kind of like an RA) and decided that I needed a hug

Then he overdid it....

Later we went to the Warsaw uprising museum (where I mostly just have pictures of informational boards because I'm probably going to write a paper on it).  Then we went to the hotel that the alumni were staying for a quick lecture and drinks.  While we were there we saw the German national soccer team!  Which was awesome.  Here's some pictures of a few of them: 

The next day we went to Torun to start the conference. Train rides are boring, but we slept some

Left is Sam (my Poland roomie!!!) and right is Christine

That night was the opening of the symposium, and we watched Ghosts of Rwanda and listened to a panel.

John Kurowski (sp?) Head of the conference

 

Monday: We had the conference, and then we went to the gingerbread museum (which i must say was just a tad strange but pretty cool) 

 Carl Wilkens, the only American to stay in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide, and the keynote speaker at the symposium.  I could fangirl for a while, but basically he's just amazing and it was really awesome getting to know him.

Christine and I at the gingerbread museum

Tuesday: Train ride to Krakow (that was most of the day) and then a tour of Schindler's Factory

 Names of Jews helped by Schindler during the war

Wednesday: We had a guided tour of Auschwitz and Birkenau.  Easily the saddest day.

Thursday we had a tour of the salt mines, which was just kind of crazy.  Everything in there was made entirely of salt!!

And then we had out closing dinner

 Left side of table: Anne (professor) Dom, Matt, Andrew

Right side of table: Matt, me, Sam, Boshena (sp? professor)

 Group picture !!!

Friday we went home.  It was almost 12 hours of traveling, and it was really good to be home.  Here's some more pictures that I missed while trying to keep all of this organized (and failing) 

Saturday was a good day to just sit back and relax, and then Sunday was the hunger run in Rome! 

 Sam and I walking in our Team USA shirts

SLA Pedro pumping up the team !!!

The walk went right through downtown Rome.  I will never be used to the fact that just walking by the Colosseum is totally normal here.  Afterwards we went for an American barbeque at the ambassador's house.  Which was DELICIOUS I might add!!! 

All in all, Fall break was pretty awesome!!!  Next up will be the WWII trip and Greece where I leave for tomorrow (hopefully)  I promise I'll try to catch up eventually!!!

Ciao for now! 

Barcelona

Okay....  I know that it has been forever (again) since I've posted.  But in my defense I went to Barcelona, then had midterms, then left for Poland and just got home yesterday.  I feel like that's a decent reason that it hasnt been done.  So during the week before Barcelona nothing particularly important happened....  I studied a lot since midterms were the next week, and calcio on wednesday got rained out.  Nothing special.  But as soon as classes ended on Thursday Carly, Fiona, and I grabbed a cab and went down to Termini (the train station) to catch the bus to BARCELONA!  I was so excited it was unreal (though the 15 hour bus ride was less than exciting).  We watched movies and such and got in around 10 am Friday morning. 

This is a view of the city.  It was so wonderful.   When we got off the bus we checked into the hostel and then had a walking tour of the city.  We just saw a lot of the popular plazas and stores and such, but it was a good way to get acquainted fairly quickly.   This fountain was at the end of the tour:

 Then we went to Sagrada Familia, which was under construction but that did not make it any less beautiful.

 Virginia, Fyonna, and me

Fyonna and me

Friday night we went out for a little bit, and then Carly and I walked around a bit.  Saturday we woke up early and all headed over to a park where we got one of the best views of the city we could have imagined.  (The picture I opened with was from up there, as were these)

 We went up there for these three views:

So the park was gorgeous.  Then Carly and I wandered in the general direction of downtown to find a place to go to lunch.  We found a random place with really good chicken, and on the way we found a cupcake place that we said we'd come back to later (which we most definitely did).  We then went and took a short nap before headed to mass (in Spanish).  The church was absolutely gorgeous!

and I actually did manage to understand the majority of the ceremony!!!  When we left the church there were a bunch of people outside doing some traditional Spanish dancing.   We have absolutely no idea why this was happening but it was certainly cool!

Carly and I then just kinda picked a direction and started wandering.  We knew we wanted food but we weren't hungry yet and we didn't have any plans so why not right???  We ended up at the Christopher Columbus monument

Then we went and got paellas.   Sunday morning the bus left bright and early for our 15 hour ride home (less than fun).  But all in all Barcelona was an amazing trip.  The city was gorgeous, and there was just something about it that I fell in love with.  I could definitely see myself living there.  The rest of the week was pretty boring/awful.   I had a midterm Tuesday, a paper outline due Wednesday, and a 6-page paper due Thursday.  Plus all normal homework that was put off while I was in Spain (but Spain was totally worth it).   Also on Monday night while I PROBABLY should have been studying I agreed to run downtown with Aaron and Christine for a secret bakery trip (we may all have problems).  Again: great bad decisions

It was a much needed break to be honest.  Wednesday we played calcio, my team finally won a game!!! (miracles happen)    We beat team rosso (Anne and Aaron's team).  It was wonderful =)  But Christine got hurt which sucked since we were leaving for Poland on Friday... She was a trooper all week though.  I'll leave it there for now...  Poland was great, but I just don't have all of the pictures yet because not everyone is home and posting them.  I'll be sure to do that at some point this week!   Back to classes on Monday, bring it on.

Ciao