Catie Prechtel is a student here and she is studying in Sevilla, Spain! She was nice enough to send us a link to her blog. I will have an exerpt here and I will also leave the link in case you want to see what other adventures she is having in Sevilla!

2-2-13
Today was our first day of rest. I woke up pretty late in the morning, and spent quite a while relishing in the fact that I didn't have to rush off to some tour or meeting. I didn't even leave the apartment until we had eaten lunch, which was around 2:45. I think I'm getting used to the later eating schedule finally!

When I finally did leave, I met up with Ali and Shelby and lots of the other people from our school group, and we went to the Plaza de España/María Luisa Park. I absolutely love the Plaza de España! It's so incredibly beautiful! As always, there's amazing detail in the Spanish tiles, and the architecture is gorgeous. There's a little pond that runs around the courtyard, and you can even take boats on it! I think I already said this before, but this Plaza appeared in Star Wars, and here's the scene:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVQyW1n5ECY
However, those blue/green domes in the background are completely added. The plaza and the columns as well as any of the porcelain railing and tiles are all real. Also, this scene is a good reminder of what a terrible actor Hayden Christiansen is, and the fact that it must be crazy expensive to fly actors all over the world just to get that one perfect shot for a movie.

In my desperate search for a sweater to help me from freezing on those cold mornings and evenings that we still have, I broke down and bought a $20 sweater with the Universidad de Sevilla logo. I feel so hip! I'm also proud that $20 is the most I've spent on anything since I came here. The majority of my money goes to food and postcards, both of which I will be cutting back on as I get more settled. I've realized that it's incredibly expensive to get money out of ATMs here- a withdrawal of $100 should not have a $37 exchange fee!!! There goes 5 meals I will never have. Nobody takes food away from Catie. I officially declare war on banks (though I think I probably should have done that a long time ago!).

While I was sporting the new sweatshirt, we all stopped at a gelato place to get my new favorite dessert: fresh-baked waffles with gelato on top. It was so delicious! Never had a better waffle in my life. The gelato, on the other hand, decided it would be cool to drip all over my new sweater swag, which was quite a moment of panic for me. However, I managed to save it in a Burger King restroom. All is well. Got to videochat with Mom and Dad today, which is always a treat! I'm turning in early because I am utterly exhausted.

For those of you who are curious about which classes I'm going to take, here's my tentative schedule:

Monday:
-Art and Society
-Cultural Anthropology and Art

Tuesday:
-Islamic Law
-Art and Society
-Cultural Anthropology and Art
-Anthropology of Sexuality

Wednesday:
-Islamic Law
-Art and Society
-Anthropology of Sexuality
-Art and Market in Contemporary Society
-Cultural Anthropology and Art

Thursday:
-Islamic Law
-Art and Society
-Anthropology of Sexuality
-Art and Market in Contemporary Society



Seems like quite a load, and I'm not sure if the classes are at the right levels that I need to be able to transfer them at, so we'll see how it all goes!

Here is the link to the rest of her blog!

http://catieinspain.blogspot.com

Plant Earth: The Live Version - Kelsey Shaw

*Kelsey Shaw is studying primates in Madagascar for this semester, and has given us permission to copy posts about her trip from her personal blog.

We just got Internet today for the first time since the first couple days we were here. This is actually the first time we’ve had non-generator powered electricity too. It’s crazy how much you take things like Internet and electricity for granted at home.

Anyways…for our first couple days here we sight saw in Antananarivo, known locally as Tana. We went to the zoo, the chocolate factory, and just walked around one of the main hills of the city. Everything is so different than anywhere I’ve been, the city is crazy disorganized and there is no such thing as a straight road. Then, not even 5 minutes outside of Tana, there are villages with houses made of sticks and clay or all sticks. The difference is so stark it’s amazing.

But for the last 10 days we’ve been camping in this amazing rain forest called Maromizaha and then staying in really basic bungalows at a park called Analalava, which is currently run by Missouri Botanical Gardens (MBG). At Maromizaha we were taught how to survey and sample the wildlife of the park, primarily the lemurs, by a woman named Jody doing her phD research on two of the lemur species in the park. This was by far one of the most incredible experiences of my life. We went on diurnal and nocturnal hikes (so 2 hikes a day going from about 1000m elevation to about 1200m) through mud and brush and I must admit, I feel like I’m in pretty good shape now, even though we only did that for 5 days. It helped that the food was amazing. As part of doing research in Maromizaha, Jody had to hire guides, a guard, and cooks, which is the parks way of helping the local economy, and everyone she hired was so good at doing their job! The guides all know the forest like the back of their hands and can tell you the name of any plant you ask them about. They also would go out in the mornings we were practicing sampling (basically following a group of lemurs around and noting what they do all day) and do circuits of the trails in order to find the lemur groups for us. The cooks made the best camp food I’ve ever had…maybe even some of the best food period, even though it was similar every meal. It was always rice, either curried beans or lentils, and stewed vegetables. I have no clue what spices they used but everything was so yummy. I should have asked so I could make it when I get home! That is one thing I want to buy, a Malagasy cookbook. One thing about Maromizaha I wasn’t too fond of was the weather. It was so cold and rainy. I guess I should have assumed that seeing as it’s a high altitude rain forest but still, when I think tropical mid- 40’s is not what I would guess.

From Maromizaha we went to a small beach town called FoulPointe, which looks weird in English but is actually a French name. Taking my first shower after 5 days of hard hiking was nice, but I didn’t have any clean clothes to change into so it didn’t really make a difference. After one night in FoulPointe we went to the park called Analalava where MBG is working on botany related things. The botanists are working on cataloging all the plants of the park and there was a British guy named Simon working on ecological restoration experiments. I can’t say I like botany…at all. It was so hard to learn a semester’s worth of knowledge in 2 days and get tested on it. But I think it went well (knocking on wood).

After a 10 plus hour bus drive, we were in Tana for a night, fighting over Internet access. We didn’t get much down time though because the next morning we were on another 10+ hour bus ride to go to Centre ValBio in Ranomafana. This is a our ‘permanent’ home while we’re here and its absolutely gorgeous. They just built this amazing building with dorms and labs and a library. The dorms are awesome because we don’t have to camp for the 2 months we are here. But we have just enough time to get settled and then we’re off on our 10-day cross country journey. I’m so excited to see all the different ecosystems Madagascar has to offer and to get some beach time!

Sorry I feel like this is a very insufficient post for everything I’ve done since I left but I can’t think of what to write, so ask me questions!!

Transitioning to Spanish Life - Aaron Cochrane

Hey all, I’m Aaron Cochrane and I’m currently in Salamanca, Spain. I’ve been in Spain for almost three weeks now, and I feel like I’ve discovered where I belong – life here seems very relaxed and easygoing, and midday siestas are common to facilitate staying up pretty late every night. In particular, I like the part of the Spanish lifestyle that involves tapas. Tapas are small inexpensive portions of food that people just drop in to eat and chat with friends. The snacking makes “real” meals much farther apart (8am, 2:30pm and 9:30pm) but helps to meet new people and try new foods constantly. I love just wandering whatever city I happen to be in (Segovia, Madrid, Toledo and Salamanca so far) and randomly stopping for tapas at some local place whenever I get hungry.
 

 Transitioning to Spain was a bit difficult at first because of the time difference (9 hours) and the Spaniards’ heavy accents, but really it’s quite a bit like the US as far as everyday life goes. There’s some things I miss from home already (my car, for example) but in general studying abroad hasn’t been too harsh of a change for me. I’ve had a week of classes so far that are all in Spanish but are geared towards international students so they’re not too fast-paced, which is great because I still need quite a bit of practice before I would be able to take a “real” fast-paced university class in Spanish. The next couple weeks make up a separate, shorter term for us that is designed for integration and Spanish learning, and hopefully by the time that the actual semester starts in late September I’ll be completely up to speed.

I hope all is well in the States, or wherever you may be!!

Hello World!

Welcome to our brand new Study Abroad Blog. Here you will find posts from Pacific students pursuing their dreams around the world. Currently students are still preparing to depart, so we look forward to bringing you posts from a variety of locations once the school year starts.

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Cheers ~ Adios ~ 再見 ~ Tchüß ~ さよなら ~ Au revoir ~ Arrivederci