I am losing my faith in the dollar. Since I've arrived, the exchange rate here has gotten worse. The exchange rate is still in our favor, but only slightly. When I exchanged money the other day, I actually got less money back than I gave to the bank. The bank teller was shocked and was showing it to the other tellers; he said he's never seen that before ... great. Note to family: No more sending cards with money in them. Just deposit it in my account.

I've come to the realization that the European economy makes no sense. I can fly from Cork to London for eight euro, yet I can't find a beer for less than four. (Not that I'm looking for beer, it's just an example, Mom). Then there is the cost of laundry. The machines are tiny, and it's three euro per wash and three euro per dry. I'm sorry, but I value a safe flight to another country more than I value two beers or a few loads of laundry.

Ich bin nur von Skifahren in Innsbruck, Österreich zurückgekehrt, und es war unglaublich! Ich werde die Fotos "sprechen" lassen. Ich fliege nach Hamburg morgen!

Sorry, dear readers, for not having the time to update you on the happenings of my life over the past two weeks or so... but as they say, "Rome wasn't built in a day!" So with midterms, deadlines, trying not to get sick, and making travel plans, things around here have been a liiiittle nuts. However, I am glad to report that in the meantime I have visited quite a few (more) breath-taking works of art, successfully convinced my mother to come visit me for the second week of spring break, and gone to Venice. For having so much on my plate, I'd say that's not too shabby.

Last weekend, members of Bucknell en Espana had a four-day weekend. Emily, Vicki and I choose to spend our weekend in Brussels, Belgium. Even though we happen to be living in Europe, travel to other countries is not as easy as we had imagined. It took us about 14 hours to travel from Granada to Brussels, which is about the same time it took us get from New Jersey to Granada in January.

Three written exams, one oral exam, and two papers later, it's finally time for spring break! While the last week has been a whirlwind of studying, internship phone interviews, travel planning, and transferring all my perishable groceries from my refrigerator to my stomach, I finally get to relax for the next three weeks and really enjoy everything that Europe has to offer (not to suggest that I didn't enjoy the whole food transfer thing..)

I've been so busy! I can't believe that we have just ended week six. I've been doing so much. I have been traveling alot. The last two weekends I was in Ireland, once to visit see my friend in Cork, and then a trip to Dublin with my Irish Lit course. They were both great, but meant that my weekdays have been really busy doing work.

Here are a series of photos I have taken over the last few weeks while in Bath and during my weekly visits to Oxford. I try to have my camera on me at all times. I like taking pictures of trees, and I love the sky, but I have also tried to start taking more pictures of people, and am losing my shyness about doing so, although sometimes I feel slightly stalkerish.

I'm excited about the classes that I'm taking. They all seem they are going to be a lot of fun (well, except for one of my very math-based engineering classes, but that is to be expected). A class that has been particularly interesting is Archaeology of Sydney. I took an archaeology class at Bucknell and really enjoyed it, so I thought this class would be a great way to learn about the city. So far we've discussed the imperialism that was taking place in the world that lead up to different nations claiming Australia as well as what life was like for the first European settlers. Fun fact: Holland claimed the western part of Australia before the English claimed the area that is now Sydney. We're taking several field trips to the older sections of Sydney to look at old buildings/neighborhoods and current archaeological dig sites. The lecturers are really engaging and funny which makes the class even better.

In case you didn't know, Greece is predominantly Greek Orthodox Christian. Something like 99 percent of the population. On the Orthodox calender, Easter has to come after Passover and this year it falls five weeks later than the Roman Catholic Easter. So, to make a long story short, Carnival was for the past three weeks and clean Monday was today because everyone in the country starts fasting tomorrow.

Nach einer Woche in Hamburg bin ich noch hier! Ich und die anderen drei neuen Studenten sind letzte Woche am Dienstag angekommen. Seit dann haben wir ein Orientierungprogramm gehabt. Den ersten Tag haben wir nur viel Büroarbeit gemacht und die andere Smith Studenten und Programprofessoren kennengelehrnt. Wir haben die letzten Tage Hamburg erforscht, unsere Orientierungklasse begonnen, und ein paar deutsche Studenten kennengelernt.

Bonjour encore a Paris!

After a grueling two weeks of tests and papers and projects and presentations and what have you, the worst of the semester is over and spring break has begun (and it really couldn't have come at a better time). So yesterday, Emily and I packed up all our things, moved out of our room, and shipped off to our first stop: la belle ville qu'ils appellent Paris. And I must say that although I've come to love Rome, Paris is still one of my favorite places in the whole world... and thus, as the song goes, "j'ai deux amours."

It's about time for another blog entry ... now that I have some good material to write about. The past school week was relatively uneventful. St. John's had a cricket game against another college, we had a long meeting, I went to a few dance classes, and I caught up with some friends. On Wednesday I trekked into the city with a friend to do a little shopping for our upcoming outback trips. Becca had looked online and found the location of one or two outdoor stores. We headed off to the first and stumbled upon one while on the way. We looked around for a bit and BAM, saw that there was another next door. Almost every store on the block was an outdoor store carrying essentially the same merchandise. So FYI, if you're ever in Sydney and in need of some boots, one block of Kent Street has about 10 stores to choose from.

One of the hardest things about leaving Spain was saying goodbye to all the friends I had made through NOS. (For those who only started reading this semester, NOS was an LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender organization in Granada). My involvement with NOS was one of the highlights of the semester. I became a part of the Granada lgbt community and made some close friends. (And I spoke a lot of Spanish with them.) Leaving was hard and my only consolation was the thought that I will have the opportunity to visit in the future, and also the hope that I would make good friends here in Bath.

You didn't think the kid studying abroad in Cork would neglect to write about St. Patrick's Weekend, did you?

I don't know about anyone else's programs, but Arcadia in Greece is no walk in the park when it comes to academics. I still have to work my butt off to get good grades in my classes. This past week was my mid-term week. I had two written mid-terms, one paper, and a very odd little project for our Greek seminar class.

As I type these words, the clock says 3:15 a.m. on March 23. My taxi taking me to the airport will be picking me up at 4 a.m. on March 23 .... uh oh.

Vatican City. We didn't exactly have the best weather for touring through Rome this past weekend. But we were in Rome, so it totally didn't matter.

After a couple weeks of shoddy Internet connections, marvelous adventures, and oh so much more, all roads have indeed led me back to this lovely little pocket of the world we call Rome. Let me just take a moment to heave a sigh (SIGH) and settle down comfortably on my bed so as to prepare myself to tell my tale. While certainly no epic, it is a tale filled with romantic landscapes, both gray and sunny skies, and quite a few pleasant surprises. This, ladies and gentleman, is a story I like to call "Spring Break 2008."

22 days, eight cities, and probably about 35 pounds later, I'm back in Copenhagen! While I had an absolutely unbelievable few weeks of travel and was in a continuous state of shock that I am fortunate enough to do all the things I got to do, I must say that I am really glad to be home. And weird, I just called Denmark home...

While I've done my fair share of traveling before, with a cross-country road trip from Virginia to Seattle and countless trips to soccer tournaments or to visit family and friends, the European travel with its plush EuroStar trains, frustrating RyanAir scams, and Venetian water taxis was a whole new arena.

Monday afternoon my friends all flew out of Pisa (after nearly an hour of arguing with RyanAir employees) back to where they're studying in Barcelona, and I began what would end up being one of the most miserable nights I can remember.