A short visit mit meine Eltern

After a wonderful week and a half in Rome, Madrid, and Barcelona… and four months since I arrived in Freiburg, my parents finally made it here. Nothing felt better than to see their faces when I met them Tuesday afternoon in the cobblestone streets of Freiburg.

While they were here, I took them to one of the few local breweries, Feierling, ate at one of the fanciest restaurants in all of Freiburg, The Columbi Hotel, and took a trip to the Black Forest for a great lunch and some tasty local wine. Plus, they saw where I study, sleep, and eat, and they even met some of my new best friends from the program.

Then they were off to Colmar, France until I joined them again in Strasbourg, France for the weekend. That weekend I was feeling a little under the weather, so having my parents there was perfect timing. At our hotel I took advantage of the sauna and rested up. (Good thing I was not in Freiburg because that same weekend there was a bar crawl through Freiburg with my program. No way would I have woken up and made it through that!) Still, Strasbourg was beautiful: the church, the canals, and the shops; the food was delicious: the crepes, the wine, foie gras, steak tartar; EVERYTHING!

Sunday morning I had to say goodbye to them until I would meet them again in a month. Until then, I have only a few weekends left: Spring Break in Split, Croatia (can’t wait!) and then two weekends in Freiburg: one weekend to study for finals and another for Model EU. Tuesday, May 17th is when the program is all over. Ahhhhh

Barcelona...So when can i come back?

Here are a few pictures to look at until I have time to write in my experience about the beautiful city of Barcelona... :

One of the many well renown buildings done by Gaudi, a Catalonian architect


At the Sagrada Familia, a Roman Catholic Church still a work in progress


But simply amazing and worth seeing


More views from the inside







At the bar Opium Mar for a Laidback Luke Concert (he is a DJ for those of you who are wondering)


At the beach with my friends... it was a really nice day out to relax (after eating a nice lunch of paella of course)!

Madrid and its Beautiful Architecture

After being in a city with monuments dating back to 27 BC, Madrid had a very different vibe. I could definitely tell I was in Spain with its architecture. Around Plaza Mayor (created around the 1560s), I could see many traditional buildings.... take a look:






I was also pleased to see an actual bullring, Las Ventas, as well as see gorgeous flowers at the Botanical Gardens and various pieces of art in Museo del Prado. Plus, I got to have one of my college friends show me a great tapas restaurant, El Tigre, and the local bars and clubs near Plaza del Sol. Very enjoyable.

On the other hand, It was depressing to hear their average unemployment was around twenty percent and for young adults ages 18-25 it was up to forty percent! Spain’s economy is not very healthy, but because it is a hot country and has lots of wind, solar panels and windmills will play a huge role in its future infrastructure. Still, Spain’s citizens are surprisingly one of the happiest people in the world in terms of their quality of life. Must be because of all their siestas.

Oh, and since one of our meetings got canceled, we had the opportunity to see the city of Toledo. Very cool, but small place gated with walls enclosing within it synagogues, Mosques, and churches. If you are looking to buy a nice sword or a rifle, don’t be afraid to look here mi amigo. I know my dad would like to visit this place for sure.

Rome=The Ancient City

Oh Roma, how much I love you. Even for the third time, you still cease to amaze me. After being there when Pope John Paul II passed away in the Spring of 2009 with my family and then again for New Years in 2007 with my Latin Class, Rome delights me with all of its glorious sites, delicious foods, and diverse crowds of people. Since so much has happened during this busy but exciting week of traveling, I will try to tell you all of the highlights but don’t expect me to go into much detail like in my past journal entries.
Leaving Freiburg and arriving in Rome on Thursday, we only had a few things planned. After checking into our hotel, we had our first meeting with a teacher from IES Rome that was to talk to us about Italy and its repelling relationship with the European Union (He also spoke about the powerful but dirty Prime Minister of Italy, Silvio Berlusconi.) On our way we stopped at the Ponte Sant'Angelo for a photo op.
After the meeting we walked up one of the seven hill of Rome to get a nice vew of the city before the sun went down. On our way to the Pallatine hill, we passed the famous Roman Forum the Coliseum.
The next two days I spent my time wandering through the many piazzas (i.e. Piazza di Spagne, Piazza di Trevi, and Piazza Navona), eating pizza, pasta, gelato, and drinking wonderful house wines from morning to nightfall. Oh, and don't worry Grandma, I did make it to the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel for the Sunday I was there. Gratzi Roma!

The Pictures