Last Minute Whirlwind European Adventures (Part deux)

First I should mention a little bit about school. So far I have finished four classes, French, Introduction to European Integration, Management of International Teams, and Luxury Brands Management. This leaves a couple exams for our final exam week. Those classes are International Marketing, and Principles of International Commerce. I know it may seem like school here is not a big part of my life in Europe, but that is not true. Classes here are just differently structured. One week I had one class for six hours in one day, but then I didn’t have that class for a couple of weeks. So some days are extremely course heavy, while other days have no courses at all. This will be one of the hardest adjustments once I get back to the United States. The consistency of BGSU’s course schedule will be very difficult for me once I return.

Also, school is fantastic, but it is much more fun to write about my trips and adventures outside of the classroom ;)

That being said, my most recent trip was a seven day spree in Italy for our Spring Break. I went on this adventure with Joe, Faith and Kate. Faith and Kate are two fellow Americans who came to Strasbourg the second semester. Our plan was for Joe and me to go with the girls to Venice and Florence, then we would break off from them and go to Rome for Easter Sunday.

First was Venice. We had spent the night in Frankfurt and flew out of that airport to Venice. Since it is so water-locked we had to take a water taxi to the city center. Then we went to find our hostel. We ended up getting a private four bedroom extremely close to the main parts of the city. We were about a ten minute walk from Rialto Bridge. This is the major bridge in Venice. It is filled with vendors and shops. We spent the rest of our time there just walking around and seeing sights such as the Piazza San Marco, Grand Canal, and the waterfront. It was nice to casually walk around and just enjoy the sun, and the gelatoJ. We also went on a gondola ride which was fun to do just like in all the movies and pictures you see about Italy.

Next was Florence, which as was about a two hour train ride from Venice. We got one of the last available trains which had two transfers. We were all very nervous, but knew we could make all the connections as long as we stayed focused and didn’t take our time. We made it and went to our hostels to relax for a little bit. Since we were leaving on different days Joe and I had a different hostel than Kate and Faith. They were only about a twenty minute walk apart so it wasn’t too bad. We spent our first night getting pizza and walking around taking pictures of the churches and sights at night. Then Joe and I went to Academia di Belle Arti di Firenze to see the Statue of David the next morning. We got up early enough that the line was not that long. Once we got inside there were several rooms of paintings before we got to the space where David was. It was one of those things where you really don’t know how great something is until you see it for yourself. I was shocked at the size of the statue, of course I knew it was big, but I had no clue. I loved that I got to see it during my short time in Venice. Unfortunately it started raining as soon we left the museum so we tried to do mostly indoor shopping and staying indoors for the rest of the day.

Later that night, Joe and I had to catch yet another train to Rome. We ended up getting to our hostel around 9pm (21:00). We looked up the best way to get to St. Peter’s Square and went to bed early knowing that we had to get up early the next morning. Unfortunately the rain continued Easter morning. We got to the square an hour before mass started. The square started filling up very quickly. But since it was raining everyone had umbrellas, and myself being vertically uninclined I was not able to see very well. I was able to snag glances at the big screen monitor. The rain continues all morning, so we did not stay the whole mass. It was still one of the top things on my European Bucket list, so I was so happy I was able to attend. The rest of the day we lounged around the room since it was far too rainy to do anything else outside. The next day we did a hop on hop off bus of Rome. We were able to see the Coliseum, the Roman Forum, the Parthenon, Trevi fountain, and we stopped by and took another look at St. Peters square. It was a super tiring day, but worth it to be able to see all the history and architecture of the city.

Sorry for the large post. So much to do with so little time. Thanks for sticking with me throughout this whole crazy adventure.

Until Next Time, 

Your fellow falcon, 

Carly 

View from our hostel in Venice 

Parthenon in Rome  

Colosseum 

The statue of David in Florence, Italy 

Rainy Easter Sunday in St. Peter's Square 

Gondola ride in Venice  

Church in Florence 

Last Minute Whirlwind European Adventures (Part Une)

Sorry it has been so long since I've written. The last couple of weeks have truly gone by so quickly. But I’ll catch you up with what I have been doing while I’m finishing up my time during this study abroad adventure. 

First I went on a school trip called La route de Vines, it was a wine tour where students went to several vineyards and a gingerbread museum. It was fun to get to travel around the Alsace region. Since I have spent so much time traveling through Europe as a whole it was a good chance to visit more of France. The wine was fantastic ;)

Next I was able to go to this Gala thrown by EM Strasbourg. It was themed “One Night in Paris” I went to dinner with a group of Erasmus students before and went to the hall shortly after. It was very much like an American prom, except with a bar and a professional DJ. He was a famous French DJ by the name of Breakbot. But it did have professionals taking photos, along with girls taking their shoes off when they became too much too handle when dancing. Hundreds of kids went and it was so much fun. We danced all night, and it was a bit different than other events thrown by the school.

The next big trip I went on was to Portugal, Lisbon. It was to visit two of my close friends from the first semester here at EM. Joe went with me and it took a lot of traveling to get there. It was very exhausting. But still so much fun. We flew from Strasbourg to Porto, Lisbon. Then from there we took a train to Lisbon where Raquel picked us up at the station. Her choral group had just finished a concert a couple of hours ago. So they were all hanging out. So she drove us from the station straight to the restaurant they were all at. Once we walked in it was like a scene from a movie; they were all singing and playing instruments at the table. It was funny to experience, especially after traveling all day. We stayed there and had some traditional Portuguese food, then we walked around the city a little before we decided it was time to go back to Raquel’s house to get some sleep.

The next morning we woke up and went to the Belém Tower which is right on the water. It was early but it was still so hot out. It was so different than the weather I had been experiencing in Strasbourg in the days before. Once we finished there we went to have lunch at Raquel’s house with her family. It was an odd meal because her cousin and aunt could speak English, but her mom, dad and grandma could only speak Portuguese. This lead to a lot of laughs and translations. It was so nice getting to hang out with all of them. After our mean we were going to meet our other friend from Erasmus, Filipa, at the Rua Augusta Arch. We walked around a lot with her, catching up and seeing more of the city. It was so beautiful and so warm. Once it started getting late Filipa had to go home to finish some school work, so we went back to Raquel’s to eat dinner. We went out again to go shopping for a bit, before going to Raquel’s for the night.

The next day consisted of sad goodbyes and then a lot of traveling. Joe and I had an exam the next day, so we spent the train and plane ride studying. 

Until Next Time 

Your French Falcon, 

Carly 

Belém Tower - Lisbon, Portugal 

Rua Augusta Arch

Lunch break during la Route de Vins  

Lisbon, Portugal 

EM Strasbourg Gala 

Lisbon, Portugal 

Barca! Barca! Barca!

During my winter break, I went to Barcelona, Spain. I visited several Erasmus students who had gone home after our first semester. We started by taking a train to Basel, Switzerland, where we got the plane to Barcelona. Our plan was to stay from Wednesday to Sunday. I went with three other students from the United States. I was interested to see how my three years of high school Spanish would help in this situation. But for those of you who don’t know, Barcelona citizens usually speak a language called Catalan. Catalan is a mixture of French and Spanish. Some words are easily recognizable, while others are not. We arrived in Barcelona on Wednesday afternoon and we were greeted by our friend Elsa, who had studied at EM last semester. She helped us get to our hostel. We were pretty tired from the trip, so we got something to eat then took one of our first siestas (where you un-shamefully rest in the middle of the day)! The next day we went on an Infamous Hop On/Hop Off bus tour. This is where you ride on a double decker bus through all the city’s highlights and you can decide if you want to explore a certain landmark more by simply hopping off of the bus. Then you hop on another one later to continue the journey. Since Barcelona is so huge, we thought this would be our best way to see everything we wanted. Stops where we “hopped off” included the Sagrada Familia; a famous church that is still being built today, Guell Park; a beautiful park constructed by the famous architect Gaudi, and Camp Nou; the stadium of the Football Club Barcelona. We stayed on the bus all day and had a lot of fun. The next day we got to do what we all were craving, the beach. It was around 60 degrees Fahrenheit (or 15.5 degrees Celsius). It was not the warmest of days, but still way better than the weather we had in Strasbourg. We got ready and spent almost all day at the beach. It was a funny sight, because the locals were there in scarves and sweaters while we wore t-shirts and flip flops. Saturday we got a tour from Elsa around the Parliament, along with the Arc de Triompf. It was good to hang out with her again since I hadn't seen her since Christmastime. Our final day ended with us going to Tibidabo. It is an amusement park and a church on the top of one of the highest hills. The view was fantastic on the way up and even though our pictures did not turn out as well as we hoped, it was still so cool to see. After that, some of my friends went out for one last night out, but I decided to stay in and pack for our early flight the next day. I loved visiting Erasmus students and getting a tour from someone who actually lives there. I hope that one day, if they are ever in the United States, I can do the same for them!

Erasmus group in front of the Arc! 

La Sagrada Familia

Our group at Park Guell 

Entrance to Camp Nou

At the beach! 

So much to do, so little time

Sorry I haven’t written as frequently this semester. It seems that every week has just been flying by. I am trying to figure out how to fit all the things I still want to do in my dwindling time here.

Since it’s taken me so long to write I actually have quite a lot to tell you about my travels.

So far this semester I have been to: Milan, Italy, Disneyland Paris, and Zurich, Switzerland. I've pretty much traveled every weekend since school has started back up. I cannot even begin to count up the amount of hours I've spent on buses…

First, I had the chance to take my first trip to Italy by visiting Milan. These are trips organized through the school, so we usually take a bus on Friday night and arrive on Saturday morning. This gives us all of Saturday and part of Sunday to explore the city. We spent most of the time in the main square of the Duomo cathedral. It was abuzz with activity. So many people, performers and of course shopping, filled the areas around the church. We climbed to the top where we were able to take some beautiful pictures of the building. Then we went and got gelato along with some food. It was a great trip. We spent a majority of it in that square, since every time we were there we found something new to do or see. On Sunday, some of us also went to a castle. We did not have time to go up inside, but we were able to walk through the courtyard area and walk around it. It is still so cool to see things like castles and other older buildings. They are a part of each countries rich history that the US is just not old enough to have yet.  

Then after a week of working hard in class ;) I went on another trip to Disneyland Paris. I have never gone to Disney in the States before so I was very excited to see what was in store for me. I love all things Disney related, so I knew that I would have a great time. We arrived around 10AM and stayed the whole day. Our first ride was the Mad Hatter spinning teacups. Our second was It’s A Small World. I was very excited for that ride because that’s all I hear about when people are talking about Disney. The ride was an extra special experience for me, considering that’s about how I feel being here, with all the cultures I am getting to know and experience. We rode a lot more rides through the day and ended with the firework show at Sleeping Beauty’s castle. That was probably one of my favorite parts of the day. It was interesting because they played the songs from the movies that were set in France in French such as; Beauty and the Beast, Ratatouille, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. All the others they played in English. I thought it was a unique way to incorporate both major languages that visited there.

Finally, last week I was in Zurich, Switzerland. When we arrived on Saturday morning, some of us decided to take a walking tour where we learned the history of some of the major churches and other buildings. It was a good way to figure out what to see later and where to explore further. Once the tour was over Joe and I, along with some new French friends we met on the tour, went to the top of the church (You do that a lot in Europe, the tops of churches are very popular locations to visit). I loved the views and it was neat to see the combination of houses, mountains, and rivers. The next day, our group went hiking. I’ll start off by saying, I will never be a professional hiker (if that is even a profession). I am glad I did it, but for me, getting to the top was not the pretties of sights. It was slippery and I probably didn't have the best footwear on (you were right mom and dad). I ended up falling… a lot. I was one of the last ones to the top, but I made it! So the takeaway is that I will never be a pro hiker (or even a proficient amateur one), but I can say that I climbed a mountain in Switzerland. It was cloudy at the top, but that’s what made it cool. It looked like you were much higher than you actually were. It almost felt like you were on top of the world. We took the tram down, thank goodness. Then we all explored the city some more and did some souvenir shopping before it was time to get back on the bus and head home.

This past week has been loaded with schoolwork due to our upcoming winter break. I have had two presentations, one report and one French midterm this week, so I am ready for this break. School, although sometimes crazy, has also been very interesting. I am liking my professors and classes and I am curious to see how the rest of the semester turns out. Once again, it is full of group work and presentations, so I should be a master at them when I return to BGSU.

The countdown is getting low for my time here. I am starting to get conflicting emotions about wanting to return home and wanting to remain here in Strasbourg. It will be crazy to see what is in store for me during my last few months here.

Until next time!

Your French Falcon,

Carly 

Milan, Italy 

Milan, Italy Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

Spinning on the Bull for good luck! 

The castle

Another one in front of the castle 

Disneyland Paris!

Ending fireworks at Sleeping Beauty's castle 

Our lunch restaurant 

Outside Walt Disney Studios 

Our group of hikers! 

Zurich, Switzerland 

Top of the church 

One of the calmer parts of the climb

Finally made it to the top 

The view! 

The Beginning of the End

School is underway once again here in Strasbourg. I am going to receive my grades from my courses last semester very soon. It’s taking a very long time to get them! I am excited and nervous to see how I did. While thinking about that, I must also focus on the new semester. I am taking 6 courses again. They are: Management of International Teams, Cases in Marketing, Principles of International Commerce, European Integration, Luxury Brands Management, and Basic French II. Since four of these six classes are in my core Bachelor’s in European Management (BEM) curriculum, I already know a majority of the students in them. It’s a lot less stressful knowing you have friends in all of your classes. It also makes group work a lot easier since you do not have to stress about finding people to work with. So far, I have had a couple weeks of classes and I can tell it will be challenging. I am excited to finish my time studying here on a good note and that means getting good grades!


On the travel side of my journey, I was able to visit Ireland before school started.

Ireland was amazing, although getting there was a bit difficult. It took almost an entire day’s worth of traveling to finally arrive. It was also one of the longest travel experiences I did alone. It felt a bit strange since I had just been traveling with my family. It took me two trains and a plane before I finally arrived in Limerick, Ireland to stay with my one of my classmates and her family. My first day there we went shopping and she took me on a small walking tour around the city. It was interesting to see all the history of Ireland and Limerick which was abundant in the buildings, bridges and roads.
That night another friend from Dublin along with a fellow BGSU classmate joined us. We woke up early the next morning and my friend Mairead’s uncle drove us to the Cliffs of Mohor. It was beautiful sight to see and allowed us to travel through a lot of scenic farmland to get there. The Cliffs of Mohor has been featured on TV and in the movies with a large presence in the Harry Potter films. It was a breathtaking view and we went on a day clear enough that you could really take in the enormous size of the cliffs.

That night we took a bus to Dublin. We stayed at one of the other Irish girls’ home. We were only in Dublin for a day and we spent a majority of it at the Guinness factory. I have taken brewery tours before, but this one was very special. We even got to be certified as Official Pourers of the Perfect Pint! Once we finished there we walked around downtown Dublin and saw Trinity College at night. We had an early flight back to Strasbourg, so we did not stay out too late. By the end of my trip it felt as though I had been all over Ireland. It was a great place and I really hope to go back in the future.


I know it’s technically the “beginning of the end” of my crazy study abroad experience but do not worry. I have still have plenty of trips planned and plenty more to tell you about from EM
Strasbourg!


A Biento!

Carly

All the girls! 

Cliffs of Moher

More from the Cliffs 

                     A dolmen 

Taste testing at Guinness 

Certified! 

Perfecting the Perfect Pint

Au Revoir et Boujour (Goodbye and Hello)

The end of the semester has past and it was filled with too many goodbyes to a lot of great people from around the globe. Thanks to technology, I know it will be easy enough to stay in touch with them and check in every now and then, but it still hurts knowing I will not be seeing them daily as I have been for the past four months. We had many opportunities to hang out in the final weeks (after finals of course) and that made it easier. We all gathered together several times before the holidays and were able to spend our last days together having fun and talking about past good times. I will never forget the people I have met so far during this experience. They have all helped me grow as a person and for that I am thankful.

On a much happier note, my mom, dad, and brother traveled from Cincinnati, Ohio to visit me over the holidays! It was great getting to show them around my home away from home. In their short time in Europe we visited Stuttgart, Germany, London, England, Paris, France and of course, Strasbourg. We had ten days of traveling and sightseeing and I loved every moment with them. With many of my friends from school leaving either for the semester or just the holiday season, a visit from my family was the perfect Christmas gift.

We began by enjoying Strasbourg, where we walked through the 'Christkindelsmärik' (Christmas markets) and attended the Christmas Eve midnight mass at Cathedrale Notre Dame de Strasbourg. We visited Stuttgart, where we visited the Mercedes Benz museum and enjoyed the Christmas spirit of the German city. Then we were off to London. It was exciting to visit London for a second time, and I think I was able to navigate the city better my second time around, making it a more enjoyable experience for everyone. We went to many of the major sights such as: the London Eye, Kings Cross Station, the Tower of London, the London Bridge, the Tower Bridge, Big Ben, Abbey Road and Buckingham Palace. We also went on a Jack the Ripper tour, which showed some of the murder sights and went more in depth on a darker side of London history. From London we headed to the final destination of our holiday, Paris. While there, we visited places like: the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, and enjoyed even more Christmas markets all along the Champs-Elysées. Finally, went to the Père Lachaise Cemetery and saw the graves of people like Jim Morrison, Chopin, and Oscar Wilde. I am so thankful they came out to visit me and I was able to show them a little of what I have been doing here in Europe.

The start of spring semester is approaching fast. It won’t be long until I am back in classes, writing papers, doing group work, and preparing presentations.

I hope your holiday season was as eventful and joyful as mine; I extend best wishes for a healthy and prosperous new year to all!

Your French Falcon,

Carly 

Eiffel Tower at Night 

Père Lachaise Cemetery at Jim Morrison's Grave

Arc de Triomphe

View from the top of the Arc de Triomphe

Kings Cross Station 

Outside the Mercedes Benz museum

Inside the Mercedes Benz museum

Stuttgart, Germany

Christmas time in Strasbourg

London Eye

Crowd at the Christmas Eve midnight mass