I hope your Thanksgiving break was relaxing and filled with great food. Thanksgiving is not a celebrated holiday here in the UK, so I decided to take my own little vacation to Barcelona for three days during Thanksgiving. It helped that I don't have class on Wednesday and Thursday. And I figured it would be a nice change in scenery. On the bright side it was a little warmer in Spain at the time as well.
Anyway, I went to Barcelona with some other study abroad students and we left on Wednesday morning. Traveling day was pretty long and enduring to say the least. We had to catch multiple trains while hauling our luggage and it was raining and cold in London. Then we had to catch a Coach bus to the airport which was almost two hours away. Finally, we arrived at the airport and went through the usual security check-in and blah blah blah. Once, all that was said and done we had a two hour wait (we wanted to be early just in case something went wrong) before flying over to Barcelona.
The plane ride was about two hours and once we landed in Barcelona we went through security again and had our passports stamped. We had made it to BARCELONA safely! Unfortunately, our day wasn't over just yet...we still had to figure out a way to our hotel/apartment. The first thing we all did was exchange some money and the lady working at the exchange office was really kind and she gave us directions on what bus to catch and how to travel by train to get around the city. After we all had our money we headed to the bus stop and made it to the underground train station and we were on our way to the hotel. After a LONG day of travel we had reached our destination! It was late and we were starving so we ate the first thing we could find...McDonalds! Yes, McDonalds is everywhere! Each McDonalds is also has custom changes to the menu depending on where you are. For example, we got a McDouble and the cheese on the burger was more of a sauce with a spicy kick and the the burger patties were laid side by side on Ciabatta bread. Never the less it was still really good.
The next day, we decided to buy passes to do Bus Tours of the city. This was a great deal because the passes were good for all the Buses and they traveled all over the city. It was nice to be able to sit back and just enjoy the ride and take in the all the beautiful places around us. I will post pictures from the tour. After spending a number of hours riding around on the Tour Bus we decided to get off in the shopping areas of Barcelona and look around. And finally by the evening we were all hungry and ate at a Spanish restaurant! The food in Barcelona was amazing and it was so nice to have a change of taste from the usual Fish and Chips in London.
On Friday, our last full day of the trip I was pretty tired so I decided to get up and eat breakfast with the group and then I napped for a few hours to regain some energy. Some of my friends decided to go out and see some different places they didn't catch and one friend worked on a paper. (SOME VACATION HUH?) In the evening we had dinner reservations a little restaurant and we were going to meet up with some other study abroad students from our school. They had just arrived in Barcelona! It was a fun Thanksgiving day, but definitely different not being at home with family and eating the usual turkey and fixings. However, we made the most of our time together and shared lots of laughs and good times. Finally, it was off to bed for an early wake up and travel back to London. Coming back was a little depressing mainly because as soon as we touched down in London we could feel the change of weather.
Overall, Barcelona was amazing and it's a beautiful city that I hope to visit again some day.
BACK IN LONDON:.....
I received back a graded essay assignment and was relieved that I did well. The grading system is very different here in London and at first I was worried I had done poorly and then I remembered the difference in grading scales. Overall, it was nice to see my hard work pay off and it will be nice to celebrate in Barcelona! Next up in all of my classes is basically the final assignments! I really can't even fathom the idea. I have enjoyed my classes overall and the knowledge I have obtained from my professor's and classmates has been insightful.
I went to the premiere of The Hunger Games: Mocking Jay Part 2. The film was really good and I thought the final film in the series was well put together. I didn't realize how big the movie would be here in the UK, but the theatre was packed! Thank God I preordered my ticket or I probably wouldn't have had a seat.
I can also say I have officially started wearing my winter coat due to the cold temperatures. Winter is here! The wind here in the UK is deadly and you mix that with rainy, cloudy days and it's no fun.
Coming up in the next few weeks there are a couple of final events that St. Mary's is doing for us international students which includes, The Winter Wonderland Festival. Here we will have the chance to ice skate and participate in other festive activities. This will be a fun way for all of us to get together again and have some fun before working hard on the final deadlines and assignments.
There will also be a "Last Hurrah" dinner and dance held for us international students. We will have a nice dinner and fun with one another and we are to bring a Brit to the event as well. This will be our very last event together as a group. I'm looking forward to having a good time with everyone before we go back to our home states.
Classes wise I have one more paper due in my Race and Representation class and it's on a topic of my choice which is nice! But, before I turn that in I have a presentation to give on my topic. These will be my last two assignments for this class.
In my Media Production class we are taking our radio scripts and making them into a "News Anchor" format in which we will film one another presenting our "talks." Basically, it will be like making a news package for our stories and we have to insert our own pictures and video to go along with the script.
And finally in Screen and Script we will begin pitching our short films to the video production students and also finalize our scripts and begin to make the creative pack. The creative pack is basically the actors and synopsis of the short film, mock budget, etc. all in one packet which is used when pitching as well. This is apart of our final assessment in the course as well.
Only a few weeks left before I return home!!! Until next time.
CHEERS!,
Ty G.
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