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| The Colloseum |
I know this post is a bit late, but I've been struggling with how I'm supposed to condense my Spring Break into a short blog post...Here it goes:
Things I learned while on my Spring Break:
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| My beautiful mother! |
- I really missed my mother. She came to visit and travel with me a bit, and I cried a bit when I finally got to see her. I definitely didn't expect to miss her and the rest of my family as much as I have been, but seeing her was a wonderful experience and will tie me over until I get home in May.
- MY SPANISH IS PRETTY FREAKING AMAZING! Haha! I had the opportunity to travel to Spain, and I was able to have conversations with people in Spanish. I COULD UNDERSTAND THEM AND THEY COULD UNDERSTAND ME! It was great! It was also nice to be able to go to a country where I could talk to people and it not be difficult! However, I will say that I inverted a lot of Arabic and French into my daily use, so I got some pretty weird looks...oh well! Dr. Mitchell and Dr. Hickman would be proud nonetheless! (I used the subjunctive!)
- My map reading skills are pretty on point and so is my sense of direction! I was by myself in Brussels for about five hours and two of those hours was without a map, but I was able to find my way to the city center relatively quickly without said map and without much direction...for whatever reason, Brussels is pretty dead at 9am in the morning...like...why do people sleep? Haha!
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| Manneken Pis |
- I only got Sofie and myself turned around one time...but she refuses to let me live it down even though I got us through Brussels AND Rome without dying with my AWESOME MAP SKILLS! I'm just saying...
- Public toilettes ARE NOT A THING IN EUROPE. Sofie and I would basically be afraid to drink a lot of water because we didn't want to have to keep paying for the toilette and a lot of places just won't let you use them if you don't buy something from their restaurant or whatever...ANNOYING.
- PAY PHONES ALSO DO NOT EXIST. I couldn't find the apartment we were staying in in Brussels, and I don't have a working phone outside of wifi, and I just needed to call the guy, but I couldn't find a FREAKING PHONE. HOW DO PEOPLE LIVE WITHOUT PAY PHONES AND WIFI?
- Free wifi is also NONEXISTENT. Again...sometimes you just need a working phone to call the people you're staying with so that you don't end up without a place to sleep...No worries though! We figured it out!
- Italy is truly an expression of heart and soul. I loved it. I loved being there...even though we were only there for about 20 hours. I can understand spoken Italian and can read most of it. The food is amazingly fresh. The people are lovely and the history is mind boggling...BASICALLY I JUST NEED TO MOVE THERE.
- Food is AMAZING IN EUROPE! I LITERALLY CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF IT! I ate Manchego cheese, Tortilla de España, and tapas in Spain; mussels, fries, beer, and WAFFLES in Brussels; PIZZA, PASTA DI POMODORO, CANNOLI, GELATO, EGGPLANT PARMESAN, and WINE in Italy (can you tell I like Italian food?) GOOD!
- Finally, I did not want to come back to Morocco. I was so enjoying fitting in and not being stared at all the time. It was good to get away and breathe without someone following me around and trying to feel me up or say rude things to me.
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| Dinner in Italy! |
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| Belgian Beer |
Overall, I had the most magical spring break of my life! I got to see my mother, my aunt, and travel with my friend, Sofie. I ate amazing food, saw beautiful sites, didn't sleep for four days, didn't shower for three days, and had the most awe inspiring and wonderful spring break. If only it were so easy to get to Europe from the US...One can only dream!
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| Overlook of Brussels |
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| PIZZA! |
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| Trevi Fountain |
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| Sevilla |
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| True Belgian Waffle |
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| Gelato! |
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| Look at all that chocolate! |
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| Flamenco! |