‘Semester programs’ CategoryPage 7
These are study abroad programs that last for one semester
Springtime in Alcalá
It’s springtime (Spanish: primavera) in Alcalá de Henares and the weather has finally warmed up (in case you didn’t know, Europe basically froze over in February). That means that people are spending a lot more time outside and the town has become a lot more beautiful because there are flowers everywhere. On Calle Mayor these trees have […]
Street Life
For anyone who got overly excited by this title, sorry, but I have not become a hip French street thug. Instead, I am referring to the taste of walking around a city, the look of its citizens, and the thrum of its culture. To get to know a place, you have to walk in the […]
The Bleaching of American History
Many people say that Europe has so much more history than the United States. In fact, that was the subject of my last post. I described the layers that currently exist in France: layers in land, language, people, and buildings. Not only do they have more history, but because of that richness, they put huge […]
Layers
“French cities just have a lot more layers,” I explained to my parents over skype. “You mean, the buildings are more stacked up than in the U.S?” my dad asked. That wasn’t what I had meant, although it is kind of true, if not vertically. French cities are generally very old. Most of them were […]
Traveling Light
“Did anyone see someone leave here last night after going under my bed?” It was about 6 a.m., a time I consider exclusively reserved for being asleep, except in extreme cases such as urgent surgery and inflexible plane rides. I had no intention of changing this tradition for an angry British voice in the early […]
A Different Kind of Vegetarian
The French hate trees. They hate trees in the same way Americans hate cows. In the US, we think feeding cows their natural food source is for weird people. Since we have so much corn that we use it to drive cars whether or not it makes sense, we started feeding it to cows. Sometimes, […]
Where Did All the Religion Go?
(Update: I thought I understood the law I was writing about. It turns out, I missed many details, like the fact that there are two separate laws, not one. See comments bellow.) In France, it is forbidden for Muslim women to wear a hijab in public. This is something that usually shocks Americans. However, something I […]
Fanfare For The Common Tourist
The Monastery of Mont Saint-Michel is a mind-blowing mass of rock, iron, and concrete piled on an island mountain off the coast of Normandy. Around it sprawls an enchanted sand plane whose state depends entirely on the gaze of the moon. At high tide, the mountain is an island surrounded by the English channel and […]
It’s A Privilege to Pee
I first became aware that it was a privilege to pee in Nantes while at H&M. When I asked where the bathroom was, the girl paused, gave me a look, and indicated the bathroom outside. With the urgency of a full-bladdered child (and precisely the same problem), I dashed outside to find a kind of […]
Holy Toledo!
I wanted a cool name for this blog, but I couldn’t think of anything. A friend mentioned that “Holy Toledo!” is a saying so I just decided to use that. OK now on to the actual blog. Sorry that I haven’t posted in several weeks. I don’t really have a good excuse other than I […]