Hasta luego, Barcelona. I will miss you terribly.

I spent my last day(s) in Barcelona having a sort of internal toddler tantrum. I can't tell you how many times I thought, "but I don't wanna leave!" in a whiny, pouty voice. Cue stomping of the feet and crossing of the arms. I couldn't believe this amazing experience would be over as soon as I walked out of our apartment door, two heavy suitcases and backpack in tow.

But, it didn't matter how many time I pouted about having to leave, time kept flying by and finally it was my turn to board a plane to Munich.

These past 6 weeks not only taught me so much about how to be a better traveller, to speak Spanish more fluently, to be a pro at mass transit and to survive constant, unbearable heat, but it taught me so much about myself in general. About what I want - and what I deserve - for my future.

I think one thing that made it so hard to leave was all of the incredible people. The students in my program came from all over the country. Some people will return to their home University with new friends on campus, or at least a short drive away. I was the only student from the Southeast at all to come on the trip. (There was a whole new meta-level of culture shock going on.)

Leaving my host Mom family difficult, too. How many times can you say thank you to the woman who insists on packing you a lunch so you don't have to buy food in the Airport? Lauren and I got so lucky with our living situation - I could not have asked for a sweeter, funnier woman. She was always willing to teach us anything. Her son, who is my age, and daughter who is a few years older, were equally as helpful and entertaining. I always looked forward to our nightly dinners.

So just like that, I'm on to the next one. Throughout the next week, I will be traveling to Germany, Italy and Switzerland. I'm excited to meet all the new faces I'll be traveling with and ready to explore these countries that are so different from Spain.

Barcelona will always, always have a special place in my heart. Planning for the day when I can return and be someone's tour guide!

Top o' the Morning (or, night) to Dublin, Ireland!

On July 4, 2013 we did the most Americanly (Google says no spelling suggestions, but just go with it) patriotic thing possible and booked a trip to yet another European city. While we couldn't be in the States, we still made sure to celebrate big time with a weekend in Dublin, Ireland.

The weekend began with frantic rushing to the airport. We left on a Thursday, directly after class and only had 3 hours until our plane departed.

My roommate and I decided to take the train to the airport to save the 6 euros it would cost us for the Aerobus. We took the metro to the train, couldn't find the train station (HOW), got on the wrong train, had to ask a passenger for directions, jumped off at the nearest stop and hailed a cab to the airport. We did not end up saving the 6 euros.

Flights are cheaper through RyanAir, so that was our airline of choice. Because they're so cheap, they're also more strict on bag size restrictions and have a complicated process to check passports and boarding passes before going through security. Hurdle #2.

Hurdle #3 was passing the long line of impatient Europeans to get our passports stamped in the EU only line so we'd have enough time to run to our gate. (The guards checking Passports were exchanging donuts and talking to children. Not a lie.)

Despite all the struggles, we made our way onto the plane and to Ireland!

Landing and getting to our Hostel was a breeze. We stayed at Skybackpackers on Dublin's north side, and were within 5-10 minutes walking distance to everything we wanted to see. The building was an old recording studio where U2 and Van Morrison (among others) once recorded. They play up the whole music theme and, let me tell you, the Irish LOVE to drop U2 into any conversation.

It was such a great location and while it felt like I slept on a sheet of slate, I recommend it to any young person visiting Dublin.

We checked in, dropped off our bags and immediately headed straight to the Old Storehouse in Dublin's Temple Bar for some traditional Irish food.

Smithwick's, Harp, Bulmer's - Ireland's drinks of choice. 

Beef and Guinness casserole with champ! Cleaned the plate, no doubt. 

 Don't think I let the day pass without showing my patriotism to the USA. Of course, I wore red white and blue.

In front of the River Liffey

We spent the night celebrating the Fourth at Bad Bob's and woke up the next morning for a walking tour of the city.

In 18 cities across Europe, you can find SANDEMANs New Europe tour guides. They're usually daily tours that leave at 11 & 1 and cover the main history and attractions of the city. We got to see and learn so much about Dublin that wouldn't have known just wandering around by ourselves. Oh yeah, they're also free.

Courtyard outside the Dublin Castle. 

Trinity College.

Trinity College.

Bank of Ireland

Grafton Street

Taking it back to some Irish folklore, we also got the chance to see what Leprechauns are really like, hear their history and channel our imagination at the National Leprechaun Museum. We really acted like big kids making our way through the Giant's Causeway, climbing on the furniture in the "giant's house," learning about faeries and becoming Leprechauns ourselves.

Our hostelmate, Jo Hannes! He's from Germany, learning English and we hung out with him all weekend. 

"Errbody dat see a Leprechaun say yeeeaaa!"

After resurfacing our inner children, we made our way to a more mature, adult attraction - THE GUINNESS STOREHOUSE! I loved Guinness before traveling to Dublin, so it was interesting and exciting to see how it's made. 

The storehouse was six stories of Guinness history.

Stand in front of each decade-decorated television and you can see old Guinness commercials. So cool to see how ad styles have changed over the years.

When in doubt, pinky out. 

A huge screen with the world's social media reactions to Guinness & the Storehouse. Love it.  

At the top is the Gravity Bar, with a 360 degree panoramic view of the city.

Ben and Jo Hannes

Plus, when you finish the tour, you get a free pint!

Mi amiga, Andrea!

We ended the trip with a night out with our new German friends, a chocolate-filled lunch at The Sweetest Thing cafe (U2 reference) and a painless trip back to our 'home' in Barcelona.

PS - Yes, I did have to think of the most stereotypical thing possible to name this post. 

You can find more pictures from my trip to Dublin on my Flickr account. 

I mostly feel like Kristen Wiig when speaking to my host mom.

"Gracias...para vivir en la casa.."

But then again, sometimes it's like this.  

Bienvenidos a la Universidad! Classes begin at Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Ayer fue un dia muy larga...........

It felt like I was back at the University of South Carolina running from activity to activity for hours on end. I walked, metro-ed, tram-ed and toured for 12 hours. (Hey Zack, whenever you're ready to fly over with that foot rub...). I'm exhausted and my legs are sore, but glad I got to see the University where I'll be studying the next 6 weeks.

Indoor courtyard/atrium, with entrances to the bookstore and a cafe.

Universitat Pompeu Fabra is a couple blocks from the Barcelona beaches, steps away from the Barcelona Zoo (sometimes evident by the smell in the air) and a short metro ride from my apartment.

Courtyard where students rest between classes, and eat lunch.

It's a modern campus, built in 1990, dedicated to a great contributor to the Catalan language, Pompeu Fabra. Natives of Barcelona and Catalonia take great pride in their Catalan heritage and language - as Franco outlawed any use of Catalan until the 1980's. Catalan is like a mix between spanish and french, and is especially influenced by french since Catalonia is just a couple of hours away from the France/Spain border.

Library.

A typical school day for me will be getting to campus (by metro) at 9:30am for my spanish language course, taking the tram at 11:30am to the Communications Campus (it's not just USC that makes the J-School kids walk to the edge of campus!) for my Documentary Workshop and wrapping the day up around 3pm.

My spanish has already improved significantly in just the few days I've been here and can only go up with class and homework. I'm also excited to really get started with my documentary course and see what we can produce.

After my tours and orientation, I metro-ed to La Sagrada Familia.

The rest of my program got to take a tour of the inside, but since I'm the only one who is enrolled in the documentary course and had to tour the communications campus, I wasn't able to make it. I only got to look at it briefly from the outside, but it's beautiful basilica with lots of history (that I don't fully know about yet but this website will tell you more). I'm going to make sure it will happen before I leave.

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Classes began today and so far so great! It's going to be a fun 6 weeks - that, I can tell.

Con amor,

Meredith

Yo he llegado! I have arrived.

After one 8-hour flight to Frankfurt, a 2-hour layover, a 2-hour flight to Barcelona and waiting 3 hours to be picked up at the airport, I finally made it to my new home.

View from the bathroom/laundry room window. 

For the next 6 weeks, I'll be living in an apartment in downtown Barcelona with a real Spanish family. My mom for the next week is the sweet Elisabet, who has already warmly welcomed me into her home and made me feel like one of her own hijos. (She also insisted I eat some ice cream after dinner - why would I say no?)

View of the street, Paseo San Joan, from the living/dining room. This is what I got to look at while we ate dinner. 

Elisabet is a teacher during the year, so she loves the extra company during the summer from students studying abroad. Her son, Ricard, is 21 and still lives with her, while her 26-year-old daughter works out of a spare bedroom doing freelance graphic design work during the week. 

I'm surprising myself how much Spanish I actually know and am thankful to have Elisabet to teach me. We speak a sort of spanglish to each other, which actually ends up being really helpful. And, I usually wrap up the conversation by saying "Como se dice.... *insert word or phrase here*." It's day one and I can already see an improvement in my Spanish. 

Tonight's dinner felt like a feast. Some sort of fried egg dish with herbs & meat in it, cheesy spiced rice, salad with crab, fruit, cheese, red wine and ice cream. I don't think I'm going to go hungry with her delicious cooking.

Elisabet uses a dry erase marker and the tiles on her wall to teach me about different seafood used in traditional Spanish dishes. 

After dinner, I told her I wanted her to teach me how to cook so I could make these dishes for my friends and family in the states. We agreed that next weekend we would go to the 'mercado' together, purchase the ingredients and make paella for dinner. (!)

Unlike most students, my roommate and I were lucky enough to get our own separate rooms. Here are some pictures. 

My bed. Mi cama. 

No AC, so we leave the windows open :)

Right now, I'm laying in bed with heavy eyelids and listening to the screams and noise on the streets. Tomorrow is Barcelona's festival de Sant Joan. It's the shortest night of the year and celebrates the summer solstice and beginning to summertime. If you didn't know better, you'd think there was a war going on outside, but fireworks are already going off all over the city. Tomorrow night is the big celebration and people fill the streets to celebrate this holiday.

Tomorrow's a long day and officially starts the fun of the trip. Don't worry, there will be pictures of food soon enough.

'sta luego!

You can find more pictures of my European adventure on my Flickr account.

Carolina to Catalonia: Taking off and being brave.

June 21. The first day of summer.

It's also the first day that I'm setting out alone on a European adventure by a leap of faith. I've been talking about this trip for years; especially since we visited my older brother, Tanner, abroad in Madrid in 2007. I've always had the travel bug (thanks to my Aunt Tam). I found the airport exciting. Could navigate my way around any new place by landmarks alone. Have led the way through both French and Spanish metro lines without blinking. Traveled around the world on a month-long trip to Australia when I was just 15.

Today, however, felt different. In the past week, I've not only left a job that I loved to try new things, but I also moved out of the apartment that felt like home for the past 2 years.

And for the first time, I'm traveling solo to a foreign country with no one to hold my hand, help me with my suitcase (which I managed to top at *only* 43 pounds! High five.), or make sure I don't drool too much when I fall asleep in my seat.

I can honestly say that I've never been nervous for a trip before this one.

So, what's keeping me going? A few things.

For one, my family (+ Zack) constantly telling me how proud they are of me and reminding me to seize every moment of this once-in-a-lifetime experience. They make me feel like I can take on the world...literally. Love and support from people you love and respect carries you far.

The next is a book I just got as an early 21st birthday gift.
No, not a book full of cocktail recipes (though, that would be nice...*hint*hint*). Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer at Facebook, recently wrote a book entitled Lean In. In the book that she argues isn't a memoir, self-help book, or a feminist manifesto, Sandberg tackles the obstacles women face in the workplace every day and walks the reader through shocking statistics, her own mistakes and what it means to be a woman in high standing. Being the ambitious woman I am myself, Sandberg's words resonate with me page after page and, believe me, I am taking notes.

It's Sandberg's constant push for confidence in women to take risks and the book's first chapter titled "The Leadership Ambition Gap: What would you do if you weren't afraid?" What would I do if I wasn't afraid? Why, I think i might just board a plane to Europe for 7 weeks.

You're probably going to laugh at this last one, but it works. It also shows how much I love catchy music and singing at the top of my lungs.

 Brave by Sara Bareilles

Hey, if Sara wants me to be brave, that's what I'm going to do.

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Despite being nervous, I'm so ready for this adventure to start. During my trip, I'll be primarily living with a family in Barcelona and going to classes, but, I have a list of other destinations that are calling my name. I'll be traveling to Girona & the South of France, Costa Brava, Figueres, Sitges, Frankfurt, Munich, Heidelburg, Venice, Innsbruck and Lucerne. I hope to document as much as I can through this blog, so stay tuned!

And THANK YOU to everyone who helped make my dream trip become a reality.

Now, I'm going back to watching 30 Rock and New Girl on US Aiways' in-flight entertainment. Livin' the dream.