Milan

Well here I am, sitting in my room in Milan, Italy. So far today, I woke up very early and, along with my roommates, I went to eat breakfast in these girls' apartment in our program. I then went on a run (it is hard to breathe here. Polluted like crazy) and then had to deal with a lot of wallet-loss problems. My roommate John and I didn't have class today because our class (Italian 305) doesn't start until Monday. Everything so far (and I will elaborate, of course) has been amazing, minus one thing-my wallet is now gone along with everything inside. (Still have my passport thank goodness) but all of my cards and IDs are gone. I have been going back and forth with my parents trying to call banks and send new cards ASAP. It's no fun. Not at all. BUT, now it is time to make you all a little jealous/tell a happier tale. The fun part-

So we arrived into Milan on Monday morning, tired yet excited. Interesting story, I never had to go through customs. I walked through a gate in Madrid (first stop) where they stamped my passport, but my bags never had to go through any special customs. I should have brought more dangerous things I guess. Italy doesn't seem to mind. So we arrived at the airport and were met by many young Italian people that were working/volunteered to help us get where we needed to go. AKA our apartments/homes. We took a train from the Malpensa airport to a train station close to the center of the city. Once we arrived at the train station we (one of my roommates, Chris, that was on the same flight as me/we hung out on the train ride over) got into a taxi and drove to our apartment building. We met a couple of our other roommates (Tim, Nick and Lorenzo. Lorenzo is our C.A., which is like a live-in R.A. and he is a student here in Italy) We have another roommate named John, but is doing a whole year in abroad so we didn't meet him right here. (He was traveling) So right when we arrived, Lorenzo was already making pasta for lunch. It was delicious. We hung out for a while, walking around and talking. We went over all of the house rules and how everything works. Then later in the evening we went to a very cool restaurant that overlooks Il Duomo di Milano (Probably the most famous building in Milan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milan_Cathedral). We had a welcome buffet filled with all kinds of delicious types of Italian food. There was prosciutto, pizza, tiny sandwiches, cheese and, what it seemed to be, an endless supply of red wine and prosecco. Everybody was introducing themselves and talking and it was a very fun time. The next day we went to breakfast at our new traditional breakfast place. It is this little cafe with outdoor seating and they make some delicious, well, everything. It is a little expensive but I don't go there for the food. I go for the orange juice. Everybody that knows me will read that and be confused because I have never been one for drinking orange juice. This is OJ like none other. It is freshly squeezed/made and it is absolutely amazing. We plan on eating there all the time. We then had many boring meetings about orientation things and had lunch at the local university. A normal cafeteria in Milan is not too bad. I thought the food would be better but it was better than in Madrid. I ate some risotto with mushrooms, chicken and some pear juice. It was quite ok. Later that night our program took us all to one of the premier spas in Milan. It was so awesome. The name of the spa is Terme Milano. I highly recommend you all look it up. The place had everything from different hot tubs to spas to steam rooms to outdoor pools and hut tubs. They also had a buffet for us with lots of small food and a whole lot more wine. It was such a relaxing and fun night. The next day we had more meetings in the morning but then we were free for most of the rest of the day. A couple of my roommates and I walked around the block for about 3.5 hours. We learned a lot. At night, we had an aperitivo, which is where you go to a bar and buy something to drink and you can have as much bar food as you want. They have all different kinds of little things to eat and it was a really nice bar so we had a good time hanging out and meeting more and more people. After the first bar we went to a friend's apartment and hung out for a bit before heading to another bar where most of the program had already gathered. From there we all went to a club and danced for a couple of hours. The next day we hadto wake up for a tour of the Financial/Fashion districts of the city and it was pretty cool. The fashion district is the coolest. It is potentially the greatest in the world. They had all kinds of the best labels such as Gucci, Prada, Armani, Versace and everything else that you can imagine and not afford. It was pretty incredible. That night we made (my roommates Nick and Lorenzo) a very good dinner of pasta and homemade meatballs. It was so delicious. Afterwards we went to a bar to meet up with another girls' apartment group and hung out for a few hours. The rest of the story was told at the beginning so you now know where I am. Tonight we are going to go plan some trips with some friends of ours and then hang out at there apartment before going to another club. Life is good. More to come after the weekend.

Luke

Round Two

It's almost that time again. Time for me to venture out and journey to Europe. This time, however, I will be going to Milan, Italy. I am very excited about heading back overseas and I am so ready for another semester of study abroad. This break has been very relaxing. The first night that I arrived home I was greeted by a whole welcome wagon. My mom, dad, my brother Jordan, my grandparents, and two of my aunts were there at the gate to meet me as I broke ground back into this wonderful country. We then went to a nice pizza place in St. Louis called Pi Pizza. (If you are ever in STL you should check it out. It is actually a favorite of the Obama family as well) That wasn't my first taste of American food, though. When I first arrived in the States, I was in the Washington D.C. airport and I went to my usual favorite for that airport-Five Guys. There was no better way to taste America than by eating a double cheeseburger covered with grease and a big cup of cajun fries. That is the moment I knew I was back in the best country in the world. The majority of my break has been spent hanging around my house with my family and spending time with all of my friends. We aren't super exciting so most of our group nights we just hung out at somebody's house and played games. It was a lot of fun though, that is for sure. I definitely missed all of my friends back here in O'Fallon. I would hope you all are reading this so I will say I love you guys and I can't wait for the summer. Spending time with all of my family was great too. It made being back in my own house feel even more like truly being home. One of the days we were home we went to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie and it was awesome. Better than the first one, I think. Also, two days after I was home, my dad and I had to drive up to Chicago in order to drop off my application for an Italian visa. I was a little worried about getting my visa before I left because the embassy talked about it taking up to three weeks to process an application. (I only had 3 weeks at home) Well, my appointment was at 9:45 AM so my dad and I woke up and started our roadtrip at about 4:00 AM. We drove to Chicago, grabbed a quick burrito, made it to my appointment (with time to spare) and then afterwards we jumped back in the car and drove back home. It was a long day filled with about 12 hours of driving. After all of that worrying, guess how long it took to return that visa? Two days. Those Italians know what they are doing about visas. It took the Spanish consulate 5 weeks in order to process my Spain visa. Moral of the story? Go to Italy I guess. (Although Spain is still very highly recommended by me) Christmas this year was very nice. My grandparents were still in town and everything was very fun and very relaxed. We open presents one at a time (the only true way to do it) and even though it takes all day, it is our tradition and you get to see what everybody gets. My favorite present was from my mom-2 tickets to the 49ers vs Rams game here in St. Louis. That day was so much fun. My mom and I are the biggest 49ers fans in our family, I think. (Yeah I said it, family!) We showed up to the stadium, rocking our 49ers gear and with one look around, we realized we were certainly not as out-numbered as badly as we thought. I would like to describe our section as a "sea of red and gold". There were so many 49ers fans there that it seemed there were almost more than the Rams had. Our seats were only nine rows from the field on the 49ers side and all of these players were so close to us. The 49ers ended up winning the game (of course) and our side was alive with energy and booze. It made for a very fun game and an amazing day out with my mom. As of right now, I am just sitting here in front of the TV watching the Saints play the Lions and I am leaving in the morning. I have been writing off and on on this post for a couple of days because I just couldn't focus. I still can't really focus. I am leaving for Milan tomorrow! I just got home, how can I leave again? With a smile on my face. That is how. I truly am very excited to go to a new place and start a new semester in a place I have never been to before. I am ready for everything that this semester is going to throw at me and I hope that everybody that was reading this blog before keeps checking up on me and I will surely entertain you with my stories from abroad. I hope you will all wish me some good luck, or as they say in Italian "In bocca al lupo!". Talk to you all in Italy.

Luke

End

Well here it is. I am sitting in my apartment at 4:30 in the morning on the day that I am coming home. I just finished packing up all of my belongings and I am watching tv and eating a sandwich. I plan on staying awake until my flight in order to sleep through it. (I have never been very good with sleeping on moving vehicles) I really hope that all of my bags are under weight and everything goes well so that I can go home safely and on time. My flight leaves at 10:45 and flies to DC. From there I arrive in STL just in time for some dinner with the family. (It's Jordan's college graduation. He is graduating a semester early with a double major. He's a champ) My finals week was pretty intense but I made it through just fine. On Thursday we celebrated with a night at the club and then today we had our final program lunch. Our program took us to a very nice hotel and had a great meal for us. It was a wonderful 5 course meal with all kinds of delicious food. All of our professors and our program directors were there so we had the chance to say "bye" to them one last time. A couple of us then walked around the Plaza del Sol for some last-minute gifts and things before we all came back and napped/packed. Tonight was a pretty bittersweet night. We all hung out one last time and had to say our "goodbyes". The "bros" hung out here at our apartment for a while before heading to a bar downtown. Once we got there, we met up with many people from our program. From there, people started breaking off to go home little by little. A couple of us went back to the other girls' apartment to hang out for a while before we eventually decided to turn in for the night. It was actually a little funny because the last person who I said "bye" to was my friend that had been my roommate on the first night in Spain in the hotel. It was kind of funny things worked out like that. I am going to miss all of these people so much. We became very close after these last couple of months and it is going to be hard not being around them all of the time. I hope that I will see them again someday in the future. It is time now though to head back to the good ol' USA and have a very nice break in my own home. There will be lots of family visiting so that will be great. PLUS, I am dying to have some of my mom's home-cooked food. She is like a professional chef. I can't wait. There are many things I am going to miss about Spain but I am so excited to head home and be back in my own country. I can't believe I am going to get to have this experience again but in Milan, Italy. My life is amazing. The next time that I post something, I will be in the United States. I can't wait.

Luke

It's Game Time

This title refers to two things-the first being el clásico, and the second is that it is finals week. It is time to buckle down and crank out all of these papers and a whole lot of studying. I already had one final on Friday. This week's schedule is that I have one final on Monday, two finals on Tuesday and one final on Thursday. My Wednesday is free. I have three papers due this week as well. I have two papers due on Tuesday and one on Thursday. I am trying hard to focus on getting through this week so that way I can come home. I only have 6 days left in Spain and it is hard to try and enjoy them with this cloud of homework residing above all. However, we have definitely tried to find some time to get out and enjoy the last couple of weeks here. We went out a couple of times the past couple of weekends. This Thursday was one of the most fun nights I think that we have had here in a while. A bunch of us went to an apartment and hung out for a while before going out to a club for the night. We were there dancing (and even ended doing karaoke for a while) until the morning. Then we walked for a while in order to get a slice of pizza and rode the morning metro home. It was so awesome. Last night was another great night. El clásico (the soccer game between Real Madrid and Barcelona, the biggest game in all of Spain, if not the world) was last night and so a bunch of us went to a bar downtown in order to watch the game with many other rowdy fans. Half the game we spent in a huge crowd, crunching together every time a waiter had to walk through and the other half we were standing comfortably in a back room. It was quite hilarious because right next to us were these two middle-aged spanish men that were clearly good friends, but on both sides of the game. Everytime anything happened they just jabbed each other with insults and jokes. It was one of the funniest conversations I have ever heard. 95% of the bar were Madrid fans but the other 5% of us went crazy every time Barca scored and it was even better when they ended up winning. Other than that, I just have to focus on getting work done so I can come home and be with all of my family and friends. I am so excited and a little ready too.

Luke

Lisbon

Last week was our final out of the country trip to Lisbon, Portugal. We left with numbers. There were 9 of us from our program going. About half of them were running the half marathon there. The flight didn't leave until 1:30 on Friday so we had the chance to sleep in a little bit. The flight to Portugal was only 55 min also so that was very nice. Our hostel in Portugal was very cool. Everybody that worked that was so nice and chill. They made us drinks every night and we hung out in the lobby each night too. Once we got settled in at our hostel we ate lunch right across the street at this local portuguese restaurant. The food was great and it was also very cheap. I loved that about Portugal. Things were so cheap. I had some vegetable soup, chicken with fries, salad and rice and a lemon mousse that was delicious. Because a lot of people were there to run the half marathon, there was not a whole lot of going around to see things. Those of us who were not running had a lot of fun though. We went out the first night to a couple of different bars and had a good time. (Also that night I had an amazing grilled swordfish) Saturday (the day before the half) people were just hanging out and stuff so we didn't accomplish much. We ate out more and that night we went to a great italian place so the runners could get some pasta in them. (I had a delicious linguini with scallops and capers) The next day (the day of the race) everybody that wasn't running hung out for a bit in the hostel and then went to visit a couple of famous landmarks. The Vasco de Gama bridge and tower. The bridge is the longest in the country and it was something to do. We were all pretty tired so after we ate lunch in that area we came back to the hostel to see how everybody did and hang out before catching our flight home. Everybody ran under 2 hours so they were all pretty excited. The trip was a lot of fun and it was definitely nice to get away from all the work that we have now. Today we have a holiday so everybody is just writing papers, studying for finals and trying to find time to relax. However, one thing did happen and that is that after 2 and a half years, Sam and I broke up. I don't want to say a whole lot about it, just that it was a bit of a surprise to me and that I regret nothing from the past 2 years together. I am very upset, but going to enjoy my last few weeks here in Spain before I go home for Christmas. If you want to know more or how I am doing, just message me on facebook.

Luke

A Break from School

It's that time of the semester..finals week/s. This week was the beginning of the end. With only a few more weeks left before we all return home for Christmas break, we are being bombarded with schoolwork. I had two presentations and a paper due this week so I am running on little sleep right now. In the next two weeks I have about 3-4 other papers due and then, of course, finals. I am not too worried about it all, I will just have to focus over the next two weeks. However, this weekend is a nice break from all of that work. Last night we went to a play in downtown Madrid that was offered through our literature class. It was a play called Persefone and it was by far one of the strangest things I have ever seen in my entire life. It was about the idea of death and mortality but it was a dark comedy. There were people wearing crazy masks and singing and dancing and so many inappropiate things that would not fly in the US. It was insane to say the least. Today, after my first class, I got on a bus to Toledo (about 45 min away) to do some shopping and visit with Sam for a bit. I bought presents for my mom, dad, brother, grandma and grandpa. I did some rapid shopping and finished everything up there pretty quickly. I grabbed some fries with Sam, walked her to class and then headed back home. I hung out in my apartment for a couple of hours, eating and watching some TV. Later, at about 8:15, my roommates and I headed downtown to a new, somewhat up-scale market to meet up with some other friends. The market was very cool. The ground floor was filled with different types of meats, fish, fruit, vegetables and cheeses. The second floor was filled with little places to try different types of food. They were a little pricey but all gourmet as well. We all split a bottle of cider before sampling some of the food. I had a slice of pizza, a duck sausage hotdog and strawberries with cream. Afterwards a couple of us walked around downtown to look at some of the Christmas lights that are starting to go up throughout the city. Then, I found the most amazing thing possible. A crepe place. I had my favorite banana and nutella crepe and all was good. It doesn't really feel like Christmas yet here because of the weather and lack of snow so we have to try and make the best of it. For example, I oought a Spider-Man advent calendar. It's the little things that count. This weekend I am headed off to Portugal with about 8 other friends. It should be a great time. Then, unfortunately, it's back to the heavy workload.

Luke

Granada

So my friends (Jay and Eric) and I decided on Thursday night that we would plan a trip to Granada this weekend. We booked our hostel for Friday and Saturday night and then went out for the evening. We stayed out pretty late on Thursday so Friday morning's busride was very rough. I didn't sleep as much as my friends and those turns up and around the mountains definitely got to me. The ride down was a total of about 5 hours. Granada is a city in the south of Spain, famous for a few things. The main attraction of the city is the Alhambra, which is a giant palace/fortress built up on the side of a mountain. Another famous attribute of the city is that it is THE city for tapas (small plates of food that accompany a drink in Spain). There are tapas in basically every city in Spain, but in Granada they give you large tapas. We arrived on Friday around 5ish to our hostel which was located in the Arab part of town. It was back up a couple streets that were filled with Arab vendors, selling everything from purses, flags, tea, lamps, hookahs and anything else you could associate with the Arab world. Our hostel was called Oasis-Granada and it was very cool. The people that worked there were very nice and me met a couple of people from our room (one of which was this mexican guy who taught us all kinds of things about mexican life/spanish-speaking life). So after we arrived at our hostel, we walked all around the area looking at different tapas bars and sampling differing kinds. At one place near our hostel, with every beer we received a whole sandwich and a plate of fries. At a chinese place, we got two rounds of drinks with tapas of 2 things of noodles, dumplings, spring rolls and chicken wings. We took naps later that evening and just kind of hung out, walking around the city. My friend Eric introduced us to shawarmas (a type of Middle Eastern sandwich wrap filled with meat and veggies). They were so good. Later on Friday night we went to a Middle Eastern place called the "Shawarma King" and the king himself (this crazy Arab dude that was big, had a massive beard and an even bigger personality) was the one that sat us. We ordered some tea and some crepes and they were very good (although he overpriced us like crazy). One of the craziest/funniest things that has ever happened to me happened when we told him we were from America. He went "Oh my God!" and started like joke hitting me and pretending to choke me and like bopped me on the head. Afterwards, we all just looked at each other and laughed so hard. I was attacked by the king. We went to bed pretty late and unfortunately had to wake up early on Saturday morning for the walk up to the Alhambra. We were there for an 8:30 tour and it was absolutely freezing. We didn't realize that the temperature in the morning would drop down to the 40s. We had on light jackets and couldn't feel our toes or hands for a good 4 hours. It was so amazing, though. The palace was huge and the Arabic architecture was some of the most incredible I have ever seen. We also had the tour guide headset things and they were an amazing idea because we got to learn so much about the history of the fortress/structures that made up the Alhambra. We then went back to the hostel for a bit to take a nap and then we went on a walking tour sponsored by our hostel. They set up a tour through the hostel that went up the mountain and around to look at the caves of the gypsies and hippies. Granada is all about living in caves. Many people live in caves that can actually be very nice (obviously not the squaters caves where the gypsies live). Our tour guide said he lived in a cave for a year (until he found a giant centipede in his bed). Needless to say, I wouldn't do it. On Saturday, we probably walked more than 5 miles in total, up and down hills mostly. We were all a little sore in our legs after that. When the tour was over, we went to more tapas bars, where we had some bagel sandwiches with some fried steak in them and another place that had a variety of fried fish as their tapas. We then went back to the hostel and napped before going out for the night. We hung out in the hostel bar for a little bit and then ended up going to a cave bar/club. It was very, very cool. They had built a club into some caves. The dance floor was on the side of a mountain and the walls were all glass so that we could have an awesome view of the Alhambra. We were there until very late/early in the morning and only got a few hours of sleep before we had to catch a bus to the bus station to come back to Madrid. Our bus to Madrid left at 10:00AM and we got back to Madrid about 3:15. Luckily, on this trip I slept for most of it. We were all starving and dead tired when we got back to the city. I just sat around the rest of the day watching tv shows and waiting to start my busy week of work. This weekend though I am traveling. On Thursday, I am going to Toledo to do some shopping and take Sam out to lunch and then on Friday-Sunday 9 of us are going to Portugal. I am not sure if I am running this half-marathon or not yet. I have been sick for a while so I haven't had any good running lately. I still have 3 days to sign up so we will wait and see.

Luke