Pretty fall tree

It's been almost 3 months now, and I feel like I have already seen so much but at the same time it has gone by really fast. I've been getting more involved with the residence hall government as the environmental co-representative. All of the halls compete for a big party at the end of the year by organizing events and campaigns. Last year, our hall lost by a tiny bit, so we're going to try really hard to win this year. We had environment trivia questions at our Halloween party and we're having a movie night next week with popcorn and soda. It's been fun getting involved in the residence association as well as the carbon control campaign. This year, all of the halls of residence in the University of Manchester have recycled about 10 tons of paper/cardboard since the start of the semester; triple what they did last year!

My classes are going well. It's nice not having so many midterms and homework to worry about, but at the same time, I kind of like having those things to keep me on track with work. I'm not excited about having exams when I get back after Christmas break. I really like how we get to take them before Christmas and can just relax during break at Michigan. But, I suppose this is part of the whole new education system and study abroad experience. We do get a whole month off for Christmas, which I'm not complaining about!University of Manchester

Today, I was walking down the street from north campus (a.k.a. engineering campus, so weird that it's the same at Michigan!) to get to the bus stop and I saw like 10 policemen with big black hats and yellow reflector jackets in the middle of Oxford road (the main road through Manchester Uni)! Following the policemen were a whole crowd of students marching as a protest against higher tuition fees and education cuts. They even had like policemen on horses at the back of the march! At first I was like wow, this is cool! Then, I realized that I would not be catching a bus any time soon as there were masses of people in the middle of Oxford road. So, I got to wait at the bus stop for about 45 min. along with a lot of other students trying to get home/get to class. In the BBC news it said, "In Manchester around 3,000 protesters gathered outside the town hall, disrupting city centre traffic." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11829102


Outside the Student Union on a normal weekday

My trip to Spain!

Park Guell

Most of the students at the University of Manchester had this week off for what they call 'Reading Week.' During this week, some of the students go home for the week, some students still have lectures, some spend the week catching up on missed work, and others go on holiday. My friend Helen, who is also a study abroad student, and I opted for the last option and decided to explore Barcelona. We left cold and cloudy Manchester on Sunday afternoon and had a two hour flight to the Barcelona airport where it was warmer, and there were palm trees outside! We got on the train to Sants Estacio in downtown Barcelona and from there we got on the metro to our hostel. We shared a room with two other people who were from Minnesota. The next day and Tuesday we toured the city of Barcelona on a hop on/hop off bus.
Sagrada Familia

My favorite sites were the Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, and Casa Batllo-all of which are works of the famous architect Antoni Gaudi. Casa Batllo is a house that Gaudi designed for a family in Barcelona. We liked it because it was really colorful and had cool, curvy designs for windows, staircases, doors, etc. On the outside, there were beautiful mosaic tiles on the front facade, back garden and roof. When we visited Park Guell, I felt like I was in Candy Land! It had swirly roof tops and amazing tile work. Also, when we walked to the top of the park, we could see the entire city and the Mediterranean Sea. The Sagrada Familia was breathtaking as well. It was Gaudi's dream and he never finished it; in fact, it's still under construction right now. The inside of the church is meant to look like a forest and the tall ceilings, columns and windows add to that effect. Much of Gaudi's work was inspired by nature.

Along with seeing Gaudi's famous works, we got to tour most of the city of Barcelona. We took a 'teleferic' (which means cable car in Spanish)up to a cool castle right along the Sea. We saw the Barcelona football club stadium and the house where the Royal Spanish family used to live. It was fun to try traditional Spanish food as well, like paella, sangria, and tapas. The hostel took us to a fun bar and club in Barcelona and we walked along Las Ramblas a few times, where they have lots of shops and street performers. All in all, I really enjoyed Barcelona and hope to go back again one day. It was a great first European trip and I'm excited to do more travelling in the future!!!