After receiving some angry emails from the Parents, I suppoooose it's time I sacrifice some study time to update this blog

Mom and Dad,

I apologize I take my studies too seriously to sacrifice valuable study time to update this blog :-)...or else travel/play time! hehe. Here is a brief summary of my travels the past month and some pics, although there will be thousands more to see when I get back home! To everyone else, sorry its been so long!!!

Love,

K

Vienna
I got to go to Vienna about a month ago with a few girl friends from Duke. It was an amazing trip, in particular because I got to see Claudia, the daughter of a friend of my father's from boy scouts who I hadn't seen in about 7 years! She was an amazing hostess and showed us all the sights of Vienna! Vienna is a very intersting place. It is super clean and almost empty feeling, which is suprpising since it is the capital of Austria! It was so different from any other city I had ever been to, but it really reminded me of what I would think of a typical Germanic like town. Unfortunately I was sick for a big part of the weekend :-( That nevertheless did not stop us and I got to see lots of the city! Here are some pictures and description:
To the left is Jess, Eva, me, and Claudia in front of the Museum of Natural History in Vienna
Below is a photo of Claudia, Jess, and I in front of the building where Hitler made his speech that Austria was now part of Germany.


We all know Vienna is known for their Opera....just who knew for their Opera toilets?!?!







Barcelona
Barcelona is one of my top 2 favorite cities so far! It is absolutely beautiful and sooo relaxing. Coming back to Paris felt like coming back to work after a nice relaxing (and warm!) vacation. It was nice to go with a big group of EDUCO (my program) students and we got to have an entire hostel room to ourselves. Needless to say, it was a bit of a crazy weekend! I got to see lots of Gaudi though, who I am officially in love with!!! Also, I go the INCREDIBLE experience of going to a FC Barcelona soccer game! I LOVE Euro football now! It was odd that everything was in Catalan rather than Spanish, but the city is simply incredible! Our hostel was also really nice which was a nice surprise!
To the right is me and my friends Alina and Jess at the big mercado off of Las Ramblas
To the left is Jake, Jess, and I in the upstairs attic of one of the Gaudi houses. This house was sooo pretty and quite trippy as well!


Above are all the girls in front of Gaudi's masterpiece, La Sagrada Familia, which is still not finished!!!

Amsterdam

I went to Amsterdam with my friend Brianna 2 weeks ago. What a strange city it is! I thought it was absolutely beautiful, but it is so strange how liberal it is at the same time. It is so strange to see charming canals and people on bicycles, and then suddenly stumble upon the Red Light district! We had a lot of fun with our weekend, and got to see the Van Gogh museum which is absolutely incredible!!! We walked around the city quite a bit, and also saw Vondelpark, the massive and beautiful park in the middle of the city. Additionally, I got the opportunity to see the house in which Anne Frank hid during WWII. That was very moving and I am really glad that I had the opportunity to see it. I loved the city itself, but think I probably would have liked it even more without all of its liberal ways....who knew I might actually consider myself conservative in some capacities!

Rome and Florence

Undeniably my favorite trip so far, I am in LOVE with Italy. I somehow failed to realize that Rome would have tons of ruins and old buildings, as I had seen last year in Athens....somehow the terms "the Greeks and the Romans" must have slipped my mind! Our first day in Rome we literally saw EVERYTHING. We visited the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps, the Colloseum, numerous Piazzas, and some other old famous buildings whose names I do not recall (woops!). We also saw a few churches, the famous shopping street with all of the designers, and did a ton of walking (and eating of pizza, pasta, and cappucinos of course!) Our second day in Rome it unfortunately rained a bunch. But that did not stop us! We were able to visit the Vatican and see the Sistine Chapel, eat gelato, and go see the Trevi Fountain! The city was beautiful and my good friend Eva who lives in Rome was an incredible tour guide!! It was sooo nice to see the city with someone who knows the city so well.

Florence was also fantastic. It was much smaller and more low key than Rome, but I got to see a number of good friends, do some shopping, and see some very famous Renaissance art. We saw the David first, which is STUNNING. I never thought that it would be so magnificent or large and always wondered why it was considered such a masterpiece. It definitely was however! We also went to the Uffizi and saw a number of famous works by artists such as Boticelli and Michaelango. Shout out to Rick Steves who gives a great short guided tour through the museum in his book! It was really helpful in explaining all of the works. We also got to see the Ponte Veccio (which is famous for all of its gold shops), the main market in town where I purchased some delicious dried fruit and a leather jacket!, and the Piazza Michaengelo where we got a gorgeous view of the entire city. O, and definitely can't forget the Duomo with its perilously small, dark, and winding stairs to end up on top of the Church and get a 360 degree view of the city! Incredible!!

O...and we can't forget our very speedy visit to Pisa, where we saw the Tower....what else is there to see there?!?!?!









And last, but certainly not least....PARIS!
Yes, I do still spend lots of time here, despite what it may look like!! This city is absolutely INCREDIBLE. I am in love with it here. Unfortunately, the past 3-4 wks have been spent traveling and doing lots of schoolwork! But midterms are FINALLY over!! So here are just a few pictures from my time in the city!
Caryn, Brianna, and Rich on election night! YES WE CAN!!!! <3>
Typical French diet! A bunch of my friends for Jess' bday!