lisbon/lagos

Sunday
Sunday we woke up and headed to the Seville airport to catch our flight to Lisbon. Things went well and we landed in Portugal around 2pm Sunday afternoon. We arrived at our hotel and decided to wander around. We strolled down the main area of town towards the water and grabbed some lunch at a restaurant that overlooked the port. Lunch lasted a couple hours as we enjoyed our food, drink (some delicious white wine sangria) and the weather. After lunch we wandered up into the old district of town and saw a couple museums and the cathedral. We were all pretty pooped from the travel day so we headed back to the hotel for a little rest time before we went to dinner. The three of us got all dolled up and headed to a late dinner at a restaurant called Sacramento. Dinner lasted til midnight or so and we headed back to the hotel to catch some shut-eye.

Monday
Our two goals for Monday were the beach and the Aquarium. So first we jumped on the train for a 45 minute ride to a town called Cascis. Here there was an absolutely gorgeous beach with lots of cliffs and rocks overlooking the crystal blue water. We laid out for a good couple hours just enjoying doing absolutely nothing. After baking in the sun we decided it was time to grab some lunch. We went to a cute little pizza/pasta joint and then headed back into Lisbon. Straight from the train station we took the metro up the coast to the Oceanarium. It is such a cool location right off of a walkway into the Atlantic. There we saw lots and lots of different fish and sharks (obviously) but also tons of different types of coral and sea plantation. My favorites were the jellyfish and seahorses. After the Aquarium we went back to the hotel to clean up before dinner. For dinner, Tess and I got all dolled up in our fancy dresses and the three of us went to dinner and then out on the town. The big party neighborhood is called Barrio Alto and is the highest neighborhood in the city. We found this quaint little Salsa-ish bar and spent the night dancing before taking a cab back to the hotel.

Tuesday
Tuesday we woke up and while Tess and I did a little shopping, Wade rented a car and we decided to drive down the coast to a beach town on the Mediterranean called Lagos. As we made our way down the coast we stopped in a couple coastal towns. We finally made it to Lagos as the sun was setting. We watched the sunset on the beach sharing a bottle of wine. The beaches were absolutely gorgeous and after the sunset, we grabbed a bite to eat and headed home.

Wednesday
Since our flight was later in the day on Wednesday we had plenty of time to wander around the city (and shop!) for a couple hours before heading to the airport. After some great final purchases, we grabbed all our luggage and made our way to the airport. We arrived back in Barcelona for the night and had one last dinner with our host family.

seville

Thursday

I had a super early flight to Seville on Thursday and landed around 9am. In the airport I met my friend from home Courney Baratz and her roommate Lauren. I was staying with them at a hotel a little bit outside the city (we had waited too long to make reservations and everything was booked because of the Feria) so we headed to the hotel. La Feria de Abril is a huge weeklong celebration in Seville. Everyone dresses up in traditional bright, colorful Flamenco dresses and celebrates with their respective families, schools and organizations. Each of these sponsors a tent at the festival where friends can go and eat, drink and celebrate. The rest of the fair is very similar to a fair in the US. Lots of rides, food stands and people wandering around. We took the bus into town and walked around to get a feel for the city. We went to the Cathedral which is absolutely HUGE. Apparently it’s the fourth largest one in Europe and its ridiculous how big it is. Then we strolled along to the river and sat and hung out/napped- we were all so tired from our early morning flights. After dinner we went back to the hotel, watched a movie and went to sleep.

Friday

Friday we woke up and headed into town. Because of the large amounts of people in town for the Feria, the buses were running slow and it took us awhile to get into town. We took the bus straight to the Feria and walked around the Fair for awhile. We ate some delicious chocolate covered strawberries and chocolate covered bananas. They were so yummy! After wandering around the fair for a couple hours and then walked back into the city center to grab some lunch. We found a really good sandwich place and sat in the sun for a long time just eating and chatting. It was really sunny and really hot out but we had bought tickets the day before for a Bull Fight so we headed to the stadium. The bullring was absolutely packed with people, most of who were still all dressed up from the Feria. Here we were wearing little sundresses and were so hot, I can’t imagine how hot it must have been for all those women in long dresses and men in full suits. The bull fight itself was horrific. I understand that it is a Spanish tradition and they embrace it for their cultural aspects, but the act itself is so sad. Here are like 5 matadors all distracting the bull and trying to confuse it. We could only stomach watching 4 bulls get slaughtered so we left before they could kill the rest. We were a little hot and bothered (and disturbed by what we had just seen) so we decided to head back to the little town that our hotel was in and grab some dinner, watch a movie and go to bed….see a pattern?

Saturday

We had a goal for Saturday and one goal only- get a tan. After grabbing a quick breakfast, we headed down to the river to lie out. A friend of mine from Miami, Chelsea, is studying abroad in Seville so she came down and met us down by the river. The group of us sat in the sun and chatted all afternoon (while getting quite sunburnt). After a couple hours Chelsea needed to leave so the rest of us walked down the river a bit and found a place where you could rent paddleboats. We thought this was a perfect way to end the day, so the three of us all climbed into the boat and traveled up and down the river for about an hour. Since I was flying to Portugal on Sunday with Tess and her Dad, I decided to spend the night with them at their family friends’ house so that we could all just go to their airport together the next morning. Their friends came and picked me up from the bus station and we headed back to their house just outside the city. We spent the night chatting, eating pizza and watching a movie. We called it an early night since we had to wake up relatively early the next morning to make our flight.

(Sunday continues in Lisbon post)

just a reminder!!

check out all my pictures

HERE!!!

thorpe's do barcelona/costa brava/san sebastian

Saturday
So the Thorpe clan (minus Megan) arrive in Barcelona Saturday afternoon and after meeting them at the airport we head to the hotel. After a quick unpack/organize at the hotel, we take a stroll around the Gracia neighborhood (where I live) and head down Passieg de Gracia towards Placa Catalunya. After showing them the layout of Placa Catalunya we head down Las Ramblas towards the Boqueria- a huge open market with every fruit, vegetable, fish, meat, candy, etc. one could ever imagine. After we had endured as much fish-stench as we could handle, we continued down Las Ramblas and took in the sites of the human statues and art vendors that line the populated street. When new finally reached the water, we watched the street vendors on the port. Since they are illegal selling their goods, they flee as soon as the cops get near. They’ve come up with a system to quickly gather up their product in order to avoid arrest. It’s actually a pretty funny scene to watch. After strolling up and down the boardwalk to the mall, we headed back and decided to take a boat tour of the coast. The boat took us from the Maremagnum mall all the way up past the Olympic Village. After about an hour we headed back to the port and docked. It was definitely neat to see the coastline from a different angle than I had seen before and nice to give the fam a brief idea of how the city is laid out. Since they we pretty exhausted from the travel day (and Dad was sick) so we decided to grab some dinner. I took them to a restaurant called Qu Qu for some tapas. After dinner we called it a night and took the metro back to the hotel.


Sunday
Sunday morning I met them at the hotel to establish a game plan for the day. Dad really felt awful and unfortunately couldn’t make it out for the day. So Mom and Tommy and I headed out. Since it was Palm Sunday there was a big Mass and celebration down at the Cathedral so we made our way down to see what it was all about. On our walk down, we were surprised to see that there was a HUGE marathon being held in the El Born neighborhood. It was too bad that Dad couldn’t be there because he probably would’ve jumped in and joined them. Down at the Cathedral we saw hoards of people with the most elaborately woven palms. We watched a little bit of the Mass and went in to see the inside of the Cathedral. When we got back outside there was a procession down into the square for another Palm Sunday Mass. After watching a little bit of the parade, we decided to go check out Monjuic, the highest point in the city. I had gone to the Olympic Museum for my Sports & Society class and loved it, so I thought Tommy would enjoy it too. We checked out the Museum, but unfortunately the stadium had already closed for the day, so we headed back down to find some lunch. We cabbed down to Port Vell to grab some lunch down on the beach. After lunch we walked back over to the mall on the Port and did a little shopping. Though unsuccessful at the mall, it is still so cool to shop in an open air mall overlooking the ocean. We then headed back to the hotel to check on Dad. He was in the same position we had left him in that morning so we decided to continue on without him. I took them over to the Arc de Triumph area and we walked around the Park de Citudella. To wrap up the day we tried to grab dinner at a couple of my favorite spots but they were all closed because of the holiday! So we ended up at a little Lebanese restaurant/café/pizzeria across from my apartment. After dinner, Mom & Tommy headed back to the hotel and I went home, agreeing to meet them in the morning.



Monday
Luckily, Monday morning Dad felt better and we all boarded the metro to go to the Barcelona Soccer Stadium- Camp Nou. It is an awesome tour that not only takes people through the stadium but also through the museum of the history of the Barca futbol club. After the tour I took them to lunch at one of my frequently visited lunch spots- the Bagel Shop (the only one in Barcelona). We then went to the candy store Happy Pills to get some presents to bring home. The concept of Happy Pills is that the candy is the medicine. So people fill up prescription-like bottle with different types of gummies, chocolates, nuts, etc and then pick out a prescription sticker to put on the front of the bottle. I then took them to IES Barcelona center to show them where I go to school. Lucky for us, one of my favorite teachers, Dawn, was in the office making emergency phone calls trying to track down everyone from the program visiting Italy for Spring Break (because of the Earthquakes there). After chatting with Dawn for awhile, we decided to re-visit Monjuic, but a different way this time. From the metro stop at the bottom of Monjuic, we took a funicular cable car up and then got into a gondola up to the Castle on top. We took about a million pictures from the top and strolled down to check out the Olympic Stadium which was open. Since we were feeling inspired by all the Olympic information, I then took them down to the Olympic Village. This is where a lot of the big clubs are as well as a beautiful beach. We walked along the beach for a while before heading back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. Tess joined us for dinner at a restaurant called Attic overlooking Las Ramblas. After a delicious dinner we headed to a Flamenco show in Placa Reial.

Tuesday
Tuesday we drove. We rented a car from the Barcelona airport and drove and drove—in the rain. We drove up Costa Brava and stopped in Figueres to check out the Dali Museum. We grabbed a quick lunch and stood in line (still in the rain) waiting to buy tickets to the museum. Though we waited forever and ever, the Dali Museum ended up being really really cool. Let’s just say Dali must have ben quite the character. After a couple hours in the museum, we got back in the car and headed towards our hotel. Hotel Aguia Blava was right on a cliff overlooking the ocean. The rocks and water was absolutely breathtaking. And even though it wasn’t warm enough to swim or go in the water, I would definitely recommend this hotel to anyone looking for an absolutely gorgeous place to stay on Costa Brava.

Wednesday
Wednesday we loaded our stuff back in the car and drove and drove and drove some more. We literally drove for the entire day. LOTS of family time in the car. After a horrible lunch stop, Mom decided to take the wheel. Lets just say it was quite the interesting ride. We finally arrived in San Sebastian around 8pm and then finally found our hotel- Hotel Nize after circling the city for a half hour or so. We walked around the old city for a little bit and grabbed some dinner before heading back to the hotel.

Thursday
Since the funicular up to Montjuic had been so cool, we decided to take another one up to the highest point in San Sebastian. On the way I introduced Dad to café con leche which he continued to guzzle down the rest of the trip. We finally found the funicular and took it up to the top. Once we were up to the top we saw that an amusement park had been built up there, along with paths circling the top. We took lots and lots of pictures while taking in the sites and trying some homemade potato chips before we decided to head back down. The rest of the day we spent strolling along the beach/boardwalk and around the old town. We ended the afternoon by laying in the sun (and me getting nicely sunburnt).
For dinner we attempted to go to some Tapas bars but everyplace we found was a little too interesting for our tastes- lots of cheese and seafood combos, a no go for Tommy, Mom & I. Sorry Dad! We ended up eating at a little pizza/pasta joint in our hotel and called it a night.

Friday
We woke up to rain on Friday and decided to head back to Barcelona earlier than we had initially planned. So we drove and drove some more. Luckily the ride back to Barcelona was shorter than the drive from Costa Brava so we ended back in Barcelona in the late afternoon. We checked into our hotel on Las Ramblas to find out that we hadn’t booked 2 rooms of 2 but rather one room with four beds- our Madeleine bedroom we called it. We headed out to dinner to find another procession to the Cathedral- this one for Good Friday. Since we’d done some food experimenting that week we decided to cop out and go for some good old American grub at the Hard Rock Café in Placa Catalunya. Obviously we were stuffed after the full meal and we made our way to see the Magic Fountain at Montjuic. At night, Montjuic puts on a light show to music that is absolutely amazing. We finished off the night walking around Las Ramblas watching the street performers and looking for some KinderBueno gelato for Tommy (we were unsuccessful).

Saturday
For their last day in Barcelona we headed for all the sites. First we headed up to Park Guell- the Gaudi park that overlooks the city. After wandering around for an hour or so in the sun we headed back down to visit the Gaudi church- the Sagrada Familia. We opted against taking the tour and instead went to the Picasso museum in the Born neighborhood. It was an awesome museum that featured most of Gaudi’s work while he was living in various parts of Spain, including Barcelona. After the museum we grabbed some lunch at a great little bar/restaurant where I had celebrated my 21st birthday called Princesa 23. Then we headed to the Chocolate Museum to buys some presents for people back home. After stopping for a little bit at the hotel we headed over to my apartment to have dinner with my host family. It was a great dinner and funny to watch everyone try to communicate in a mixed Spanglish but overall it went really well. Dinner went pretty late and since they had an early flight to catch in the morning, we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep.

I sent them off to their airport early Sunday morning. It was great having the fam in town and show them around the city. Costa Brava and San Sebastian were both beautiful and would definitely recommend them to anyone looking for a gorgeous vacation spot in Spain.

more soon! molly

dublin

Okay- so I realize that I am coming home on Wednesday (!!! I cannot believe the semester has gone by so fast!!!) but I am determined to complete my blog before my return home. So here goes, starting with Dublin!

Thursday

Tess, Kelly, Stacey & I take a late flight from Barcelona to Dublin and land around 10pm, along with half of the entire American study abroad crew from throughout Europe. You see, it seems as if we weren’t the only ones with the ingenious plan to visit Ireland the weekend before St. Patty’s Day. So after waiting in the customs line for what seemed like forever, we finally jumped in a cab and were on our way. We got to our hostel after a lovely chat with our cab driver- of all the cities I’ve now been to in Europe, I have found the Dublin cabbies to be the most pleasant and interesting of anywhere else. We ventured out for a little bit, stopping at an authentic Irish Pub or two, but since it was late and we’d had classes that morning, we made a plan for the next day and hit the hay.

Friday

We woke up refreshed on Friday (in our double-bunk hostel bedroom) and after a quick breakfast (it was a really nice hostel) we hit the road. Our first stop was to Trinity College. My first impression of Trinity College was that it was incredible. Though it was cold and windy in the city, the grass and trees on campus were a ridiculously perfect shade of green- so perfect for Ireland of course. Now, the whole time I’m thinking why the heck didn’t I know that I could go to college in Europe?! I pick a nowhere town in Ohio when I could be going to school in the heart of Dublin or the Swiss Alps- what was I thinking?! We then continued to stroll through the city to knock a few more sites off our list. After wandering around by the river and a little shopping we headed back in the direction of our hostel, the Temple Bar District. We wandered around for a little to get a feel for it during the day (and grab some lunch) but we figured that we’d be back when it was a little more festive at night :) Then, in the spirit of St. Patty’s Day, we went to St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Now, the Cathedral was beautiful, but what really impressed me were the park/gardens in the back. Not only was the grass also an immaculate shade of green, but they had every color flower imaginable. We spent quite some time there taking pictures and enjoying all the colors. Then we headed to my favorite “museum” I’ve toured in all of Europe- The Guinness Storehouse & Museum. It was incredible! The entire museum is 7 stories high and not only includes the entire process of making the Guinness, but a “tasting lab”, packing center, marketing & advertising history section, an interactive quiz room, a HUGE giftstore and a gravity bar on the top level (with a complementary glass of Guinness). My favorite part was definitely the marketing and advertising history. It took you through all the different slogans, mascots and commercials that Guinness has EVER had. We spent probably an hour watching old Guinness commercials and laughing at all of the “my goodness, my Guinness” slogans. That night to wrap up our genuine Irish day, we went to a traditional Irish dinner show. We had a DELICIOUS meal of soup or salad, a beef/puff pastry mixture that was amazing and finally some dessert. While we were eating the cutest Irish band played traditional Irish jigs for the crowd (many of which were about the famous Molly Malone, which I will get to later). After the band played (and while we were eating dessert) a group of Irish dancers took the stage. Now don’t get me wrong, they were really good, but I find the whole Irish dance thing to be a bit goofy. After a good half hour forty minutes of Irish dance, another young Irish guy took the stage playing more contemporary songs on his guitar. We stayed and sang along for a bit, but we were wiped out from our long day so we headed back to the hostel which was conveniently next door and passed out.

Saturday

Saturday we woke up bright and early to take a bus tour into the hills outside the city. The Wild Wicklow tour started with a short City tour and then we headed to the coast. We drove through DunLaoghaire Harbour, Dalkey and Killiney, making sure to stop for some quick photo shoots. Our tour guides name was Wild Bill and he was the cutest little old Irish man you will ever meet. He was hilarious and added some spunk to what could have been a long time on a bus. We continued on through the Sally Gap- mountain lakes and boglands- made famous in Braveheart. Wild Bill then told us the story of how PS I Love You was filmed in those hills and he met (and kissed!) Hilary Swank. The wind was SO strong that there were times where I literally was afraid I was going to be blown into the cliffs/lake below me. After taking about a dozen pictures by the lake we boarded the bus once again. We then drove to Glendalough. We started out the stop with a “heart starter” as Wild Bill called it, aka a shot of Jameson Whiskey (made famously in Dublin). He then took us on a tour of a 6^th century settlement/cemetery and a walk up to the Upper Lake. Now it was FREEZING cold outside and none of us were dressed very properly so this led to some crabby, hungry girls by the time we got back to the bus. It was finally lunch time and we stopped at an authentic Irish pub in the hills and enjoyed a delicious traditional Irish meal. After lunch we headed back into the city and hung out in the hostel for awhile before grabbing some dinner and hitting the Temple Bar area. Seeing at is was the Saturday before St. Patty's Day, everyone was dressed up in hilarious green, orange and white costumes. We met up with another group of girls we knew from Barcelona (and MN) and ran into a friend of ours from Miami who is studying abroad in Florence for the semester. Small world. Overall- fun night, though I am not so much a fan of Guinness it was hard to choke down.

Sunday

Because our flight wasn’t until Sunday night, we had a very relaxing day doing what we do best- shopping. We strolled up and down Drafton Street (the main shopping strip in the heart of Dublin). We took pictures with the famous Molly Malone statue at the beginning of the street and sat and people watched for quite some time. After we were all shopped out, we headed back to the hostel, grabbed our luggage and headed for the airport. Our cabbie to the airport was a spunkie, bleach blonde thirty-something Irish women who insisted we were crazy for loving Dublin so much. She was a fan of New York and had a hard time understanding what we liked so much about the city and its people. We told her that she was a prime example- All the people were so incredibly nice and the city is so easy to navigate and figure out that it kind of felt like I knew the place already.

Seville coming soon! Stay tuned! xo Molly

pamplona/navarra

Okay, so I realize I am extremely late with this, but March has been quite the hectic month. It seems like we've had visitors every week, and trips on the weekends-not to mention a birthday celebration here and there. So March 5-7 the brave people in charge of IES Barcelona loaded 500+ college kids on 9 coach buses and crossed their fingers for the best. We were headed to the city of Pamplona and Navarra region in the North of central Spain- almost directly above Madrid near the French border. For all of you that don't know your Spanish cities, Pamplona is most famous for its tradition of the running of the bulls. We'll get to that later though :)

Thursday
So we all board the buses bright and early in Plaza Catalunya and went on our way. 8 hours and 2 dirty Spanish gas stations later bus 9 (my bus) is very crabby and ready to get to our hotel. The teachers on our bus string us along with the promise of wine tasting at our next stop at the Irache Vineyard and Monastery. When we finally arrive, we find out that the vineyard had in fact been turned into a museum and the only wine we got to taste was the watered down wine in the "wine drinking fountain". I'm not joking, you walk out to the back of the building and there is a faucet in this little courtyard and when turned on, wine comes out. Now bus 9 had some troublemakers who saw this and raced back to the bus to grab waterbottles to fillup with this free (really gross) wine. This didn't fly with the IES leaders. We all reboard the bus and drive another hour until we finally reach our hotel in Pamplona- where it is now snowing. The buses are all scattered between different hotels and bus 9 is the only at Hotel Leyre. I am introduced to my random, pre-assigned roommate (who actaully ended up being really cool) and we headed to dinner. IES took us to a restaurant down the street where we were served a set menu of spaghetti, chicken fingers, french fries and ice cream cake. By far the best part of the entire meal was the "free" water IES was paying for. I literally downed probably 10 glasses on my own, as did everyone around me. I'm sure the bill for the night was outrageous. After dinner bus 9 hung out in the pub under our hotel for a little bit and crashed pretty early due to our 7:30am wake up the next morning.

Friday
So we all roll out of bed the next morning and onto the bus where we immediately fall back asleep. An hour later, we wake up in Puente la Reina. Here we take a guided tour through the small town which is an important stop on the Camino de Santiago. Our guide tells us about the Camino de Santiago which was an extremely famous pilgrimage through Spain and parts of France. The bridge (which you can see in my pictures) is one of the most recognizable parts of the journey. After about an hour of strolling around this old town, we reload the bus and head towards the Castle of Javier. Its another hour and a half bus ride/nap to the castle but when we get there we are surrounded by snow capped moutains/hills with a lone castle standing in the middle. Though the tour of the castle wasn't all that interesting, climbing to the top tier of the castle was absolutely beautiful. We head back towards Pamplona for lunch and a walking tour of the city. Interestingly enough, I ended up eating at an Australian restaurant and it was one of the best meals I've had here so far- sad I know. So we were hesitant to go on the walking tour, because it was snowy and FREEZING outside, but it ended up being the best part of the entire trip. To start, we got a brief introduction to the layout of the city and basic info. Then we walked around the places that Ernest Hemingway made famous in his visits to Pamplona. It was in Pamplona that Hemingway wrote The Sun Also Rises. We visited the cafe he wrote in, as well as the hotel he stayed in and bars where he hung out. After the Hemingway portion of the tour, our guide walked up through the path of the running of the bulls: from the capitol down through the narrow streets to the bull ring. We were actually able to go into the bull ring and practice waving around the little flag. The little old Spanish caretaker of the ring was too cute and took the flag-waving very seriously. At the end of the tour, we met up with people on the other buses and walked around a little bit, shopping and wandering the city. We went back to the hotel for a bit before dinner (Salad with tuna, roast beef and mashed potatoes with gravy and yogurt). Not as good as the night before, but still, there was free water. I think half of the IES program all went to the same irish bar that night called O'Connell's and closed them down around 3am. My roommate and I then went into another club down the street. Soon after we entered we realized we were the ONLY non-Spanish people and not one other person in the bar spoke English. This was an issue because we are both in Beginner Spanish. We decided to call it a night a trudged back to our hotel in the pouring rain.

Saturday
So we wake up early on Saturday to board the bus to go home and as we are all loading the bus, it comes to the attention of our IES leaders that we are missing 2 kids. We will later find out that both are in the hospital for severe dehydration. About an hour into the drive we stop in Olite, a small town that used to be the capitol of the Navarra region. There we take an awesome tour of the Montasary and Castles there. They were both beautiful and by far one of the best tours I've taken since I've been here. The queen of the city insisted on the king building her a garden right outside her window- the only issue with this was that her bedroom was on the second story. So the kind hired some workers to construct a building with a courtyard on top of it to be built right next door to the queen's room. It was revolutionary for its time. So we load back on the bus after our tour and drive the 7 hours straight back to Barcelona. Its fair to say that I have never slept so much on a bus in my entire life. We literally spent half of the trip on the bus (in other words, sleeping).

The trip ended up not being as awful as we were all expecting it to be. The cold, snowy weather was a bummer, but if IES hadn't taken us to Pamplona, I probably wouldn't have gone on my own. The running of the bulls is such a famous event in Spain and it was really neat to see where it all takes place. Stay tuned for updates on Dublin!
xoxo molly

carnival

Carnival '09 in

Sitges- The Gay Capital of Spain!



Check out more pictures HERE!

Carnival was honestly unlike anything I have ever experienced before. We boarded the 5 buses headed for Sitges (about 45 minutes outside Barcelona) around 10pm with 500 of our closest American study abroad friends. They basically drop us off in the middle of the beach, hand us each a bottle of champagne, and send us on our way. There were sooooo many people in the most outrageous outfits. Everyone was decked out in bright colors, feathers and masks. Its like a giant block party with people all over, dancing in the streets, etc. We ran down to the water and took lots and lots of pictures! We finally arrive home around 5am, just enough time to grab a couple hours of sleep and head to class. I have never seen the IES classrooms so empty. My Media & Politics teacher called it the "Carnival Effect" and said that 15 people were absent from his earlier class (my class was missing about 10). I'm exhausted but it was definitely worth it! Well, I'm off to bed! Goodnight! Molly