Stud Enjoying Cordoba!

Sarah has been studying for the Spring Semester in Cordoba, Argentina .  She reports that she's having a great time there, and has shared a couple of her thoughts about her experience.  She traveled to Buenos Aires for "semana santa," or the equivalent of our Spring Break, and said this about that trip: , "It was a really fun place to visit, with lots of things to see and tango shows to go to at night, but BA is a ridiculously big city and it made me quite glad that I'm studying abroad somewhere a little more manageable."

She also had this to say about her living arrangements over there:

"My host family is wonderful, and their two year old daughter is the cutest thing ever.  We color together a lot in my free time, which is a nice counterbalance to the logistical stresses of Argentine living."

After quite an extensive effort to get "cleared" medically to be able to participate in even recreational athletics over there, she's happy that finally she's going to get to play some volleyball, so hopefully we'll get an update on how that's going pretty soon.  

Stud, we miss you, but it sounds like you're having an amazing experience in Argentina!  Before too long, we'll all be back together again for preseason!  Happy Spring everyone!!

  

Pictures from Abroad

Well, I heard that two of our travelers are back now after their semester in Spain, so congrats to them for finishing up already!  They sent a few pictures from their Spring Break travels that took them to Paris, Florence, and Berlin.  Apparently, they had one minor encounter with some bed bugs while in Paris, but other than that, they had a BLAST!

They also traveled to Switzerland at some point for a winter feel in the mountains.  I had asked Caitlin about what her favorite foods were in Spain because I've always heard so much about great Spanish food, and she had some great comments about that.  She is living with a host family, and her host mom is a wonderful cook.  She's from the Canary Islands, which is part of Spain, but has a lot of African and Moroccan influence.  Caitlin says: "I've eaten more meat here than I do at home, which is different, but also a nice change at the same time. We actually have a pig leg in our kitchen that you can shave ham right off of whenever you want to. Sounds weird but its some of the best ham I've ever had! My host mom makes a lot of traditional spanish food. Paella is very popular, which is basically rice flavored with a bunch of spices (mainly saffron), and then with veggies, chicken, chorizo, seafood, or whatever you want. It's definitely one of my favorites. Another favorite are these things called croquetas. I can't really describe them, they look kind of like mozzarella sticks, but they're not made from cheese. Hard to explain but they're pretty much some sort of fried dough with any kind of meat, cheese, or fish chopped up in the dough. My explanation is not doing them justice and probably makes them sound disgusting but if you ever get the chance to try them you should. And the third big food here, and something I could eat every day for the rest of my life, is tortilla española. It's Spain's take on frittata pretty much, and is usually made with potatoes, egg and sauteed onion, but my host mom sometimes put tomatoes or zucchini in too. Tastes great hot or cold, or put in a sandwich."

Caitlin has a fabulous attitude about it all, and this sentence sums it up pretty nicely: 

"...it's always some sort of culinary adventure and I always try everything before asking what's in it just in case."