Study Abroad Program

Well, the program is now over and everything went great. I was in class for 4 days a week for 4 hours per day. It was pretty interesting going to class and then going into Madrid for the afternoon. I did that a lot. They took us on several day trips during the past 4 weeks.

First they took us to Segovia. It’s a really nice small Spanish town. Segovia has two great features about it. First, it has a very old castle, one of two that they used to design the Cinderella castle after. The castle was very intact. They let us walk around the inside and even go up to the tower to and get a great overview of the town and the country side. The second this about his town is that it contains an old roman aqua duct within it. That this is very cool and impressive. They have done a little restoration on it to keep in intact, but it still looks like it did back in the day. We did that in the morning. In the afternoon we went to El Scorial. This is one of the oldest Spanish towns that contains the cathedral that houses all of the Spanish kings and queens. That thing was very cool. This cathedral was like a small town! It had everything you can think of. It also contains the 2^nd biggest Catholic church. Originally, the church was going to be bigger than the Vatican. However, Vatican law states that no Catholic church can be bigger that St. Peters. We got to see all of the past Spanish kings and queens tombs. We even got to see the area where the current king and queen will be buried.

The next day we went to Toledo. A lot of people told me to go to this town if I go to Spain. I understand why. This was one of the coolest towns that I have ever been to. This town is surrounded by one of the biggest rivers in Spain. We were there during the celebration of Corpis Cristi, it’s a Catholic holiday. They take a big gold and diamond box thing and march it around town. You need to Google it, it’s pretty cool. This town is also know globally for it’s sword making. This was a really awesome town.

The last trip that we took was to Barcelona. This was a weekend trip though, the others were day trips. This weekend was a blast. We got to take the bullet train to get there from Madrid. That thing is really cool. They took us to see a lot of art by the artist Gaudi. He actually designed a park there that is really cool. We went to his house that is very unique. It was very cool though. He also designed one of the coolest cathedrals ever. It is still under construction which was cool to see. It is of classic Gothic style. That is one of the reasons why I really liked it. Gaudi designed most of it but he was killed before eh could finish it. So one half of the church doesn't match the other half. It still looks really cool though. I was able to go the beach there for a little bit an I even went to an Ice Bar. Its funny because they have to keep the beer is a separate room because it will freeze if they keep it in the bar. It was pretty cool to have a beer from freezing while you are drinking it…..I had to drink it fast. OU gives us a free a weekend so we can go anywhere we want with some friends. I ended up deciding to go back to Roma. I know a bunch of people that were going and so I was going to be Rick Steve’s for the weekend. It was fun though. When I went before I was by myself so it was fun to go with some friends. I would say that all and all it was a good study abroad program. I just didn't like the school part. Now it is time for the second part of my trip.