Last week was my fall vacation, so I had a week off. That left me free to explore the world! I went to Paris for a weekend, then left for Germany Sunday night on what I thought was going to be a night train. Turns out, it was a night bus, which made for an uncomfortable 10-hour transit.

Friedberg, Germany

Today France is celebrating Armistice Day, which means everything, including school, is closed. It's the perfect opportunity to catch up on sleep, homework, and blogging!

When my friend Roman from high school was visiting Paris, he mentioned that he had just booked a trip to Barcelona for late October. I decided to join him and his friends in Barcelona and we had an amazing weekend in Spain.

I apologize for not writing recently. Not only have I been swamped with end-of-the-year projects, but my trusty old Macintosh laptop has started to fail me. I take this computer for granted and sometimes don't realize the struggle I cause her when I download movies, make movies, play music, upload pictures and write papers all at the same time. But something is seriously wrong with her and now I'm forced to write this blog by hand (rough, right?!) and then type it on my roommate's computer.

I know that nothing in this world is permanent, but that doesn't make it any easier.

Hong Kong was beautiful with its buildings and lights and colors. It was like walking into the future. It was fun for a while. Then we walked back on the ship and everything changed. At 7a.m., we heard an announcement on the loudspeaker, "There will be an emergency meeting at 7:30 a.m." My roommate and I walked in. One of the students onboard, Kurt Leswing, had been killed the night before. He'd been hit by a drunk driver while hailing a taxi and died on the way to the hospital. I hadn't met him yet, and now I never will, and neither will anyone else.

First and foremost, I apologize for waiting this long to post a blog. Life in Granada has gotten really busy all of a sudden, but I assure you that I won't allow this much time between posts again.

I noticed that Halloween is not celebrated by many Spaniards. It was hard finding a costume store. Luckily, Granada has its own Claire accessories and that's where my friends and I found our cute costumes.

Deliver a ballot on time, that is.

My absentee ballot finally arrived on Tuesday, a week after the election.

My friend Roman (yes, I talk about him a lot and no we are not dating) decided he didn't get enough of Paris the first time. He decided to return in early November. While he was staying in Paris, we decided to take a day trip outside of the city. Destination: Bruges, Belgium.

My time in France is starting to wind down. Unfortunately, homework is not and I've been pretty busy with my studies! Nevertheless, I'm determined to milk this last month! Last weekend, I went to Chenonceau, probably the most beautiful chateau in the Loire Valley.

Amazingly, I had a Bucknell reunion, but in Japan. Krista and I got to meet up with Aiko, meet her parents and stay at her house! There were complicated subway trains, taxi rides and great local food to be found in Osaka. We never could have done so much in that short time without Aiko.

We got to travel to a temple that is only lit up for a month before the new year.
I got to see the forest where Totoro is supposed to live! I found a Japanese Newsweek at a bookstore. We went to a Totoro store in Osaka. We had a generally sweet time.

It turns out that I had one more trip before my experience in Australia was over. After numerous attempts at planning an organized trip, three other girls and myself decided last minute to go on a "road trip." We booked a flight to a small town called Ballina, which was about an hour from Sydney.This trip would commence on Nov. 5 and we would get back on the 11th. Out of all the possible flights we could have taken, all the different times and dates we decided to go on Nov. 5 at 2:30. Now, I'm not sure if you've made the connection, but this coincided exactly with the verdict of the presidential election. We woke up in Bondi, caught some of the news and an overall feeling of depression enveloped all of us when we realized Obama wasn't in the lead.

This Thanksgiving, we stopped in Hawaii for a few hours. I had never been away from my family on Thanksgiving before, but it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be because I spent most of it with the Salvation Army.

I still had a Thanksgiving dinner -- it was just massive. It was Dr. Seuss massive. It was an expo center full of tables -- the kind of place District Science Fairs are held (not that I would know anything about that). Anyway, I got to help serve drinks to one specific area. The other areas had other volunteers from other volunteering groups working them.