As I promised in the last installment of Josh's London Blog*, there would be more medieval castles in this semester's remaining entry (I'm still working on the rainbows and flowers).
The Vladislav Hall in Prague Castle

It was a busy Thanksgiving weekend in France. In truth, it didn't really feel like Thanksgiving at all and I only missed my Mom's cooking when I thought about it. Although I did miss my family, I also realized that I haven't any time to waste pining for the comfort of home. There are only three weeks left!

Bucknell organized a little cooking lesson for all of us. I was on the dessert team and made a tarte tatin, which is an upside down apple tart with caramel. I can't say I retained a whole lot of information at the cooking lesson (I was too preoccupied with covertly stealing licks of whipped cream), but it was a blast. Though it's tough to skip out on the best American traditions, I guess it's the price you have to pay for discovering new ones. Mom makes a great apple pie ... but my tarte wasn't too shabby either!

St. Vitus' Cathedral is one of the most spectacular buildings in Europe and one of the few that allows visitors to take photos.

The weekend of Nov. 15, the Bucknell en Espana program had its last trip of the semester. We had an overnight visit to Sevilla, the capital of Andalucia which is located about three hours away from Granada. I have to say that Sevilla was one of the best trips of the semester. All the trips were amazing and I learned so much but Sevilla was in my opinion the best along with our trip to Segovia.

Unfortunately, I was not present at the Bucknell en Espana Thanksgiving dinner because I was in Dublin with my good friend Patti. However, I was told that they had a great time and that the dinner was delicious. Professor Delgado and Program Coordinator Fatima worked really hard to get everything for the dinner ready. Some of the students on the program were visited by their parents and they also contributed and helped make the dinner a success.

It's amazing how fast time has gone by. Today finals started at the University of Granada, Centro de Lenguas Modernas, where the Bucknell en Espana students take their classes. The last day of classes was yesterday and some of the students had their first exam today, as was my case. I had my translation exam this morning and I have three more exams and one paper to finish before I am done with the semester.

Stop and think about the flags you know -- the symbolism and the colors and the shapes. Flags attempt to distinguish one group or area from the next. That's probably why there's never been a world flag. What if we made a flag that actually didn't discriminate?

On the ship we had a competition these last few days onboard. Before this trip I know I could never have done the project justice. Most people know about the world from geography books and passing by it on the news.

Now that I've actually circumnavigated the globe I can say I now have an understanding of that concept -- the world. I was able to put my pen to paper and come up with things that I was able to use in every place in the world that I have been to.

... I'll be studying in Hong Kong this spring, in case you were wondering. Surprisingly in the past week alone, it seems that a majority of all the adults I've talked to have been to HK (including the shoe salesman from Nordstrom today!) and had nothing but great things to say. The general consensus is that: the food, shopping and nightlife are great; the city is colored neon with lights and is just a very interesting (and crowded) place. I'm definitely excited, but it's pretty surreal that I leave on Friday.