Submitted by Jessy Buckter on the 2014 spring semester study abroad program in London, England…
Included in my program here in London, we got to choose two cultural activities for free. My first one was this Monday and I got to see Billy Elliot. I love Broadway shows and I have seen lots of them since I grew up in New York. I was very excited to see Billy Elliot, especially since it is set in England. The show was absolutely amazing. The talent of the main boy character in the show blew me away. I am very happy I got the opportunity to see this show.
Tuesdays are my day to explore. I had a project to do about a borough in London; called Southwark, so I went to do some research on that. There are a lot of great activities in Southwark. First, I went to the Tate Modern, which is the world’s most visited modern art gallery. There were many floors of art from tons of different modern artists, including Picasso. I saw lots of cool works of art. Modern art is very interesting because a lot of it is more up to interpretation. It is completely different than any of the art I’ve seen in other museums so far. Afterwards, I headed to the Millennium Bridge, which was right outside the museum. This bridge is very new and modern looking and has a fantastic view of the city. It leads right up to St. Paul’s Cathedral, so the walk is picturesque. I crossed the London Bridge to get back to Southwark and explored the Globe Theatre, The Shard, City Hall and Tower Bridge. This area of London is very interesting because it has an incredible mixture of old and modern architecture. It shows that London is trying to keep up with all the other global cities in the world, which are typically full of skyscrapers.
This weekend, I traveled to Barcelona, Spain with my roommates. Right when we got off the plane in Barcelona, it felt like a dream. There was full on sun and I was hot in my jacket. This type of weather is something I have definitely been missing. We went to our hotel, changed and headed to Park Güell. Park Güell l is a park full of beautiful architecture done by Antoni Gaudi. He designed lots of buildings in Barcelona and they are all so unique and stunning. All of his stuff was like nothing I have ever seen before. This weekend was a perfect time to go because we had beautiful weather so we got to explore so much. On Saturday, we just walked around all day and tried to see as much as possible. We went to the beach, Boqueria market, Arc de Triomf, Parc de la Ciutadella and lots more. Everything was beautiful and my favorite part was that there were palm trees everywhere. I love the warm weather so I loved everything about this weekend. For dinner, we had to get traditional Spanish food. We got tapas, paella and sangria and it was all perfection. On Sunday, we went up to Montjuic Castle. It was quite a trek to get up there, but well worth it. It showed an amazing view of the entire city of Barcelona. The entire weekend was really perfect.
