CU Abroad – Olga Desyatnik

            If I thought the public library near my residence was nice, the one near the elementary school I volunteer at is simply overwhelming. Three huge floors, computer labs, study room, a sea of CDs and movies of all genres, books on absolutely every topic imaginable – and not just crappy popular fiction. Philosophy, photography, [...]

            You have to look up. Or look underground. That’s how you find things. Every time I ride my bike down the street Diagonal, I see something new. (And I ride down it twice a day, twice a week.) The nature of these modernist buildings is that the tops are the most interesting part. They’re [...]

Whenever something becomes popularized, it starts to lose the aspects that originally made it so precious, and I’m really afraid of muddying the proverbial waters that are the couchsurfing community by writing about it in a public space. But I suppose I can’t reach that many readers with my humble blog, so I’ll continue the [...]

       It’s really a simple day; nothing unusual at all to the common Barcelona university student. But to me, a lot has changed with the inclusion of a few tiny differences in my day. I met a really nice girl in my Literature and Cinema class today– more friendly than the Catalans had me accustomed [...]

        Edinburgh was exactly the kind of change I was looking for. (Besides the welcome break from spending several minutes interpreting any sign and understanding only half of what the guy at the bar is saying to me.) Not only was it different from Barcelona (for better more than for worse), it was different from [...]

I’ve been here for a month now, and I finally feel like a Barcelona resident rather than just a visitor. Several people have asked me for directions, and I was able to give responses. That’s a great feeling. I now know where to walk, which train to take, and can even read the menus! I’ve [...]

I’m sorry, I just couldn’t resist. There are no cold caffeinated beverages here. “Café con leche” is not a latte. It’s a very small cup of espresso with a little bit of milk. It’s delicious, don’t get me wrong—but for an entire month now I have not had an Iced Latte. A big one. Because [...]

              You never know how you feel about the things that surround you daily until you’re taken away from them. Sometimes absence makes the heart grow fonder, and sometimes it makes you realize flaws you hadn’t seen before. I never thought I would actually start to appreciate the U.S. more when I went abroad.              [...]

  As I step off the plane and walk through the airport (looking down to make sure I was following the green line marking my luggage pick-up terminal), I can hardly contain the grin creeping across my face. I am here. In Spain. In the country I will be living in for the next half-year. [...]

            It’s my second to last night at Cornell, and I’m feeling reflective, as I’m wont to do at odd hours of the morning when I should be focusing on the schoolwork that’s due this day. But today, for no obvious reason, was the first day I had a true dose of nostalgia kick in. [...]