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Thanks to our three day weekend and Budapest’s central location, a group of McDaniel study abroad students traveled to Zagreb, Croatia. Zagreb is the capital of Croatia and while it is not the main tourist city, (Split and other coastal towns attract the most tourists) it was still an amazing city to explore.
After waking up at 4:00 in the morning to catch our five hour bus ride, we were able to spend a good three days in Zagreb. Some highlights included the visit to the Zagreb City Museum, riding the world’s shortest funicular, climbing the lookout tower, shopping at a local market, walking around the city center and main streets, going on a free walking tour of the city (as a McDaniel tour guide, it was interesting to go on a tour opposed to giving a tour), and my personal favorite- visiting the Museum of Broken Relationships. If you have not heard of this museum, you should definitely look it up- it has been ranked on “Most Unique Museums” lists and was definitely the most memorable place I visited while in Zagreb.
Here are some of the most interesting pieces of information I learned while on this weekend excursion (see, I did make the trip educational!)
-Ties originate from Croatia
-The Dalmatian originates from Croatia
– A Croatian invented the fountain pen
– Zagreb’s population is around 800,000 while the population in Croatia totals around 4.2 million
I promise I learned much more about the history of Croatia, the history of Zagreb, and more about the culture- these are just some of the fun facts that I learned on our walking tour. I cannot wait to explore another city- just one of the many other perks about studying abroad!
  
Hey guys,
One of my favourite things in life is ice cream. I’m that kid who has a tub in her freezer at all times except for when she’s eaten it all. So one of the highlights of last week was ANW’s ice cream social!
The event, held on Thursday evening, was called “What’s the Scoop With Your Life?” and its purpose was to encourage students to set goals for the semester. In order to get a scoop of ice cream, students had to write out a goal. We encouraged them to be SMART goals: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely. It was really interesting to see what everybody found important–a lot of goals were academic, but there were a lot of sports related ones as well. I was impressed to see some health related ones in there amongst the personal goals.
Overall, it was a lot of fun just to have the “social” part of the event–getting to stand around and talk with other people who live in my building. Some of them live on different floors than me and so I had never seen them before, and others I had seen but never really had a chance to talk to. It was a ton of fun!
Ema
  
If you have examined the components of the McDaniel Plan, you were probably either thrilled or terrified when you noticed the “Creative Expression” requirement. Even if you are not an inherently artistic person, there are still a variety of classes that you might find bearable (or maybe even fun) such as Jewelry Design, or, the class I am taking now, Digital Photography. I am, self-admittedly, one of those non-artistic people. However, before enrolling in the class, I thought that since I will be taking pictures in Budapest, I might as well take a course to improve the photos I post on facebook for my parents.
Good decision on my part. In the class, we have learned basic camera rules and photography staples. I finally discovered the flash button location on my camera, so that was revolutionary for me. One of the most exciting aspects about the class is that for our photo assignments, we go on field trips around the city! This past Tuesday, my class traveled to Fisherman’s Bastion (a 15 minute metro ride from the school) and used the beautiful buildings as models for our “architecture and buildings” unit of the class. Other field trips include a hike to Buda Hills for the nature unit and a trip to one of the bridges for the night photography unit. Trips around Budapest for a routine class assignment- just a normal school day here at McDaniel.
To show you what I have learned so far in my photography class, here are a few of the pictures I took while on our first field trip. Fisherman’s Bastion is one of the top tourist attractions because of the panoramic views and lookout points of the city. Also, please do not judge me too harshly, like I said, I just discovered the flash button
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When I was a freshman, I was under the impression that when I got to college, I would have large amounts of free time. I quickly realized that college still involved work. Hence, as my amount of free time began to dwindle so did the number of books I have read.
However, I had a life changing moment this past week. In my Spanish Capstone, we have to read books by female authors. Normally, I tend to dislike assigned books regardless of how good they are, but this book totally blew my mind.
Sab is a novel written by a Cuban author, Gerturdis Gómez de Avellaneda. It is about a slave who is in love with his master’s daughter. It has drama, romance, and brings up issues of social justice in many subtle ways.
This book has inspired me to try to read other novels this year. It reminded me how fun reading can be and how much I miss reading. Maybe I will try and finish another Spanish novel this year? Who knows? The possibilities are endless!
Hi guys,
I’m still exhausted and my head is still reeling from my day yesterday. Almost 50 McDaniel students took a bus up to New York City and joined more than 310,000 in protesting climate change with the People’s Climate March.
Our group was made up of a variety of different people, including students from Sustainability classes, students from our Green Life club, and students from our Progressive Student Union. We all arrived at the bus at the ungodly hour of 5:30AM in order to drive to the city and join people from all walks life to protest climate change.
The march was held because the UN is meeting this week in a summit on climate change. Though there were no specific demands requested by protesters, we were all alike in hoping that they will do something to changing the trajectory our world is currently on. This was the biggest climate change protest in history, and was accompanied by other marches across the globe.
It was inspirational to see everybody, each with their own specific story and cause, marching around the city. I was able to see friends from as far away as Wisconsin! It was also my first time (excluding a time I have no recollection of when I was 7) being in New York City and seeing icons such as Times Square. I’m hoping to have a chance to go back soon for a more cultural visit.
Ema
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