The World According to Alexis

             My 3 rd day in Sweden was a hangout with Emily day, which, because of the company, was great fun. Emily and I originally planned to go to Ikea, because IKEA. But the shuttle that takes people from Stockholm to Ikea runs every day except Saturday, something we both did not realize until it was too late. So we nixed that idea and decided to walk all around Old Town instead. I thought I had seen all there was to see in Old Town the first day, but it turns out there was much more to discover. There was so much more to Old Town that Emily and I actually spent hours going in and out of shops, going into every souvenir shop in sight (I ended up buying a onesie with a moose on it for my baby cousin), and walking along the harbor where we saw a tour boat stylized as a Viking ship.             So this next part is going to sound ridiculous to most of you, but I find it extremely necessary to...

            Today was one of my favorite days in port, and I didn’t expect it to turn out that way. I went on a field program by myself, and by that I mean that I didn’t go with any close friends. This isn’t something I usually get excited about because I am not always super comfortable with large crowds right away; I need some time to adapt. The amount of time a field program takes is not usually long enough to get chummy with a bunch of people you vaguely know—if you know them at all. The reason for this field program was partially for an assignment for my Religions of the World class and partially because I wanted to do it for me, no matter what my friends decided to do that day. The field program went to Uppsala, a place mentioned, along with Stockholm, in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson, for those of you who like to make literary connections. Because I’m a nerd I was kind of pumped. Also, it’s always fun to experience cities oth...

Today was the first day of 4 in Stockholm, Sweden, and since Emily and Sidney both had field labs, I spent the day with a group of girls I met through my classes. Some of the girls I knew better than others, but since it was the first day in a new place, I had plenty of time to get to know them better. No one had anything specific planned for the day (which I’m okay with as long as someone tells me that), so we really just wandered around Stockholm for the majority of the day. The public transportation systems were easier to figure out here than in Russia, thank God, but not knowing how to pronounce the stops the Swedish way made us all sound hilarious. We got Chinese food for lunch, which I should probably be slightly ashamed of because I did not visit Sweden for Chinese food, but it was pretty amazing. It was buffet style, so I know I got my money’s worth in a country that is very expensive to live in. A view of Gamla Stan from the opposite bank Love the architecture of this ...

                       The fourth day in Russia was just as hot as every other day, but was also the most exciting because of the locations I visited: Catherine the Great’s Palace and the lower Peterhof Gardens! Catherine the Great's Palace! This picture doesn't even cover how large it is! Another view of Catherine the Great's Palace More of the front of Catherine the Great's Palace (Clearly this palace makes me really excited)                 We had to meet up at 7 to leave at 7:30 and because I don’t like being late I was there at 7 (my friends weren’t even there yet and they’re the early birds). When we arrived at Catherine’s Palace I got pretty excited because the palace is amazing and is totally worthy of the title “palace.” The majority of my photos from today are from Catherine the Great’s palace. We walked through the rooms and my favorite rooms, besides one of the ...

Be prepared for many pictures...              The third day of Russia was one of the longest, as it consisted of a tour of four of St. Petersburg’s churches: the Holy Trinity Cathedral (along with the Alexander Nevsky Abbey and a Cemetery), Our Savior of the Spilled Blood Church, St. Isaac’s Cathedral, and St. Vladamir’s Cathedral. If you have the chance to visit the Spilled Blood Church, I would advise you to take it! The inside is the most amazing thing. There are floor to ceiling mosaics that show important Biblical figures and famous parables and I wish I could have spent more time inside since I wanted to see each and every gold, mosaic-surrounded image. My other favorite of the day was St. Isaac’s Cathedral. For this church we had the option to either go inside the church or to go up to the colonnade—ascending 262 steps to get there! My friend Sidney and I chose this option, and you may think that 262 steps is no big deal. Let me tell you, i...

Hi everyone!             So at this point it has been almost a year since I did Semester at Sea. Unfortunately, I was separated from all my pictures because of computer issues (technology and I have a love-hate relationship) and I didn't want to post without some pictures to give you all a good visual. But, now that my photos and I have had a wonderful reunion, I figure it's about time for you to see what I did during the second half of a fantastic study abroad experience. So without further ado, off to Russia we go!              Out of all the countries we will visit on this trip, Russia is the 6 th . Russia is also the only country where we will spend 5 days, most likely because getting the Russian visa was pretty expensive and the SAS people want us to get our money’s worth. One thing to note about Russia is that I was actually looking forward to visiting this country, the most I think, because my brother and siste...