For the past week I have been getting used to life in Spain.  For the month of May I am studying here with Francisco Salgado-Robles, a professor in the Spanish department. Last Sunday for the first time ever I took a plane out of the States and made the journey to Spain.  Right now I am living in Seville which is in southern Spain about an hour from the coast.  I have been here, in Seville, for a week now and I still get lost when I am going to my classes.  I am also doing service learning so I work at a Children’s Hospital.  

I have been to many places with some of rich history of both Spain and the United States.  For example, this past weekend my class went to La Rabida and la playa (the beach) where we saw the monastery where Christopher Columbus (in spanish he is know as Cristobal Colon) went to get monks as warriors for his ships.  

On a Southern China flight to Guiyang The Double with Richard Gere is on. The sound is too low and subtitles are in Chinese. A box lunch consisting of a small foil container with beef fried rice, a package of fermented cabbage, a roll, and yogurt, is passed to each passenger by two young flight attendants with perfect, matching hair buns.

(our hotel in Guiyang has spotty internet service so I’m posting this days later)

Many are quick to critique social media as being a giant time waste, something incredibly self-indulgent, and even slightly creepy. We have all heard these arguments before. An interesting counterargument posits that social media can be used to increase social capital and even be used for purposes of social good. The same two arguments also swirl around the sphere of videogames as well. I can't tell you how many times my parents told me to turn off my Nintendo and go outside. So what happens when you smash social media, gaming, and social good all into one? We're finding new, innovative sites almost everyday. 

I woke up this morning in the most populous city (proper) in the world expecting more noise. At 7:30 AM (7:30 PM, Kentucky time), Sunday morning, only tiny intermittent sounds of bicycle bells, a whoosh of a moped every few seconds, and sneezes from walkers along the street below. My husband, Kevin, and I are staying at a nice, simple, hotel at Shanghai University, on one of the many campuses.

At breakfast in the hotel, there was a choice of American breakfast or Chinese. We both chose the American--fried eggs, toast, and coffee. Tomorrow I’ll have the Chinese one, a hard-boiled egg, congee, (porridge), and another dish that I couldn’t make out from where we were sitting.