CAPA WORLD

In this week's post, Lorenzo discusses three excursions he's taken with CAPA to experience the wildlife of Australia, from petting wallaby at the Featherdale Wildlife park and hiking in the Blue Mountain National Park, to spending the night at the Taronga Zoo in Sydney. 

After experiencing a horse race at Sydney's Royal Randwick Racecourse, Martyn highlights the different sports Sydney residents enjoy watching or partaking in, from the cultural staples of Cricket and Rugby to the more unique likes of Lawn Bowling and Australian football.

For this week’s blog post I wanted to put a spotlight on sports in Sydney—specifically, I wanted to touch on my day experiencing Spring Racing on Cox Plate Day at the Royal Randwick Racecourse. The Spring horse races at Randwick were actually my first taste of sports life in Sydney and in Australia as a whole. This is partly due to the fact that I haven’t joined a recreational sports team abroad because of my distinct lack of coordination and because I have the body composition of a geriatric walrus.

But before we discuss the intricacies of track level, horse size, and grooming techniques I think it would be important to touch on two popular Australian sports that don’t have as much clout as some other sports back home. It’s worth noting that Rugby and Cricket are incredibly popular in Sydney and Australia as a whole. Both sports have National and International leagues and teams. There’s definitely a greater interest and passion for these two sports over others – I would compare it to the level of fervor and love that America has for baseball (which isn’t as popular in Sydney as it is in say Boston or Los Angeles this past weekend).

Now more than halfway through his semester in London, Christopher reflects on his 10 favorite experiences he's had thus far.

As we have reached the halfway point of the semester I feel that for my next blog post would be a great idea to list my top ten experiences in London Town thus far, in no particular order.

In this week's post, Maya recalls her excursion to Montserrat in Barcelona with the CAPA group, from a beautiful and strenuous hike into the clouds to seeing views of Barcelona and hearing the Montserrat boys choir sing.  

This past weekend CAPA hosted another My Global Cities event. This time, it was a trip to the mountains of Montserrat! Before coming to Barcelona I had never heard of this place before, and had no idea what was in store for me upon arrival.

We began the day early, waking up before the sun and went to meet our tour guide in the city center. It was really cool seeing Barcelona during sunrise, when the world was still sleeping and no cars were on the road. This sounds so simple, but it truly is an interesting experience to see a place you are used to seeing in constant motion, completely still.

In this week's vlog, Amaia and the rest of the CAPA Barcelona students take a My Global City excursion up to the Montserrat Monastery to learn about history, catch some beautiful mountaintop views, and hear a performance by the Montserrat boys choir.

In this week's post,Dan Powell takes us along to show us what another week in the life of a student Shanghai looks like. This week, he goes on an excursion to Suzhou, encounters a dance party in a local park, and goes on a run. 

In this week's vlog, Rachel Epp documents a CAPA group excursion to Suzhou, where students explore the city's notoriously beautiful gardens, canals, shops, and restaurants!

In this week's post, Genevieve explores the beautiful bookstores of London. Books old and new, on boats and on sale, here are 5 book shops you must visit when studying abroad in London.

The beauty of a big city like London is that it holds something for everyone. If you like food, go to Borough Market. If you like movies, go to Peckhamplex (tickets are only £5, so really anyone should go). If you like shopping, Westfield is your place. But for me, my personal poison is books. I can spend a whole day in Barnes and Noble. Whenever I go exploring in London, I always have my eyes open for a bookstore that has some kind of unique charm or purpose. London has plenty of those. I will list five. Some are perfect for studying in, others are beautiful just to see, and some are actually good for finding books. Each one is special in its own way:

In this weeks post, Lorenzo shares his impressions of Sydney and Australian culture with a local CAPA staff member, Richard Cooper and documents their conversation.

In this week's post, Jessica and her friends plan their own excursion up to Cork, Ireland, where they tour the English market, tour the Blarney Castle and grounds, and kiss the Blarney Stone! 

Unfortunately, I did not document my kissing of the Blarney Stone because I was so squeamish about germs at first and decided to just do it in the spur of the moment, but hey, I still have a story to tell.

The day started out at 6:30am – the time our bus left Dublin. My friends and I took the GoBus, and it only cost 20 euros round trip. After 3 hours, we were in Cork with the whole day to explore. We started exploring the city at the English Market and ate breakfast upstairs. There was so much fresh food that looked delicious along with so many other things to buy. We then had the decision to either take a tour of the city or visit the Blarney Castle. Out of the 7 of us, Blarney Castle won, and we set out to figure out the Cork bus system to Blarney.