After Barcelona, the week passed very fast–so fast in fact that as Colleen arrived Wednesday evening, it felt like that was the beginning of the weekend. It was great because it took me back to my first few weeks here as I got to be a tourist all over again. I took Colleen through the city, and though we didn’t explore too many of the sites here, we walked for hours through the city and around the Christmas markets, which had started up this weekend.

As we had all missed Thanksgiving at home, those Georgetown students who were here for the weekend got together on Friday afternoon to cook Thanksgiving dinner for us and the host family whose house we used. I was put in charge of the salad (artisan lettuce, arugula, pears, goat cheese, and candied walnuts) and the sweet potato casserole, which all turned out great, and I…