Story by Callie Rouse, Co-News Editor, The Knox Student; Photo courtesy Rachael Morrissey

Small town St. Andrews, Scotland and metropolitan hub Barcelona, Spain have been awash in the past months with the phrase "independence referendum." It emerges in small talk, hangs from the windows and plays a role in the classrooms Knox study abroad students learn in.

"It ended up being me, my friend and a couple security guards from my building watching at like four in the morning and watching the closest vote of anything I've ever seen in my life," junior Carly Berinstein said, speaking of the Scottish referendum vote count during the early morning of Sept. 19. "At one point it was 49.8 percent ‘yes' and 50.2 percent ‘no.' It was really intense."

In their first weeks at St. Andrews, Berinstein and junior Emma Steiner witnessed history... Junior Rachael Morrissey, pictured above with her host family in Barcelona, has firsthand experience with the passion that has arisen around Catalonian independence...

Read the full story at theknoxstudent.com