Random Ramblings from Sevilla

(My other working title was "Stephanie finished her homework due tomorrow and doesn't want to work on her paper anymore.") I still have to catch up and fill y'all in on my Barcelona trip (amazing...one of my favorite cities) and la Feria de Abril, a huge festival in Sevilla. But tonight I thought I'd reflect...

La Semana Santa (Holy Week)

La Semana Santa, Holy Week, is an important holiday throughout Spain, but most of all in Andalucía. Thousands of people flock to Sevilla for the festivities, which is one of the reasons I took most of that week to travel to Portugal. However, I returned late Thursday before Good Friday and was in Sevilla through...

Adventures in Portugal

A couple weeks ago (yes, I’m still behind on blogging my adventures, I know), Semana Santa took Sevilla by storm, which meant spring break #1 for us. Yes, we have two spring breaks; it’s kind of wonderful. TCU students went all over for break, but Alayna and I decided to slow down a bit and vacation...

European Fairy Tale

At last, the final installment of my Madrid trip. An hour’s worth of misty mountains away from Madrid is a sleepy little town called Segovia, where we spent our Sunday afternoon. Like every Spanish city I’ve been to, Segovia has its churches and a cathedral, but what we really came for were two unique sites....

Global Citizenship

When I hear the words "global citizen," the first thing that comes to my mind is the preamble to the UN Charter. Wow, my Model UN nerd is really coming out tonight!(Sidenote: While I'm here in Spain my Model UN team got to hear Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon speak at the NY conference inside the...

Madrid: A Capital Experience

(Terrible pun intended. Puns are always intended.) I apologize to family and friends for falling behind in my blogging (sorry, Grandma!). I've been busy traveling and studying and living Sevilla! I just got back from a week in Portugal and I also want to share a bit about Semana Santa, but first I'll catch up on the rest of...

Cultural Fusion: Moorish Influence in Spain

  One of my professors at UPO describes Spain as an encrucijada, a crossroads where cultural influences from the Mediterranean, Africa, and Europe collide. To me, one of the most interesting influences is that of the Islamic Conquest  (711-1492) of what is today Spain. This history actually inspired my senior thesis project, which examines the...

Environmental Protection and Sustainability in Spain

One thing that I’ve learned over the course of several international politics classes and my Model UN experience in the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) is that Europe on a whole is much more proactive than the US when it comes to environmental protection. Spain’s Foreign Ministry is serious about mobilizing global efforts to combat climate...

Toledo, Spain: Off the Beaten Track

My family has been bugging me to write about my most recent trip for a couple weeks, but mid-terms studying and a lot of reading for my literature class kept me more than occupied. At long last mid-terms are complete! 5 tests, 4 of which were in Spanish and all of which were straight memorization, opposite of...

University Life: Home and Abroad

For this week’s TCU blog assignment, I get to channel my inner nerd and talk about differences between the American and Spanish education systems. I want to be a political science professor when I grow up (if I word it that way it makes graduation seem further away and I feel less old), precisely because...