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...

(Mis)communication

As an unapologetic language nerd, I love discovering new phrases, especially ones that don’t translate directly into English. It’s like a puzzle, figuring out where words originate, connecting words linguistically to other languages, unearthing a bit of history or culture behind a phrase. Spanish, the second-most spoken language in the world, is a particularly fascinating...

Moroccan Adventure

Last weekend I made it to my third continent, Africa! With my roommate, Alayna, and 100 other students in a Discover Excursions group, I traveled to several cities in Morocco. While in general I prefer to avoid touristy travel groups, I do not speak Arabic and my French is rusty, so I felt this was a...

Córdoba: Lessons in Train Travel, the Inevitability of Getting Lost, and the Kindness of Spaniards

Thursday afternoon, two of my roommates, Alayna and Courtney, and I decided that we wanted to take a day trip this weekend after all, despite our original plan of using this weekend to get settled with school, rest from an exhausting two days of classes (which isn’t that bad, except that operating completely in a...

Surviving your first international flight

Finally in Sevilla and somewhat rested after a siesta! This was my first time flying internationally, and it actually was much simpler than I thought it would be. That being said, here are some tips that I picked up as a novice world traveler: 1.  Yes, you should wear the biggest pair of shoes that...