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...

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...

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...

Odds and Ends

This weekend I took a break from traveling so I could enjoy spending time in my host city. There is so much to see in Sevilla, and I love discovering new things about my Spanish home every day. Here are a few of the fun, random, crazy, weird, exciting things I’ve encountered recently: Remember when...

Be mindful. Participate. Connect.

Tina Fey’s first rule of improvisation is say ‘yes.’ Apparently Tina and I are kindred spirits, because that is my New Year’s resolution and my study abroad motto. I knew when I signed up to go to Spain that I was not cut out for the study abroad life—I like routines and comfort zones, I’m a...

Stop and smell the oranges.

In my Latin American Geography class last year, my professor began by listing major American cities and asking us to call out the first thing that came to our minds. New York? Central Park. Los Angeles? Hollywood. Boston? Red Sox (boooo). What I found most interesting was to hear others’ first responses to my city,...

Reading, running, and reflections.

I think my host mom thinks I'm crazy for running on top of all the walking we do in Spain. "You get plenty of exercise walking, it's good for your health," she tells me. Yeah, and you also have to make up for the copious amounts of bread that Spaniards eat. Which is delicious, don't...

Negro y blanco

The other day I stole a few hours for myself and returned to the Plaza de España with my journal and camera in tow. I’ve noticed that the Spanish walk much more slowly than Americans, so I tried to blend in and do the same. It was more difficult than I thought it would be....

Seeing the Sights

Being a tourist is not the same as being a traveler or a member of a community. I will not be able to say that I know Paris after I’ve snapped photos of the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe. I am not living in Sevilla to check off a list of important buildings,...