¡A comer!: Spanish Food

Perhaps one of the most fun parts of traveling is sampling new food and drink. I mean, who doesn't like to find the best wine and chocolate in every country? Living for a semester in Spain was a completely different food lifestyle from my American routines. Some of the food I was happy to say adios to...

Torn Between Two Worlds

(Posted a bit late because airport wi-fi didn't work and because I was too exhausted after 24 hours of traveling to post.) I confess that I am a bit behind on travel blogging. Since my last post, I’ve traveled to Barcelona and Granada, experienced Sevilla’s defining Feria de Abril, cheered on both of the city’s...

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...

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...

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...

(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...

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...