Granada

This past weekend (Friday & Saturday) my school took us on a trip to Granada! This city is also located in the province of Andalucía but about a 4 hour bus trip away. It truly is a gorgeous town. As one of our tour guides explained... If you live in Granada you can drive 30 min away if you want to go skiing in the snow-capped mountains visible from many parts throughout... or you can drive 30 min in the opposite direction if you want to go to the beach. Quite an awesome geographical location.

We arrived around in the afternoon on Friday and that evening we went on a tour of the Alhambra which is a palace city constructed in the 13th century with heavy influence from Muslim architecture. I have concluded that the outside parts of this place remind me of a mix of Narnia and Palace of Versailles. It was complete gorgeous; como un sueño. Without blabbering on much further, I'll give you all what I'm sure you really only want :)

Our hotel: Hotel Los Angeles

View of snow-capped mountains

French style gardens in Alhambra

La Alhambra

Inside the palace walls

View of ruins from top of tower

Yours truly, on top of the tower :)

A taste of the ornate Muslim decoration- All hand carved!

Day two brought us on a tour of the Granada cathedral. Although it might not be the third largest in the world like ours over here in Sevilla, it was definitely different from any other cathedral I've ever been in. Actually, I'd have to say it's also my favorite cathedral I've ever been into... and I have been to a lot around the world. The reason I liked this one so much and the reason it's so unique is because the inside walls are all painted white. Every other cathedral I've been into always has had gold or brown walls, making them very dark and dreary even on a sunny day. This one isn't like that... its beautiful and happy on the inside.

Cathedral

The contrast of white with gold really made it feel glorious

A church hosting a wedding (see the decorated car)

An adorable side street next to a creek (reminds me of Prague)

I realize this is the second city comparison I've made in this post. It's not that I'm trying to boast my travelling record it's just that I tend to compare new spots to my favorite cities/places. I actually told Brian while walking around this day that I can't wait until I can find myself in another city like this one where I can say "this place reminds me of Granada."

A beautiful day in Granada

Besos,

xx Catalina

Más Sol, Por Favor.

La Playa!

This weekend was just too gorgeous to not enjoy it while laying in the sun, feet in the sand, sipping tinto de verano, and reading Spain's newest issue of Cosmopolitan... So that's exactly what I did. Yesterday, I went to the town of Huelva, just southwest of Sevilla on the Atlantic Ocean, to a beach named Matalascaña. Personally I thought it was gorgeous... According to my professor, this is the ugliest beach around. Well, in that case, I can't wait to see the "beautiful" ones. I'll let you judge how ugly it is:

Me, Laura, y Mariana

Mariana

Beachside Restaurant

Las Tres Amigas

Hope you enjoyed that! I'll be sure to update again. By the way, the Spaniards prefer my name to be "Catalina" and I like it too; it makes me feel Spanish. So that's my name until further notice :)

Besos,

Catalina xx

PS. YES, we did go in the water... YES, it was cold... & YES, it was nice once you couldn't feel your legs anymore...

Música, Tinto, y Sol!

Hola! I'm feeling much better now :) I actually got sick again the day after the last post so I went to the doctors on Thursday and got medicine. Now I'm doing way better. I feel like I have so much to inform you on. So that's what I'm going to do. First, I just booked a flight to Italy! (My mom is going to kill me) I'll be going there in the end of May, so be on the lookout for that post. Second, it has finally stopped raining. Woohoo! I took advantage of the beautiful weather yesterday and went to an outdoor music festival being held just 10 minutes from where we live. That's the flyer for it on the right. It was awesome! There were lots of people, loud music, cheap drinks, and free entrance; a perfect combination in my opinion. That's me with my rather large glass of "Tinto de Verano"- a mixed drink of red wine and lemon soda, very yummy.

This festival kind of reminded me of being at Warped Tour a little bit. The whole thing started at noon and lasted until 10pm. My friend Brian and I got there around 5pm and stayed until 9pm. It was an overall good time. When we arrived we caught the end of a rap group called PutoLargo, who was pretty interesting in my opinion. On the walk over to the festival I was telling my friend that I wanted to hear Spanish rap because I already think spanish people talk fast so I can't imagine it getting much faster... Well, it gets faster. I didn't understand most of it. But it did have a catchy beat :)

My favorite group was the second one we saw called La Selva Sur. I think I immediately became attracted to them because they opened their concert in a similar style to the Dave Matthews Band concerts I've been to; very slow music at first followed by a full out jam session. I loved it! The sound of this group seems to come from a wide range of influences. At first I sensed a reggae vibe, but as the show progressed I heard bits of jazz and rock intertwined. Actually, I'll let you check it out for yourself and tell me what you think! This was one of my favorite songs from the show:

Hope you enjoyed that! Let me know what you think. Also, let me know of any new music you've been listening to :) Hasta luego!

-Caitlin xx

Ps. Hope you like the new layout!

Blahg Post

(Side note: I accidentally misspelled "blog" while saving this entry on my blackberry, but when I went back to correct it I actually thought it was the more appropriate spelling for this entry, Enjoy!)

I just got the sudden urge to blog so that's what I'm going to do... I'm sitting outside Universidad de Sevilla, just finished eating my lunch, and I'm waiting for my history class to start in 20 minutes. Today is the first day it hasn't rained in forever it seems, almost a week or something, so although it's a bit chilly I'm still going to sit outside in shorts and my hoodie to absorb this non-wet weather. I think another reason for this blog motivation comes from my iPod. I tend to be motivated when I mix solitude with Mumford & Sons.

Let me just say that this past weekend did NOT go as I had hoped. Two weeks ago I bought tickets for the Sevilla FC vs. Barcelona soccer game and it was my biggest motivation to make it through last week's classes. Rain or shine I was determined to see that game. Well it didn't rain on game-day, but I did wake up on Sunday morning feeling like complete misery. My stomach felt funny and I just knew something wasn't right. Come 2pm, with the toilet bowl as my witness, something definitely wasn't right... But the game was in 6 hours!! I immediately started to down as much water as possible to try and "wash it" out of my system. However, as fast as it went down it also came right back up, almost simultaneous with the arrival of my friend's text saying "Ready to go?" Nonetheless I washed up, changed and headed out because I was NOT going to miss this game.

The stadium was everything glorious that I had imagined it to be. There were so many fans everywhere, for both teams, and it was really loud wherever you went too. Cheers, chants, songs. Spanish fútbol fans are intense about this sport. It was amazing! (USA definitely needs to up it's fan count for soccer... but that's another discussion) Luckily I got to take a few pictures and see all the big names on the pitch; Lionel Messi, David Villa, Gerard Piqué, and Víctor Valdéz, just to name a few. Unfortunately I was counting down the minutes til halftime when I would be able to head back to my bed and sleep off my misery. I dreamed all week of seeing Sevilla score on the "#1" team in the world... Of course, that is exactly what happened in the 2nd half after I left. Sevilla and Barca tied 1-1 and I heard from all my friends that the stadium went crazy for Sevilla's goal... And that right there is my biggest regret this semester.

Proof that I made it to the game...

Thankfully I'm fine now. It was a 24 hour bug and of course it picked the perfect day. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to go to another game :)

Besos,

Caitlin

El Cine

I've recently become obsessed with watching Spanish movies.

And also movies that are in Spanish. Last night I even went to my first Spanish cinema! Mi profesora for Present Day Spanish Usage is teaching us about Spanish cinema and gave out 2-for-1 movie passes for us to use this weekend. So, I went with 3 other Americans from my residencia to see the movie Bienvenidos Al Sur, which means "Welcome to the South." and is actually an Italian film so we watched it with Spanish subtitles (Italian is close enough to Spanish, right?) Anyways, It was hilarious! It was a comedy about a man who works for the postal service in northern Italy and wants to be transferred to Milan (another northern city) for all the glam it has to offer and also to please his wife... However, after his attempts to be transferred end badly, he gets transferred instead to a small village near Naples (again for those bad with geography it's in the south) for two years. The movie then proceeds to play off the stereotypes for both the North and South which is always fun in every country. The south are thought to be backwards, violent and stupid; while the northerners are perceived as haughty, rude, and uptight. Overall a great movie.

The first Spanish movie that actually started this new obsession is one that I saw earlier this week on Monday. In my class at Universidad de Sevilla, we watched the film La Lengua de las Mariposas, which translates literally to mean, "the language of the butterflies" or also "the butterfly's tongue." This movie takes place in Spain during the time right before the civil war, around 1936. It is about a little boy, Moncho, who is scared to start school because he thinks his teacher is going to be very mean. However, he finds his teacher to be very nice and smart and he learns a lot in that class. His teacher has political views that are very republicano since it is during the time of the Second Republic in Spain. The story continues to foreshadow on the anti-republican ideas that lead into the Spanish Civil War. It is a very good story and the little boy is just adorable. I recommend it for anyone, especially those who want to learn more about Spain's history.

I know this is completely out of order but oh well. The second Spanish movie I watched in the past week was Los Abrazos Rotos, a.k.a. "Broken Embraces". It is a movie starring Penelope Cruz about a blind movie writer who must reflect back 14 years on the last movie he wrote in order to get over his current pain. There is definitely a lot of drama and I was hooked from the beginning so I recommend it to everyone.

I hope you all enjoyed my movie reviews and I will be sure to keep you updated on any new Spanish entertainment that I encounter this semester. I would like to challenge everyone who reads this to go check out any foreign film you choose and see how you like it, it's definitely going to be different from the Hollywood films that you're used to. Maybe, like me, you'll appreciate the different style and develop a new passion :)

Hasta Luego,

Caitlin xx

My School(s)

Universidad De Sevilla

Now that I've got a less crazy schedule and a free weekend, I'm going to fill you in more about my new life. As you already know, I arrived here on February 4. From February 7- 25 was the "intensive period" at my school where I took one grammar class for three weeks, Monday through Friday, for four hours each day. Now that class has finished (thank goodness!) and I have recently started all new classes this past week. Now I'm taking a total of five classes but they're spread out over the week so it's less stressful in my opinion. So far Tuesday is the only day of the week where I'm ready to take a bullet to the head by the end of it. I have all five classes on Tuesday spanning from 9:00 am til 7:00 pm. Whoever created coffee was brilliant because I live on it for that day. Here are the classes I'm taking:

• Present Day Spanish Usage
  
• Great Works of Spanish Literature
  
• Cultural Realities of Spain
  
• Teaching English as a Foreign Language
  
• Current Spain (taken at the University of Seville)
  

It's quite a large course-load but I'm very interested in all of the topics so I don't mind. My most difficult class is the one at the University. It's a fifth year history course… College is supposed to be 4 years, do the math. So it's obviously for advanced history students, which I would consider myself being one. Since it's so challenging, I think it's also my favorite course. I like challenges J My literature class is a close second place for the same reason.

The professors at the Center are all excellent. There is plenty of interaction between students and professor in all of my classes. Also class sizes are the smallest I've ever had. Class sizes range from 9- 15 for ALL my classes in the Center. My university class has about 40 students but it's also a lecture style and very different from the courses I'm taking at the Center. Next, I'm going to tell you about my homework and studying. This is your warning, the following is not going to sound like I'm writing it… but I assure you that it really is Caitlin.

Here it goes… I love homework! I think that until you're in a similar situation to the one I'm in right now, it's very difficult to see the benefits of homework. Since being here, I've seen fast results in everything I've worked on. My vocabulary has grown, my accent has improved, my grammar has improved (slightly), and I've gained confidence in using Spanish for my everyday life. It's like being on a diet and immediately losing weight. I do my homework then next day I can apply the things I've practiced. People always said that being immersed in a foreign language is the best way to learn one. It's true. I'm definitely not fluent after a month. I don't even know if I will be after five months. But I know that I will be exponentially better than I was when I arrived. I hope that you all can understand what I'm trying to say, or at least notice the amount of passion I now have for studying abroad.

Ahh, I love my Spanish life.

Besos,
Caitlin xx

Pura Vida

I feel so alive right now! Sitting here on the bus ride back to Sevilla listening to my iPod and reflecting back upon my day I realize that all of my senses have been completely stimulated in the past 6 hours. Some friends and I decided to take a day trip to Ronda, a town in the Andalucía region. Ronda is about an hour and half from Sevilla and perfect for visiting on our day off of classes for Día de Andalucía. Two of my close friends from Ferrum (visiting me for Spring break) and two of my friends from my program (plus another random American student we met on the bus) spent our day in Ronda after hearing many other people recommend it; and I definitely understand why now.

I don't cease to be amazed by this visual beauty of this region. I walk the city streets in Sevilla in awe everyday as I try to take in all the history that still lives on wherever you look. But also just 10 minutes outside the city you'll find yourself winding through the foothills of the beautiful Sierra Mountains. Ronda is located in the Sierras. Famous for the bridge "Puente Nuevo," Ronda is gorge-ously divided into two sections (sorry I had to). Sitting on the edge of the town looking out at the miles of beauty, I was completely captivated.

I had plenty opportunity today to both hear and speak Spanish. There are so many different accents present in this area; I literally get to enjoy every sound of this beautiful language daily. It's great! I both love and hate the Sevillano "S" sound. It's terribly difficult to understand at a rapid-fire pace but it's also very fun to imitate in my opinion. I still don't speak as much as I could, but I think my speaking is good when I do use it. While ordering lunch today (which turned out to be delicious) I was told by our waiter that I was a "beautiful Spanish speaker"… I'm not sure whether he meant my Spanish was beautiful or that I was beautiful but either way I enjoyed the compliment. I really feel like my Spanish is improving more and more each day. I made a new goal to learn to roll my rr's and I think I've already gotten a little bit better at it (my intercambio said to vrrrrrroom like a motorcycle to make the sound). Well anyways, I hope to update you again soon on my travels! Chau! xx

Puente Nueve