Ah Spain...

You know that feeling you get when you go weeks, months or even years without seeing someone you really care about then all of a sudden the day arrives when you finally are reunited and it just feels so good? That's how I've felt over the past 3 weeks since I have returned to Spain. Life over here, for me, just feels so natural. I will get more specific in later posts but just know that I'm thoroughly enjoying my time here so far.

So, there's someone I want you to meet.

He's very important to me.

It was definitely love at first site.

He's my best friend already.

I love hanging out with him.

And, I've officially been confirmed as his "novia" <3

Meet.... MALCO!!

He's the best 8 year old boy I've ever encountered. He's so smart and silly, and funny, and nice and I can't get enough of him. We do just about everything together. After he gets home from school I usually go over his homework with him and help/teach him his English work. After that we go play all the while I am only speaking to him in English and try to make him only speak to me in English as well. Usually we play some form of soccer whether it's outside with goal posts on a court, in the backyard, inside, video game, or with stuffed animals. We've been pretty creative. Lately he's also been pretty obsessed with building forts inside the house too. Check this one out:

If you can't already tell, this isn't real life, and this definitely isn't considered a job to me because I'm having way too much fun. I love it! 

I don't think my description of Malco can even do him any justice so please just enjoy the following video :) 

Besos,

Catalina 

A Mustard Seed in Madrid

This blog comes to you from 30,000 feet in the air at cruising altitude above the Atlantic Ocean, seat 36 L to be exact. I started out flying from DC to JFK in New York, then after a mildly excruciating 6 hour layover, I can now say the next stop is Madrid. (Okay, I sat at the bar for about 2 hours so the layover wasn't that bad) but I am so excited to get there!

So here are some of my thoughts on my upcoming adventure:  First of all, I hope I am a decent English teacher for Malco. I haven't actually taught before but I did take a class on teaching English as a second language so that kinda counts, right? I'm not too worried about getting along with the family as a whole or them liking me, because what's not to love? ;) I'd like to think I'm a pretty easy going person and not too much of a high maintenance girl. Second, I hope I can personally improve my own Spanish skills by living with my host family. Also I would like to possibly figure out if teaching is a good career track for me. In the least I'd like to have a better idea of the career track I want to pursue after this time in Spain.

Finally, on my way to the airport my mommy gave me a lovely going away present which included some stationary to send letters, a daily devotional book, and a beautiful necklace of hers that was given to her by her mom when she was my age. The necklace is a gold chain with a small circular pendant that is clear with a mustard seed inside of it. Why a mustard seed? Well if you turn it over there is inscribed a verse from Matthew 17 which says, "If ye has faith as a mustard seed... Nothing shall be impossible unto you." Meaning that all I need is the smallest amount of faith in God (mustard seeds are super tiny), and trust that He has a beautiful plan for my life, and I will be able to do anything. It's a beautiful promise and it is a huge encouragement as I begin this next chapter of my life. So, thank you Mom! And thank you everyone for reading this far into my blog. Hopefully I will be able to share some amazing things with you over the next 12 months! 

Hasta luego!

Besos,

Catalina xx

Surprise!!

I'm backkkk!! And I have big news!!! So, GUESS WHAT?!

....I'm going back to Spain!!!!

AHHH asdgjkljklgda!! It's surreal, but it's about to be very real in about one month. In the beginning of January I will be going back to Spain to be an au pair for the Higueras-Pérez family of Madrid. The family consists of Carlos, the father, Ana, the mother, and Malco, their 8 year old son who I will be caring for and teaching English to.

My host family

Malco!!

What is an au pair? I like to tell people it's a glorified nanny. But the truth is that it is someone who goes to a foreign country to live with a host family and care for their children while simultaneously sharing the culture/language of their home country AND absorbing the culture/language of the host country. It's a beautiful mutualistic relationship that is created and I'm excited to become a part of it.

Right now I don't have a ton of information that I'm able to share but I did want to revive this blog so that I can keep you all updated in the future. So please follow me and check back regularly so you can keep tabs on your favorite world traveler :)

Besos,

Catalina

Ps. I've really missed updating this thing. I'm getting antsy to actually start this adventure!

La Feria de Abril, I mean Mayo...

Hola tod@s! I have 2 final exams tomorrow, but no te preocupes, I'm going to study soon. Just wanted to update everyone on one of the coolest weeklong holidays I've ever encountered... FERIA!

Okay so in American terms, Feria (or Feria de Abril) is a HUGE fair that comes to Sevilla every year usually in the month of April but always atleast 2 weeks after Semana Santa. However, since Easter was so late this year, "Feria de Abril" was actually in May. (The running joke said it started the 32nd of April lol)

So, what do you do at the Feria? Great question. Feria is basically a huge celebration of the Andalucian culture, including but not limited to: Flamenco dancing (particularly Sevillana), Flamenco dresses, Flamenco music, Singing, Drinking Rebujitos, and lots of fried fish and tapas... Next question, What are "Rebujitos"? Another excellent question. These are possibly one of the greatest drinks I've ever had... It's a slightly unproportional mix of lots of Manzanilla (White wine from Andalucia) and a bit of 7up. Delicioso!

Of course, after much influence from the Rebujitos, everyone becomes a Flamenco dancer at the end of the night (by end of the night I mean around 6:30am when the Feria closes)

Throughout the fair ground there are hundreds of tents, called "casetas" where rich families and organizations set up for private parties where you must be on a list to get in. There are a couple casetas publicos but everyone knows the private parties are better. Luckily, through a connection of a friend of my intercambio, I was able to get into private casetas both nights that I went.

Aside from private tent parties, there's also a half of the fair grounds dedicated to attractions and games, for the kids of course. Ferris Wheels, roller coasters, flipping boats, you name it. It was all there. Hope you enjoy the pictures:

La Portada de Feria, it changes every year

Daniel & I on the Ferris Wheel

Some fun and games :)

Those are all of the casetas

Surprisingly enough, I played twice & got 2 out of 3 both times :)

Quite Sevillana, don't ya think?

The group on Feria night #2

I thought I'd leave you with some friends performing drunk flamenco dancing, enjoy :)

Besos xx
Catalina

I'm Back! (but still in Spain)

So, the charger cable for my laptop broke... literally severed in two pieces... so I haven't been able to post since my computer has been dead for about 3 weeks now. It kinda stinks. However, I did get ahold of a friend's laptop (thanks Brian!) and while I should be working on my presentation on La Casa de Bernarda Alba for tomorrow, I'm going to take a short break to update all my stalkers xD

Wow, I can't believe it's been a month since I've updated... Let's see what I've done...

There have been two major holiday celebrations in Sevilla. First was Semana Santa (Holy Week) which is right before Easter and second was Feria (for my next post). There were processions of huge floats representing the journey of Jesus leading up to Easter Sunday. While I thought the concept was very interesting and meaningful, the obnoxiously large crowds disinterested me. Take a look-

I couldn't move from where I was standing so I took a pic

These fellas (called Nazarenes) ran around the city all week... They're religious, I swear.

So after approximately 2.5 days of Semana Santa, I was ready to get out of Sevilla. And that's exactly what I did. Brian, Bryan, Jim, and I met up with Brian's parents in Malaga in a town called Estepona and spend a weekend on the beach at a super nice resort. It was amazing. (Big thanks to Mr. & Mrs. Driscoll, I don't think I could thank you enough for your generosity)

A picture from our resort :)

After the beach for a couple days I took off again with Laura and Mariana for Mérida, España, where my other roommate Maca lives. We spent two nights at her house and exploring her quaint town full of Roman ruins. It was amazing, we literally would be walking through town and stumble upon sights like the one below hidden around every corner.

Let's take a walk through the ancient Roman aqueducts today, nbd.

Immediately from Maca's house we went to Lisbon, Portugal to stay the rest of our weekend with some friends of Laura. Not only did I fall in love with this city but also may have met the man of my dreams- a man who can cook! (I hope he's not reading this haha) Aside from that we got to explore not only Lisbon but also, Cascais and Sintra, both very beautiful portuguese towns. Sintra is an amazing little town on a mountainside with an incredible mountaintop castle and monastery. The views from up there were possibly the best I've ever seen...

Beautiful Lisbon

My family should recognize this delicious portuguese sausage... Linguica!

Me and Micael in Sintra :)

Mariana and I, on the castle in Sintra

So that's all I have for now... Hope you've enjoyed. I'm going to try and get more cultural stuff up. It is currently the week for Feria here in Sevilla so prepare to learn lots about Flamenco and the Sevillana :) Can't wait to update you again! Miss everyone... less than 2 months til I'm home.

xo Catalina

PS. HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY MOMMY! I LOVE YOU!!

The Fiesta Post

Wow it's been awhile since I've posted, I apologize. Sad part is that I feel like I haven't done anything too exciting since my last post. I guess I mean nothing too exciting compared to my new standard of living, I'm not sure what you all will think. But if you're reading this I'm sure you'd like to know... Okay so what have I done since Granada...

The night I got back from that trip I went to a party at my intercambio's house. Let me rewind though. I have an intercambio and his name is Daniel :) He's the best. I love hanging out with him. An intercambio is a speaking partner. He's trying to learn English while I'm trying to learn Spanish so we meet every week and talk to practice each other's languages. It's awesome. So far we've met every week since I've been here and we've become great friends. So this weekend I went to his flat in Sevilla and we had a party:

Daniel & I

The party crowd

Such a fun night

Us, again.

In a bar we visited after leaving his flat

Let's see what else have I done recently... A friend of mine who was living the residencia with us had to leave to go back home to Mexico so we all went out in a big group to say our adios to him. We went to a botellón with him in Plaza San Salvadore which is a pretty popular place to do this. Botellón is very popular over here in Spain among young people. You might be asking, What is botellón? What usually happens is that lots of people, I mean hundreds to thousands, will meet in a location where everyone brings their own alcohol to drink in a public place and just hang out until it's all finished and then from there they'll go to bars or discotecas to keep the party going. I know, it's insane. When I first encountered this activity I was shocked. Isn't this completely illegal? Am I going to get arrested for drinking in public? News flash: Yes it is illegal (from what I've heard) BUT this is España, no te preocupes. No pasa nada! This is the mindset of this country. It's completely laid back... The next worry I had was, isn't something bad going to happen, like a fight will break out, etc... Nope. Everyone is just here to socialize and relax, there has been absolutely no tension in any of the botellóns that I've seen; it's kinda awesome. It's difficult to describe this activity if you've never experienced anything like it. The closest thing I can compare it to is maybe Quadfest at Radford or any typical college party weekend; except minus the drunken fights and strict cops waiting around to hand out tickets. The biggest one I went to had atleast 5,000 people there, this one probably had about 500. It's hard to see but take notice of the amount of people in the background:

Laura, Mariana, & ME

El grupo

After drinking some of that bottle...

Hope you enjoyed my adventures from the past week :)

Hasta la vista!

Catalina xx

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