Fiestas, visitantes, y una media maratón

It’s been another action-filled last two weeks! Lo siento for the tardiness of this post; there’s a lot to catch everyone up on:

MÁS Y MÁS (¡y MÁS!) VIAJES

Running in the Media Maratón Rincón de la Victoria

Málaga & Rincón de la Victoria 1/2 Marathon– Follow the link for photos! The main purpose of this trip was the half marathon, but since Kristin decided to accompany me we made a full weekend out of the excursion. Highlights of the trip: discovering Primark (a very cheap Irish clothing store chain!), visiting the Museo Picasso Málaga and seeing its exhibition on the Grotesque, and, of course, the half marathon! I’d definitely consider the race as one of the more difficult athletic ventures I’ve undertaken, but I really enjoyed the experience. I also placed 2nd in my age group with an overall time of 2:01:52. I’ll surely want to run another 1/2 marathon in the future! I’ve really enjoyed participating in races in Spain: it’s so much cheaper to register and there’s always lots of free regalitos (little gifts). I’ll miss these benefits when I run races back home!

VIDEO from the race (fast-forward to 10:48 to see yours truly!): 

La importancia de charlar

This is a post I wrote for the MCP program blog about the importance of practicing speaking as much as possible while studying abroad in a foreign country! (sorry for my followers who don’t speak Spanish; this isn’t a bilingual post!)

mcpsevilla

una entrada de invitada por Shannon Macika

Me gusta charlar. No, mejor dicho,  me encanta charlar. Es una de mis actividades favoritas y no sólo en los Estados Unidos, sino también, aquí en España. No pasa ningún día en el que no aprenda algo nuevo o no conozca a alguien con quien poder charlar. Mi inclinación para hablar con cualquiera se ha traslado también a mi vida en España. Me ha facilitado el hecho de que tengo muchas oportunidades para hacer  amigos y aumentar así mis habilidades con la lengua. Charlar es un tema que me preocupa mucho por su importancia para los estudiantes en el extranjero.

De todas mis experiencias me doy cuenta de que es imprescindible charlar con tantas personas como sea posible para mejorar las habilidades en español. Aunque todavía puedo mejorarlas más, en los pocos meses que he estado aquí en Sevilla he tenido progresos que…

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¿Hay huelga? No hay problema

Kristin’s photo from the 14-N manifestación

At least there’s not a problem for us extranjeros! On Wednesday classes and university activities were cancelled for the nationwide huelga. For any of you non-Spanish speakers out there, huelga means strike, although the Spanish version is not what you might typically think. At least when I think ‘strike’, the first thoughts that pop into my mind are sit-ins, workers with picket signs marching in circles, and huge inconveniences. The huelgas in Spain aren’t so completely different in that, yes, people do take to the streets (in thousands!) and there are certainly some inconveniences for those non-strikers who just want to buy a café or go to a favorite store only to discover that it’s closed. But although there can definitely be strikes here against employers, as anywhere, the huelgas in Spain are usually more centered on discontent with the government. The thousands that took to the streets in Sevilla and other large cities on Wednesday were united in that they wanted to send the government a message of their dissatisfaction, but the aims of different coalitions were different:

No big deal… just went to AFRICA!

Meet my new amigo, Señor Camel!

You heard right: how did I spend last weekend? Traveling in MOROCCO! My adventure officially made Africa the third continent I’ve visited. Since southern Spain is so close, it wasn’t so much a question of “Why travel to Morocco?” but more a question of “Why not?!?” Not only was it an extremely enjoyable trip, but it was also eye-opening in ways I didn’t expect. When I told friends or family back home that I was traveling to Morocco, there were lots of warnings to to be careful. The culture is definitely different and I would not have traveled by myself (for more reasons than just security), but I never felt unsafe. Although we saw many poorer areas and it is a developing country, there is also a vibrant culture filled with honest, hard-working people who are just trying to make a living. Also super impressive: most of the Moroccan people speak multiple languages! They known Arabic & Spanish but in many cases also English, French, or other languages. Although some Moroccans have had formal language education (we saw lots of immersion schools), many shopkeepers we spoke with said they picked up many of their language abilities from interacting with tourists.