finalmente...

i did get home just fine, and then spain trumped germany in the eurocup 2008 final. all is well with the world. ¡¡¡VIVA ESPAÑA!!! thanks for reading! and now, for the last time,
-kl

svq-bcn-ewr-msp. oh wait, just kidding

so i was /supposed/ to be back in minnesota a few hours ago, but instead i am stuck in a hotel in newark, nj--the armpit of the world. sevilla to barcelona was fine, but then in barcelona i was one of the lucky 3 on the overbooked flight that got bumped to another flight, meaning that i missed my newark-msp connection and that was the last flight out of here for 16 hours. so here i am. in newark. when i should be home. ugh. the positive out of this is that i am getting a sweet deal from continental--600 euros, or about $1000, direct deposited into my account. sweet! that basically means that i just got reimbursed for nearly all of my spending in spain. nice.

on another note, here are the last of the pictures:

sevilla week 4: http://s290.photobucket.com/albums/ll263/luckingk/sevilla%20week%204/
albufiera, portugal: http://s290.photobucket.com/albums/ll263/luckingk/albufeira%20portugal/
sevilla week 5: http://s290.photobucket.com/albums/ll263/luckingk/sevilla%20week%205/

eurocup 2008 finals tomorrow and you know what that means...

¡¡¡VIVA ESPAÑA!!!

besitos-
-kl

¡finales!

so last night (our last night in sevilla--sob!) we had our final dinner with all the students, institute staff and vicki. it was so much fun! we went to tex-mex (sean and stuart's bar) to watch the game and eat, and much merriment was had--especially when spain TRUMPED russia to make it into the eurocup FINALS!!! seriously, the entire country exploded and there was rioting in the streets. love it!

then we spent the rest of the night at a disoteca called buddha, which was so much fun!

today all my girls left, and i basically spent the day at home (meaning carmen's), and i decided it would be best to stay inside, as it is 120 (yes, you read that correctly, 120) degrees outside. oof. yuck. i did go out for a little bit, but 2.5 hrs was all i could stand.

otherwise the last week has been pretty full, with finals and such. i think they actually went pretty well. mon we went to the archivos de indios, where all of columbus's original papers are--wow. then we had our final lunch with sean, as he is off to the states, and that night we went to see sean and stuart's club futbol game. tuesday we went to casa de pilatos, which is very similar to the alcazar or the alhambra, but not on quite such a grand scale. after that we went to the tattoo and piercing parlor, where katie and sam got the inside of their ears pierce and danielle got inked. wednesday i studied my tail off due to finals being on thursday, and after that was the spain vs russia game. i'm leaving tomorrow morning at 5am, and the thought is suffocating--it's just so hard to imagine life outside of this!

i will post the last 400 pictures or so (week 4, portugal, and week 5) after i get back, as that will be the next time i'll have reliable internet. until then, besitos!
-kl

14

so it´s been a while since i updated, for which i apologize, but i have been busy (haha, story of my life). last week we had presentations in spanish all week, so that ate up time. also 2 quizes and a paper. our cultural activites were yoga, which i´ve never done before, and running, in which i did not partake, thank you very much. thursday we went out for tapas, and met 2 more spaniards. i think these 2 restaurants were my favorite yet. i elected against going out that night, as i was still running a fever at the time, and we had to get up early in order to go on our weekend trip to...

PORTUGAL!!! this is my 14th country (well, 15th if you count the amsterdam airport as the netherlands, which i don´t). we went to a resort in albufeira, right on the ocean. it was gorgeous:

temps in the 80s instead of the 100s, breezy, sunny, etc. i applied spf 40 sunscreen about 5 times a day and still tanned through it. ridic, man.

friday we spent all day at the pools at the resort, saturday we took the path down to the ocean, and then proceeded to clambor around on the rocks on the beach. big, climbable rocks. so pretty:

(ps, we met another american girl named vicki from ny state, also 20, spending the summer in sevilla, and she is on the far left, followed by katie, danielle and sam.) and sun we spent again at the resort before returning to a 110 degree sevilla. it was quite a relaxing weekend right before final presentations, projects, papers and tests.

sunday night we watched the fútbol game--spain vs italy. huge rivals, lemme tell ya. and spain won!!! soo much fun. it wasn´t quite rioting in the streets, but the entire country exploded in cheers when casillas blocked the final shootout (0-0 in double overtime). of course we have the semi-finals on the schedule for thurs, so go spain!!!

then yesterday we went to los archivos de indios, which is right next to la giralda, and houses all of crístobol colón´s papers (you yanks would call him christopher columbus), and it was fascinating. then we had our final lunch with sean, as he is off to the states now. that night we went to stuart´s and sean´s fútbol game, which was basically a club game. wouldn´t you know that it was like 80 degrees and we were all shivering with goosebumps and chattering teeth? whoda thunk.

had another presentation yesterday and a final paper tomorrow, followed by finals on thursday. but if that is what i have to do in order to stay here forever, you bet i would.

all for now. ¡viva españa!
-kl

¡fotografías nuevas!

read subject line.

sevilla week 3: http://s290.photobucket.com/albums/ll263/luckingk/sevilla%20week%203/
barcelona: http://s290.photobucket.com/albums/ll263/luckingk/barcelona/

as always, ask if you have questions. enjoy!
-kl

barcelona!!!

ok. so. this weekend was basically amazing. ah. may. zing. (btw, the spanish socialist healthcare system is marvelous, and after one trip to the farmacia i got 20 pills for 75, count 'em 75, cents and they worked wonders, so i feel great). my plane landed in barcelona at about 8:20pm, and from there i had a 1/2 hour cab ride into the city. from there i met brock and his (and now my) friend linnea at the hostel. from there we went out for dinner, where i introduced them to tapas. yum! then we walked over to la sagrada familia, one of the gaudí cathedrals in barcelona. let me tell you how crazy this thing is. he designed it upside-down, so the whole thing literally looks like it's melting. and it's all lit up at night, gorgeous.

friday morning we got up and walked over to la pedrera, which was originally an apartment building, also designed by gaudí. the roof and exterior of this place are so alien! this is what you can see from the street (as always, click on any picture to enlarge):


and this is the ridiculosity that is the roof. what?!! love it:


from there we made a rather epic hike up to park güell, which is again gaudí. for those of you who are america's next top model fans, you will recognize this part of the park as the final catwalk in the season finale between caridee and melrose where they were the corpse brides. the whole park is like this, and the thing extends halfway up a mountain:


then we came across casa botlló, or house of skulls, again gaudí. are you starting to get a feel for his architecture yet? thinking maybe he was a little loopy? me too:


then we went back to la sagrada familia and this time we went in. here are a few pictures of the most bizarre cathedral i've ever seen. this is the new side, the passion:


and this is the old side, the nativity:


from there we went to a supermarcado and bought ourselves some dinner, and then we were gonna go to the beach and have a picnic, but we ran across this amazing little jazz quartet in a park, so of course we stayed and ate dinner there instead. good change of plans.

saturday, then, we started the day by hitting up a flea market, which was seriously like 6 city blocks jam packed with venders and hagglers. then we went back to that same park as the jazz concert, whose name is like 8 years long so i'm not even gonna try to type it, and ran across boats for rent! another happy little hiccup in plans. so we rented a boat on a lake. yay! then it was off to the beach for some much needed relaxation. that night we went to the football (you yanks would call it soccer) match for eurocup, again surrounded by overly enthusiastic spanish fans (spain won, woo!). and then, sadly, it was time for the weekend to come to an end, as we all had to get up waaay early flights (brock and linnea were up at 2:30, and i slept in to wake at 3:45).

now i'm back in sevilla, and up this week we have a bull fight tonight, which i opted out of. i'm not peta or anything, but i just don't think i could take the slaughter of an innocent animal in front of my eyes. academically, i have 2 quizzes, a paper, and a 15 minute presentation. yippee. so i should probably get back on that, haha. hope you're all faring well in the wet! today it was 39c/104f here. happy father's day!
-kl

sevilla week 3

well, it´s been kind of an uneventful week. tuesday was midterms, so all of monday was spent in preparation. tuesday was spain´s first game in the eurocup, so we went to sean´s bar and hung out with all the spanish fanatics, which was pretty fun. we also went to palacio lebrija, which is some countess´s house where she took stuff from all over the world and collected it just to have it. there were some pretty cool things there. yesterday we were supposed to go to casa pilatos in sevilla, but it was about to close, so it´s on raincheck.

in other news i am a bit sick. no good. fever and sore throat, and lemme tell ya, a fever when it´s already in the mid-upper 90s is no good.

up next: BARCELONA this weekend with brock! woo!!! until i get back...
-kl

algo más

pictures!

córdoba: http://s290.photobucket.com/albums/ll263/luckingk/cordoba/
sevilla week 2: http://s290.photobucket.com/albums/ll263/luckingk/sevilla%20week%202/
ronda: http://s290.photobucket.com/albums/ll263/luckingk/ronda/
granada: http://s290.photobucket.com/albums/ll263/luckingk/granada/

ask me for explanations if you're curious.

also: high on fri, 06.06.08: 41C (aka 108F). that's freakin hot, kids.
-kl

granada

oi vey. what a weekend. well, we never made it up into the mountains with the gypsies, because we came across a small case of wrong place wrong time, except that we happened to be in a very bad place at a very bad time. so we booked it out of there as fast as our legs could carry us and spent the rest of the day jumping at shadows from the comfort of our hostel rooms.

sunday was much better. we went up to the alhambra, which is one of the 7 wonders of the world. for the record, if you ever decide to go to the alhambra from the downtown area, take the bus. otherwise you will get to do what we did--hoof it for at least a mile up hill. woo! lemme tell ya, today i am stiff from it. lovely. and this place is not built for tourists, so we had to do a lot of guess work as to what was where (like the ticket office) and the bus would have dropped us off right there. oh well. now we know.

once we finally got in the place it was gorgeous. seriously, how they did all that detail work so long ago with primitive tools halfway up a mountain is beyond me. there are 7 palaces and the generalife (hen-er-a-LEEF-ay), which contains all the gardens. thier use of water is quite impressive--not just because water was rare, but because they utilized a hydraulic system that was sooo far ahead of its time. here are some pictures of granada. this is the palacio de los leones, which is the most famous palace. unfortunately like i said, a lot was under restauration, including the 12 famous lions and the fountain that they support. this part was still very pretty though:

one of the views from one of the palaces overlooking granada:

one of the views from la generalife of la alhambra:

and from ronda. this is the bridge:

and this is la real maestranza bull ring in sevilla:

this is one side of la giralda:

this is the roof of la giralda from about half way up the 35 ramps of the tower:

and finally, the gardens of the alcázar:

¡que bonita! that´s all the time i´ve got now... until next time!

-kl

ronda

guess what this post is going to be about? wow, you are a genius. ronda! but first i´m going to talk about other antics since last post. thursday instead of having history with pepe we got a tour of la giralda (cathedral) and the alcázar (royal house). as you probably remember, la giralda is the largest baroque cathedral in the world, and it is beautiful. first we looked around inside, and then we went up into the bell tower, where you can see for miles and miles (cue ¨the who¨) and sights such as la real maestranza and parque de maría louisa. we had to climb 35 ramps, yes ramps, to get to the top, which was particularly hard on the knee (especially on the way back down), but it was so worth it. then we went to the alcázar. the best part about this by far was the gardens. pictures to follow soon, but i am not on my computer at the moment, so you´ll just have to take my word for it ;o)

thursday night, then, we went to parque de maría louisa with sean and one of sean´s friends, juan carlos. we went to the plaza de españa, pictured above, which you might recognize because it was in the 2nd star wars movie where anakin is walking padme home on naboo. yep. cool. a lot of it was under reconstruction, though, so we couldn´t see all of it. it was originally built for the iberian peninsula fair in 1929 (kind of like a state fair, but for a whole area of land), and each province of spain was represented by a different tiled area depicting something traditional about the area. unfortunately, sevilla´s was under construction, and there was a wall up with a life-sized photo of it so you could see what it looks like. but for some that just wasn´t good enough, so first sean and juan carlos boosted themselves up to take pictures for us, but it didn´t work, so then they boosted sam the gymnast up. haha, hilarious. and we did get our pictures and some amused expressions from the security guards who did not try to stop us.

then yesterday we were off to ronda! it was about an hour and a half bus ride, and we left at 7am, meaning getting up at 5 to leave at 6 to walk there. oi. that is what sleeping on the bus is for ;o) it is an old roman city, and it is quite gorgeous. it gets the name ronda from being surrounded by mountains, and surrounded by mountains it is. beautiful. again, pictures to follow soon.

we headed back to sevilla at 5, and then got ready to go out for dinner with sean and 3 of his friends. we met sean, josé, paco, and isabél for drinks, then tapas/dinner, then a discoteque. wow. what a good time. these spaniards sure know how to have a good time. much dancing and comaradarie was shared, and no, i do not know how to spell that word without my firefox telling me if i am correct or not. we didn´t get back home til around 4am, and i had to shower, so it was bed at 4:30, to get up at 7am to leave by 8am to catch the bus at 9am to granada!

which is where i am right now. we´ll head back to sevilla tomorrow night, but now it is 2:15 and time for lunch, followed by a trek into the mountains to see the gypsies in their caves (yes, mother, i will be careful ;o) ).

and btw, i have /some/ of my pictures uploaded. the first 150 are at http://s290.photobucket.com/albums/ll263/luckingk/sevilla%20week%201/ and some of the next 500 or so are in another album, but i have not had sufficient internet connection long enough to sustain a successful upload. i´ll try to do it soon! if you have any questions as to what pictures are, just let me know. happy weekend!
-kl

week 2

so i haven´t updated in a few days, but that´s really because we haven´t been up to all that much. monday after classes/siesta, sam and i met with sean, one of the institute staff, and we took a walk around sevilla. well, a walk turned into drinks, drinks turned into tapas, and tapas turned into dinner. it was really nice to have a native of sevilla take you around, though, because we got off the beaten path and found some tucked away little places that had excellent food and ambiance. sean is hilarious, has a great sense of humor (blunt sarcasm--my favorite), and has an interesting perspective on the world, which made conversations interesting. see, his mother is british, his father is from california, and he and his siblings were all born and raised in sevilla.

the next night (tuesday), we went to la real maestranza, the bull ring of sevilla. it´s one of the oldest, and it is still active. the tour guide, however, had clearly given this 25 min tour so many times in both english and spanish that she was incredibly bored by it. and there was this couple who listened attentively during the spanish portion, but then talked loudly during the english part, right in front of whatever it was. the tour guide was so bored that she didn´t even try to stop them. sean, however, had enough, and he (who is incredibly fluent in spanish, english, and french) confronted them about it.

then last night, we again went out with sean, for a tour of el barrio de santa cruz, the old jewish quarters. they´re quite pretty, and sean knows his way around the most ridiculously confusing and windy streets in the city because he grew up there.

tonight we are going to el parque de maría louisa, which has plaza españa inside of it (see title picture above). this is also where anakin and padme walk over a bridge on a plaza to her home on naboo in the 2nd star wars movie. sweet.

weekend plans: ronda on friday, granada saturday and sunday. i´m also working on getting all my photos uploaded online, but so far i´ve been unable to do so, due to lack of internet connection, so don´t hold your breath... more adventures to follow soon :o)
-kl

córdoba

so, as you prolly guessed from the title of this post, we decided to go to córdoba this weekend. more on that in a minute. since last post, danielle and i met with our "intercambio" (literally interchange). she is a sevillano from triana (the barrio, neighborhood, across the river from sevilla) named rocío who is going to the university of sevilla to become an english teacher. she is very nice, but it was a bit awkward meeting with a complete stranger and being expected to talk to her (in spanish) about life in general. but whatever. oh well. we also saw a few processions for san fernando around the city. such as this one (click on any picture to enlarge):

the next day (saturday) we spent the day shopping in sevilla, and then did dinner as tapas. this is where you get basically a little appetizer and a drink and it only costs about 2-4 euros. then you go to a different restaurant and order another tapa. it's really fun to get the house specialty, and a great way to try new foods. here is a picture of us at one of the restaurants. yes, that tiling is all over, and yes, it is gorgeous (l-r: tiara, katie, sam, me, danielle):


on this same dinner expedition we trekked across the river and saw the torre de oro lit up at night (la giralda is in the background):


then sunday we (danielle, katie, sam, and i) went to córdoba, which is just north and east of sevilla. we took the train, and it took us about an hour and a half to get there. right outside of the train station is this amazingly large stretch of roman ruins that we got to hike all over. this is a picture of my favorite part. you can still see (obviously) and use the archways and windows. crazy!


after this we found ourselves in a park, and there was a playground! yes, we did play on it. hey, i never said we were mature...

after this little detour, we went to see the old roman baths, which were super interesting. then we headed to the mezquita, or mosque. it is absolutely amazing. it is an islamic mosque, but there is a cathedral smack in the middle of it. crazy. i will let the pictures speak for themselves. gorgeous. this is right outside the walls into the orange tree courtyard that goes into the mosque:


and these are the arches. the first one is the double arches that are either painted to look like brick and mortar or actually are. they're all about optical illusions here, and it is a mix of both methods. the second is the more ornate arches:


this one is my favorite (one of the ceilings):


and if that weren't enough, this is the cathedral /inside/ the mosque:


another site on our day trip was the puente romano (roman bridge). that is the city in the background, and yes, the water really is that color. why? no idea...:



unfortunately, because we went on a sunday, everything else was closed. so we did not get a chance to see the palace or any of the museums. sad. but it was still a great day. hope your weekend was as great as mine :o)
-kl

stolen wifi...

so i was uploading pictures onto my computer when the ever pesky "there's wifi available" thinger came up. i accidentally clicked on it (i had looked at it before and all the networks have security enabled, but...), and found a network in range with good connectivity and no security. woo!

today is el dia de san fernando. san fernando was the founder of the city, and today is the one day a year when they open up his casket at the cathedral so you can see his relics. it's a huge celebration. we came in on the tail end of a parade when we went to the centro (downtown) to see it. it's located in la giralda (la here-AL-dah), the biggest cathedral in the world. it was started in 1248 by the moors and finished later by the catholics, which accounts for the changes in style. this is it at night, when we went to el barrio de santa cruz with stewart post-flamenco show--sorry about the guy's head... (click on any photo to enlarge):


one of its doors:


and here are some other pictures of note. typical tiling in sevilla in the houses/places of business. this one is at my hostel from the 1st night:


flamenco show! amazing. these are just 2 of about 15 dancers, and the musicians are in the back (not during this song--it was prerecorded. but most of them had 3 live guitars and 2 live singers):


el barrio de santa cruz (that's stewart in the lower left!), where we went after the flamenco show. this is where don juan supposedly "caught" all of his women:


and finally, 2 of my favorite sights on my everyday walk to school. the city is /full/ of stuff like this, and it's absolutely gorgeous. no wonder everyone walks everywhere. if you were to drive, you would miss it! (that and the roads are absolutely tiny and drivers are crazy...) haha, but really, these are super typical views:

i guess there's not really that much else to tell at this point. other than what some people (like my mother--*rolls eyes*--have been asking. carmen is in her i would guess late 50s/early 60s, but she's one of those kind of ageless women. she is divorced, and has 3 daughters who are all grown up and moved out. oh! here's a picture of the apartment. the living room:


and the bedroom i share with danielle is about the size of a dorm room. all the floors are tile, and it really is built to be cool. right now that's not so much fun, given that the highs have been in the low 70s and lows at night in the 50s, meaning that it's cooler than that (cooler than 70s, that is--more like low 60s) in the house and i go to bed and shiver all night, but when it turns into being in the 90s all the time, it's going to be a real advantage.

also. showers. yes. spain is in a severe water crisis (though danielle and i decided it's because they wash their streets and sidewalks every single night--seriously), and we do have to take fast showers (though it's not 4 minutes--anything under 10 will suffice, which i do anyways, so it's not a big deal). another funny thing--you have to turn on the gas to heat the water if you want it anything more than frigid. i guess utilities are super expensive here, too, and carmen doesn't have the gas turned on at all unless someone is showering so she can save money. makes sense to frugal little me... and yes, the food is still wonderful.

some more information about the program: there are 5 students total (myself and danielle included). the others are tiara mcgill from st. louis, mo, and goes to university of mo, st. louis; katie o'brien, who is from milwuakee and goes to uw-eau claire; and samantha howard (who i actually went to high school with--small world), who is from west st. paul, mn and goes to uw-eau claire. so far we're getting along really well, and since there are only 5 of us, we do pretty much everything together, including walk to class, explore, and plan (and eventually go on) weekend trips. yay!

i have my composition and conversation class with sam, tiara and danielle (taught by a cute little spanish woman named loly), and my history class with sam and tiara (taught by a jolly spanish man named pepe). instead of history, danielle and katie are taking a monuments class, and i'm so jealous! they get to wander around the city and learn about everything and see all sorts of stuff you otherwise wouldn't get to (sorry--couldn't work my way around ending that sentence with a preposition...). but they do take lots of pictures and promise to play tour guide for those of us not in the class, so it's all good.

tonight is another part of the festival for san fernando, and i think we're gonna try to go (problem: we're not sure exactly where it is, and this city has teensy windy streets that are not linear blocks and it can be uber confusing if you don't know where you're going...). tomorrow we're going shopping and out for tapas with some of the institute staff, and then sunday we're still working on planning a day trip. prolly not cadiz, because it's supposed to be rainy and cold (boo!!), and not granada, as it is too far to go for one day. idk. we'll figure it out.

well, we're about to leave for el centro (downtown--we live about a 30 minute walk from the school, which is about the closest part of downtown, but i'm not gonna complain about the walk. it's good exercise and it's gorgeous). all for now.
-kl

ñ

ha! guess what key i found on the spanish keyboard? that´s right, the ñ! excelente! so from the previous post espana should be españa and senora should be señora. yep.

so classes started yesterday. i´m taking 2: advanced composition and conversation and 20th century spanish history. both are taught only in spanish, but i´m not having any trouble so far... my professors and all of the institute staff are incredibly nice, too. they don´t even judge you when you clearly butcher something in spanish (or maybe they do, but they´re just really good at hiding it...).

last night was our first night in sevilla as a group, and we went to a flamenco show and dinner. for those of you that don´t know, spain runs on a way different schedule than the states, with breakfast at 7:30 (after we get up), lunch around 2:30 and the biggest meal of the day, and dinner around 9-10. so the flamenco show started at 7:30 and dinner was after. the show was incredible. i can´t even fathom moving my feet that fast! and with all the stomping i would have shin splints for a decade of sundays. crazy.

dinner was in el barrio de santa cruz, a neighborhood about a 35-40 minute walk from our apartment. we did, however, have a local guide. stewart, one of the institute staff, grew up there, and showed us around, treated us to dinner (ham, spanish tortilla which is more of an omelette, paella, sangria, and various desserts). after dinner we went to his church sponsored bar (odd, no?) and then back home to bed. we didn´t get home til after midnight and went to bed around 1, only to get up at 7, but hey, we´re only gonna be here a short time, and we want to milk everything out of it that we can. you can always sleep when you´re dead.

tonight we have a tour of our barrio (neighborhood), and tomorrow is a local holiday, so everything is closed. we´re thinking that we might to a sunday day trip to cadiz or granada this weekend, but plans remain uncertain. gotta head back to class now... :o)
-kl

26/20

whew! i´ve arrived! (safely, yay! nothing more interesting than some /very/ turbulant flights).

i started this journey in msp, flying to newark, nj, to barcelona, to sevilla. all the flights were turbulant. and the first two were in the 2 smallest planes i have ever flown in in my entire life. talk about disconcerting. the first one had, as far as i could tell, 57 seats, no first class. it was 19 rows of seat a, aisle, seats b-c, and my head brushed the ceiling. aack! then my hopper across the ocean was 3 and 3, but it was super small. the biggest plane by far was the one from barcelona to sevilla, and that was the shortest (and most turbulant) flight. the poor girl in front of me had never flown before and was freaking out the entire time, trying to find something to hold on to. it was like a bad roller coaster--you just want to get off, but you can´t til the ride is over.

my first real encounter with spanish was at the barcelona airport, which is pretty much super confusing. i had to ask directions, and i got perfect directions back in spanish and i understood all of them! yay!!! then i ate lunch and a nice man from peru sat next to me, and we then had a good hour conversation, just in spanish. i´m already finding myself thinking in spanish, and i´m having to translate things back into english in order to write this (like i just wanted to say "solamente en espanol", and i had to think about it in order to write "just in spanish").

last night i stayed at a hostel, and i got a cab from the airport there. it was a bmw. whoa! so i stayed at the hostel for the night, and, not wanting to traverse a strange city alone at night, i went to a supermarcado (supermarket, but really more of a gas station), got myself a bag of doritos, doughnuts (for breakfast) and a fanta naranja (different from us fanta--and better--/just/ as good as i remembered them. OH! and i already found a few zumo machines and can´t wait to test them out!) and called it a night. not very healthy, but at that point i had been traveling for 26 hrs by the clock, 20 by my body, and was ready to hit the hay. the shower in the hostel was /the/ most confusing shower i´ve ever used, but eventually i got myself mostly clean. then i hit bed.

today i woke up, got checked out, hailed a cab, went to the institute, went through a brief orientation, and took my cab to the apartment. or so i thought. the map that the institute gave me was wrong on the placement of the apartment, and everyone i asked had no idea where it was, so i spent about an hour lugging around all of my stuff and trying to find it. lemme tell ya, i was on the verge of tears. finally i found it, and got myself there. yay!!! never was there so much celebrating.

my senora´s name is carmen, and she´s awesome. a great cook!! if all of her food tastes like the meals today, we will be in good shape. i´m sharing a room with danielle olson, the other stout student, and our apartment is just the cutest thing i´ve ever seen--so authentically spanish! pictures to follow soon. basically, i love it here--and i´ve only been in the city for a day! it´s gorgeous, with all of the meandering mideival streets that are so charming (and at times frustrating). but so far, so good. and best is i´m not having any trouble understanding natives at all! woohoo! they do drop the s at the end of a lot of words, though (so seis is sei, and adios is adio). but if you know that, you´re in good shape.

classes start tomorrow at the lovely hour of 8:30, and it´s a 20 minute walk. but i´m ready. i think that´s all i´ve got for now. updates to follow soon. hope you´re doing well!
-kl

13

aahhh!!! today's the day. the long awaited day when i LEAVE FOR SPAIN!!!!! this will mark my 13th hop across the puddle we call the atlantic ocean, but i am still nervous like always. i officially get to sevilla tomorrow (the 26th), but the program i'm there for doesn't start until the 27th, so i have one night in the city... alone... surrounded by a dialect i'm not used to... alone... being jet lagged... alone... where the schedule the locals follow is completely different than here... oh, and did i mention alone?? this prospect became much less daunting when i found a hostel with single non-smoking rooms, but it's still a bit frightening. i have both traveled overseas before and traveled alone before, but never overseas alone before. kinda feels like a big step.

just a few last minute things to pack (like my computer, haha), and then i'm outta here! enjoy your may/june state side!
-kl

welcome!

hello everyone! as you probably know, since you're reading this, I am headed to sevilla, spain this summer! i'm so excited!!! (yes, i realize my first 3 sentences all started with exclamation points, and yes, i think that's excessive, too, but i'm over it). my minor is spanish, and my options to finish it were either in spain or wisconsin. guess which won? so i will be finishing my minor and having a blast while i'm at it. i will be there may 25-june 28. i will try to update this blog with happenings (and hopefully pictures) every few days.

right now it's 7 days to show time. honestly, it really hasn't hit me yet--all my other trips to europe i've had at least a year of warning/prep time, and this one has been less than 10 weeks from finding out about the opportunity to embarking. crazy! and due to school just ending and jury duty, i've kinda been putting off getting ready til i'm less busy (ha! when will that ever happen?). i've just started a pile in the corner of my room. so far it consists of sunscreen and a phone card. do you think i'm in good shape for a month abroad? me too.

until next time (when i will hopefully have more packed and a shorter target list).
-kl