Galicia in Pictures, part 2

This week, my Universidad de Alcalá class went to O Grove, Galicia. Given that it's a marine biology class, and we don't have access to an any large body of water here in Madrid, it made sense for us to spend the week collecting and studying specimens on the western coast of Spain. Even though we were supposed …

Castilla la Mancha

Medieval era doorways complete with gargoyle-esque sculptures and family crests are supported by whitewashed, plaster walls, and bordered by modern brick buildings. Open plazas in front of churches are surrounded by two story homes cobbled together of grey stone and wood. Each town is a 2 or 3 block section of winding, stone streets surrounded …

Él que lee mucho y anda mucho, ve mucho y sabe mucho

I arrived in Madrid thinking that my classes started on January 23rd. I learned that, for some reason, the first week of classes was cancelled, so I had two weeks free before my classes actually started. I spent the first few days not doing much besides trying to recover from the jet lag, work on …

Is Spain Different?

Since I’ve come to Spain, I’ve been asked numerous times why I decided to study abroad in Madrid. In the US, I would quickly respond with a generic answer: that I wanted to go to a Spanish speaking country to better my language skills (because I’ve been studying Spanish since I was in kindergarten) and …

What I learned: Week 4

The (former) King of Spain, Juan Carlos, made sure that there was room for his parents to be buried at El Escorial where the other parents of kings are buried even though they were not directly the Spanish royal family. At El Escorial, the queens who did not give birth to sons who became kings are …

Santa Cruz del Valle

The mountains surround the town on three sides, reaching up to the sky as a lush mass of dense green criss-crossed with rocks and trails. My host dad says that in the winter, the rocky tops become covered in a thick blanket of snow that causes the cattle, goats, and deer to come down into …

El Valle de Cinco Pueblos

This weekend my host family took me to Santa Cruz del Valle, the pueblo where my host dad's family is from. About an hour south of Ávila and two hours west of Madrid, the small town (300-400 people live there year round) is nestled in El Valle de Cinco Pueblos, a valley containing five small towns, between 8000 …