Dorothy is back in Kansas!

I have been back at home for a few days now, but it is just now starting to sink in. Germany was wonderful! It was so great to meet all of the family and spend one last week in Europe in relax mode. We also made a day trip to Salzburg, Austria, and that was really cool to see. Other than that, we ate way too much, drank German beer, visited three castles, and spent a lot of time talking and catching up. 

Before going to Germany, we spent a day and a half in Valencia. Omi, my mom, and Megan really liked it, so that was really good. It was so refreshing to see their reaction to Valencia because I had been living there for 4 months, but everything was new to them. I am just really glad I got to share it with someone else because I really do love that city. It was hard to leave, but I can't wait to go back!

Adjusting back has not been as hard as I thought it was going to be. The time adjustments have also come pretty easy. Most of that is due to the fact that my plane was delayed until 2 AM, so I crashed after that and my sleeping habits have been pretty normal. 

I start my summer internship at the Kansas City Wizards on June 2, and I will be working in the Spanish media department. Hopefully I won't lose my Spanish in the next week. :o)

Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend everyone!

Love,

Katie

Countdown!

Hi everybody!

Sadly, we only have 3 more days in Valencia. We head to Madrid on Friday, where I will meet my mom, Meg, and Omi. I am very excited to see them, but not excited to leave this city! Luckily, we are coming back for a day and a half so they can see the city and meet my host family. After that, we are heading to Munich, Germany. We also are going to take a day trip to Austria. It will be fun to meet family that I have never met before and eat some good German food! After Germany, we head back to Madrid to catch our return flight and I will be back at home on the night of the 18th.

I am very excited about doing a little more traveling before I head back to the states. I am really nervous to return. Everyone says that reverse culture shock is much worse than the first rounds of culture shock. However, I didn't experience bad culture shock, so maybe my reverse culture shock won't be intense. I'll be busy this summer anyway. I am going to intern with the PR department at the KC Wizards, our soccer team. I am really looking forward to it because I will get to use my Spanish to speak with some of the players who are not fluent in English. 

I spent the past week trying to balance studying and enjoying my last week in Valencia. Tonight is a study night. :o) My final exams won't be too terribly difficult. Some of them are oral exams and others are written. The best part is after the exams our professors are going out to lunch with us. We have really all become good friends with our professors since most of them are around our age. 

We had to write a review on Valencia and our home stays today, and it made me realize just how lucky I have been. Valencia was a perfect city to live in and I love my host family. I not only improved my Spanish, but learned about many other cultures, traveled to amazing places, learned a lot about myself, and made life-long friends. This really has been a great experience and I can't wait to return to Valencia, Spain, and Europe in general!

Have a great week everyone!

Abrazos grandes y fuertes!

Happy Birthday, Miss Sara Cloon! Have a good one!

Weekend trip

So, like I said, we went to Sevilla (Seville) and Cordoba this weekend. They are both cities located in Andalucia or Southern Spain. It was actually one of the most fun trips I have taken! Kate's family was wonderful, and we really had  a good time!

The beginning of the trip was like a movie. I jumped on the train as it was pulling out of the station. When I said last minute trip, I meant it. After that, it was pretty much smooth sailing. I love traveling with adults because we stay in real hotels instead of hostels and we get to do a little more eating. :0)

We started off in Sevilla, sister city to Kansas City, Missouri, which influenced the style of the Plaza. Sevilla is known as the artistic, cultural, and financial capital of Spain. In Sevilla, we saw the Cathedral de Sevilla, which was very impressive. It is the third largest in Europe and unbelievably gorgeous! Sevilla is also known for the Alcazar which faces the cathedral. My favorite part of the day was the gardens outside the Alcazar. The Moorish influence was raeally neat to see in that part of town. 

No one can go to Sevilla and not see a Flamenco show, so we did that. Flamenco, a typical, Spanish dance was supposedly invented in Sevilla, is very popular all over Spain. It was by far the best Flamenco I have seen though. 

Despues de Flameco, we were walking back to our hotel when we stumbled across a band playing some Spanish music. We stopped to listen, and all of a sudden one of the boys asked me to dance. So, I danced with him in the middle of the square. It was actually pretty fun, and Kate's aunt got some good pictures. Kate and I hung out with them after their "concert." It is always fun to get a taste of the city with locals.

After Sevilla, we headed to Cordoba. The city is moderately-sized, but very charming. Everything in Spain is just really laid back, it is going to be hard to readjust to the fast paced, American way. Anyway, while we were in Cordoba, we saw the Mezquita (Mosque), which dates back to the 14th century. The inside was elaborately decorated with red and white stripes. All in all, it was a very pretty site.

Other than that, we spent a lot of time checking out gardens and little museums here and there. We saw a lot of little concerts, ate some good food, and did a little window shopping. I am just so glad that I went on the trip - it was a lot of fun!

Only 10 days left in Spain! I am going to be spending as much time as I can enjoying the city and beach before we have to leave.

I will post pictures as soon as I get them from Kate's aunt. Have a wonderful rest of the week!

Love,

Katie

Sevilla, Cordoba

Hello from Valencia!

I only have a few minutes, but I made a very last minute trip to Sevilla and Cordoba, Espana with my friend, her mom, and  her aunt. It was so much and I am so glad I went! I will write a long post and upload pictures tomorrow. 

I am off to a last dinner for one of my classes. It really is going to be harder to leave than I thought. They might have to drag me out of here. :o)

Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!

Love,

Katie

Malta, Malta, Malta

Hola a todos!

Not much to say about Malta. We stayed at St. Julian's, which is very close to Valleta, the capital city. We spent a half a day in Valleta and it was really pretty. The food was the least expensive that we have encountered in Europe. Needless to say we ate some good meals! 

Overall, it was a fun, girls trip and very relaxing! We stayed in a hostel that was 40 euro per night (10 euro each), and let's just say we got our money's worth. :o) There was not many things to do, cultural wise in Malta. They just got their independence about 40 years ago from Great Britain. They are currently trying to establish themselves as their own country.

Also, the beaches in Malta are made out of rocks, so that made it a little more difficult to lay out, but we made due. Malta also has good night life, so that was fun! We needed a little R&R vacation, and Malta was perfect for that. 

I am just staying busy working on final projects for my classes. Wednesday, my friend, Sabrina, and I are making a typical American dinner for our Spanish friends. I am looking forward to cooking because I haven't been able to cook this whole semester.

After this, I will post a few pictures of Malta on Snapfish. Hope you all had a great weekend and I'll talk to you soon!

Te quiero,

Katie

Portugal

We are back in Valencia after a wonderful weekend in Portugal. Haley and I traveled with her parents to Porto, Portugal. Mrs. Hunsaker has a friend in Porto, and we stayed with him and his family. He was nice enough to pick us up from the airport and then took us straight to the Duoro River. Along the river there are many cellars as Porto is the birthplace of Port wine. I'm sure you know what Port wine is, but it was all new to me. So let the history lesson begin. Port wine came about when Portugal was trading with Great Britain. Portugal offered wine in exchange for English textiles. However, by the time the wine reached G.B., it was spoiled. The English refused the trade, but Portugal asked for one more chance. The next time they arrived in Great Britain, they were prepared. They had poured Brandy into the wine to keep in good condition. The British loved it, and Port wine was born.  Nowadays, it is made by pouring Brandy into the wine halfway through the fermentation process. 

Anyway, we visited one of these cellars. It was very cool to see the barrels and the manners in which they upkeep everything. After the tour we got to taste the three different types of Port wine - white, ruby, and tawny.  Tawny, the deep red wine, was my favorite wine. 

After some ironic conversation with some guys from England, we headed to the former Stock Exchange building. It was filled with Arabian influence, despite the fact that the Queen that supervised its building was Catholic. We took a guided tour with a Spanish, so our tour was in Spanish and English, which was good. I never seem to realize how much Spanish I know until I find myself in situations like those. 

When our tour was finished, we went back to Alex's (the family friend) house. The family was very nice. They welcomed us into their home, let Haley and I sleep in the master bedroom, and fed us like there was no tomorrow. And it is always nice to spend time with locals.   They went out of their way to make us feel comfortable and told us that we now have a home in Portugal. Que simpaticos son. 

On to Saturday! We took a train from Porto to a small town where the family's daughter goes to college. It was funny because the landscape and the trees reminded me of Manhattan a little bit. On the campus, we toured an old library, the Academic Prison, the site of all major ceremonies, and the courtyard. We took some tours and learned a lot of interesting facts about the school. 

On a more interesting note, we had goat for lunch! I didn't care for it, and yes, I gave it a good try. After that, we jumped back on the train and headed for their apartment. Alex was so funny, he told us we needed an "American night" in Portugal, so he ordered Pizza Hut. He made a spread of pizza, cookies, and beer. We ate ourselves to death and watched MTV. However, the best part of the "American party" was that we got to hear all of Alex's travel stories. This semester has definitely given me the want to travel more, so it was interesting to hear about all the places he had been.

Overall, Portugal was a good time; I liked it a lot! We had some friends that went to Porto, too, and they didn't care for it. So I think it really helped us to have a local tour guide. 

Other than that, everything is going well. Classes are still interesting. We are learning about WWII from Spain's perspective in my Culture and Civ class, Don Quijote in my literature class, and writing papers in la clase de gramatica. So, classes are good!

Weather is getting warmer and warmer. All I can say is that I'm not sad that I missed out on winter in Kansas. Snow in April? No thank you. It is so hard to believe that we only have less than a month left. I don't think I am ready to leave yet, but excited to go to Germany!  Okay, everyone have a great rest of the week! 

So I guess a congratulations is in order to all you Jayhawk fans ... congrats! An overtime win is always impressive. Just enjoy it while you can because K-State will be back next year! :o)

Megan McCaffrey is 15!

Hola a todos!

On Friday, our group took a bus to tour the nearby town of Cuenca. It is a smaller city and has a typical Mediterranean feel. While we were there we visited the Enchanted Forest, the hanging houses, and the city area. The Enchanted Forest was filled with rocks that were formed by the Med Sea into interesting shapes. There were ones that were shaped like a man´s face, an elephant, a seal, and so on. All I am going to say is I think the person who figured this out had a little too much time on their hands for recreational activities. The hanging houses were really neat, too. They are houses that literally hang off the cliff. Our tour guide said that it would cost you a pretty penny to live there, but you could not pay me enough to live in one of them. In fact, there are only a few left because the other ones were not well-preserved and fell into the cliffs. Overall, I liked Cuenca; it was a very charming town. Sorry I don´t have any pictures, but I will try and steal some from a friend and post them soon.

There was a wine festival in town this weekend, so we went to that on Saturday. You paid 10 euro and you got to try 5 different types of wine and 5 different types of food. They were all delicious and it was fun to taste wine and food from all over Spain. It was held in the Rio area where there are a bunch of gardens so it was a perfect location.

Sunday was the reason I came to Valencia - gorgeous weather and a good beach! My friends and I spent all day enjoying the sun at the beach. We just took some food, Sangria, a soccer ball, and had a good time. It was really nice to spend a relaxing weekend in Valencia for the most part.

However, there is more traveling to come. My roommates parents arrive today and Haley and I are going with them to Portugal from Friday to Sunday. Rumor has it that Portugese is very easy to understand if you speak Spanish, so we´ll see. We will have local tour guidse because we are staying with friends of theirs. I think it is going to be a good trip - I feel like Portugal is something I need to take advantage of since it is so close!

Okay, hope you all had a good weekend!
Hasta luego!

Dolce vita en Italia

Get ready, this is going to be a long post. I tried to cut out some of the boring stuff, and I'm just going to write it city by city. 

First up, PISA!

We arrived in Pisa and found our way to our hostel. It was not exactly nice, more like something out of a horror movie, but we made it out alive. We were only in Pisa for an afternoon, which was perfect. Just enough time to see the Leaning Tower and grab some lunch. Then we were off to Rome.

Rome

We took a 4 hour train ride from Pisa to Rome. It wasn't bad because we traveled along the coast, and it was gorgeous. 

I got my first plate of pasta in Italy; it was amazing! I always thought pasta was pasta, but I was mistaken. 

The next day was Easter, so we went to mass at a church near our hostel. It was completely in Latin and Reid wasn't there to help me, so it was difficult to understand.  Obviously, everything was closed so we went to see the outside sights like the Trevi fountain, the Santa Maria degli Angeli, and the Spanish Steps. 

I was really impressed with the Trevi fountain - it was really pretty and detailed. Legend has it, if you throw a coin into the fountain, you ensure your return to Rome. I should not have thrown a coin in because Rome was not very nice to me. First of all, my debit card got eaten by an ATM machine. Then, someone stole my camera! I always thought if someone was pick-pocketed it was because they weren't being careful, but I was mistaken there too. My camera was stolen while I was sleeping! Someone rummaged through my purse to take it. So even worse than the camera being stolen, is the feeling of being violated. So needless to say, I wasn't having my best days in Rome. 

But life goes on, so we went to see the Colosseum, the Roman ruins, and the Pantheon. We planned ahead and made reservations to the Colosseum, which let us skip the long line. I liked it better from the oustide, but it was very interesting to see the inside and how it was all layed out.  Unfortunately, the Pantheon was closed because of the holiday, but we got to see a through a small crack in the door. It was impressive from what I could see. 

The food was delicious, the sights were amazing, but I was ready to leave Rome.

Vatican State

As probably all of you know, to get from Rome to Vatican state requires no traveling, but it is still recognized as its own state. This was my favorite part of this leg of the trip. Once again, we got reservations for the Vatican and got to skip the 4 hour long line. One reason I think I liked this the most is because we had a tour guide that explained every detail to us. I loved knowing what I was looking at and hearing the history behind it. In the Vatican Museum, we saw the ancient ruins, the tapestry rooms, the map rooms, and the courtyard. The statues were incredible, but they did not come anywhere close to the Sistine Chapel. The entire chapel was filled with art, from wall to wall. I also did not know that Michelangelo was creating up until his death. He was such an amazing artist. We also got to see a little bit of St. Peter's Basillica and St. Peter's Square. It was interesting to see the place set up for Easter mass, too. 

After that, we went to Castel Sant'Angelo to check out the arial views. It was an amazing view and cool to see Vatican State from another vantage point. Next, we hopped on another train to...

Florence!

This was my favorite city that we visited. We started out by going to the Ufizzi Gallery, which we learned is the most visited fine art gallery in the world.  The gallery houses "the Birth of Venus" by Botticelli. After the Ufizzi, we went to the Accademia, which houses "David" by Michelangelo. This statue blew my mind; the details were incredible. You could see every vein in his hands, and even the back of his knees were detailed. It is hard to imagine using that much detail on such a large scale. 

We were a little tired of museums after that, so we took a break and headed to the Ponte Vecce, the famous bridge in Florence. This city was so walkable - it was great. Anyway, we had some more amazing food near the Ponte Vecce and called it a night.

The next day, we visited the Duomo and the Baptistry. The outside decoration of the Duomo and the Baptistry was unreal, especially the gold doors of the Baptistry.  I didn't not want to leave Florence, but Haley forced me to get on the train. :o)

Venice

I loved Venice as well. We took a water taxi from the train station to our hotel. We stayed in a hotel because there were not any open hostels, but it was nice to have our own room and bathroom for a couple of nights. Plus, our hotel was right on the canal, so we had amazing views. It was located near St. Mark's Square as well. We ate out one night in Venice, but it is so expensive, it just wasn't worth it. So, we grocery-stored it and had a nice little meal.  

The next day, we went to St. Mark's Basillica. It was gorgeous inside. In fact, every dome told a different story. One was Noah's Arc, another Jesus' family tree (literally), and so on. Outside of St. Mark's, we ran into 3 other girls in our program, so we all decided to go on a gondola ride. We went by Lovers Bridge, Marco Polo's house, Woody Allen's apartment, and Casanova's old house. On top of all of that, the gondola driver proposed to me under Lover's Bridge.  Don't worry Grandma, you'll love him, he said he was a nobleman and he lives in a castle. The wedding is going to be in June, you are all invited. 

Almost done, hang in there!

Milan

We did not have very much time in Milan either, but we did get to see the Last Supper. It was incredible to see close up. It is one of those things that you always see pictures of, but it was nice to see in person.  In general, Milan is a much bigger city than I expected. We also visited the Duomo, but by that time we were churched-out. It is the 4th largest cathedral in Europe and I think we stayed in there for about 5 minutes. :o) After that, we did some window shopping in the fashion capital of Italy, and made our way back to our hostel. Our flight back was painless and it is good to be home!

Italy was one of the best trips of my life. From this blog, it sounds like I went to church camp for 10 days, but it was such a good experience. We experienced a whole other place, culture, people, language, food, everything. It was a wonderful experience that I will never forget.

Now, back to reality, which includes class and responsibility. :o) Hope you all had a wonderful week!

and let the countdown begin, 3 more days until Meg turns 15!!!!

We are back in Valencia, safe and sound.  I will post pictures and a LONG blog on Tuesday or Wednesday when I have free internet. Hope everyone had a great week!

Love,

Katie

Buona Pasqua!

Happy Easter!

We are in Rome now, alive, well, and soaked - it poured today! Hope everyone had a good weekend. We are off to see all of the Roman ruins tomorrow, and then to Vatician City on Tuesday. More details later, just thought I would say a quick hello!

Amore,
Katie

Me encanta este ciudad

Hi all!

I finally made it to an internet cafe! :) I only have a half an hour, but just thought I would write a blog before Italia. We leave the 21st, and I could not be more excited. However, it does not feel real yet. We are going to be there for 10 days. Even though that sounds like a long time, we are cramming a lot into that time. It should be a great time, and I´m going to write in my journal while I´m there, so no worries.

Las Fallas (the festival) has been incredible! This city nearly triples in size during it, and I have never seen so many people in my life. Today is the first day that we have been able to walk on the streets, en serio. Tonight is the symbolic burning of the Fallas (statues). The best way I can describe it is spring cleaning. Las Fallas started when people would clean out their houses and put everything they did not want in the middle of their plaza. After that, the neighborhood would burn everything in the pile. Now, the piles have turned into elaborate statues that are burned. Que lastima. What a shame. But it is supposed to symbolize the coming of a new season mas o menos. Every Falla will be burned at midnight, and the ¨winning¨ Falla receives an extra half an hour of life and is burned at 12:30 - great prize, huh? :) The winner was chosen by a panel of judges and also voted on by citizens.

I didn´t think that I could love this place anymore, but Las Fallas proved me wrong. I am going to use tomorrow to recoperate before Italy, so we´ll see how that works out for me.

Expect lots of stories and pictures when I return from Italy! Hope you all have a great week and a good rest of the month!

Miss you and talk to you soon. BESOS Y ABRAZOS FUERTES!

Feliz viernes!

Happy Friday everyone!

Las Fallas has begun in Valencia, classes are over for the month of March, and it is gorgeous outside! Everything here is going well. We are spending our time outside as much as possible. We have also been planning the final details for Italy. Our flight leaves the 21st and we come back the 31st. It doesn´t feel real yet, but I am really excited!

Hope everyone is doing well. We are going to go see some Fallas (the statues in the plazas) tonight and I will try and post pictures before Wednesday, when the office closes.

Have a great weekend!
Te quiero!

Brussels

Hi everybody!

I only have about ten minutes until the ISA office closes, but just thought I'd let everyone know that Brussels was great! We did the typical tourist sites, some more exploring on our own, and a lot of eating. Tomorrow, I will write a much longer post with details.

Have a good night!

Love,

Katie

Belgium

Last night, some friends and I went to a concert in the famous Arts and Sciences buildings. There is usually an area with a water, but they drained that water and 30,000 people crammed in to see the concert. The Cure was the main act and a few bands performed before them. They were okay, the atmosphere is what made it great!

The weather is a bit colder this week, but I still cannot complain. From now on, I am going to find a way to miss every winter in Kansas.

My roommate, Haley, and I are heading to Brussels for the weekend. We leave tomorrow afternoon and return on Sunday. I will post pictures early next week! I will also be sure to eat a Belgium waffle for each one of you. :o) Have a great weekend!

And, big congrats to Meg for making JV softball!

el fin de semana pasada

Hola chicos!

This weekend I decided to stay in Valencia. However, we did take a day trip to Segundo, Spain. It is a quaint, little town about 30 minutes away by train. It is filled with Roman ruins, which was pretty neat to see. We spent the afternoon eating lunch on top of a castle. The views were incredible, and I will post pictures as soon as I can.

The rest of the weekend was spent enjoying the gorgeous weather. It was 70-80 degrees all weekend long - the best weather we have had so far. I can sense the jealousy from here, Kansas kids. :o) Anyway, we went to the beach, walked around the city, and spent some time just relaxing outside.

Classes are going really well. In Cultura y Civilizacion, we are learning about Spanish art this week. I love learning about all of this art (thanks, Grandma).

Hope everyone is doing well! I´ll send out pictures soon.

Love love love,
Katie

Barcelona

Okay, get ready - this is going to be a long one.

First things first. Please excuse my bad English. The more Spanish I learn, the worse my English skills get. Its actually quite funny because I am starting to forget the most simple words in English, but I guess that is a good sign. 

Barcelona was great! It is a gorgeous city with interesting architecture, great people, and a lot of history. However, I am very glad that I did not study abroad there. There are several tourists and a lot of English. When we would speak to the vendors and people in Spanish, they would answer us in English. Also, a lot of the people speak Catalan, which is a dialect of Spanish. I think it would be a tough city to learn Spanish. 

Nonetheless, it is a wonderful place for a trip or vacation, and that is exactly what we had. There was about 30 students and we all piled onto a bus on Friday morning. The bus ride took about 4 hours. When we finally arrived, we toured a couple of Gaudi's buildings. First, we saw Casa Mila. Barcelona is known as the city of Gaudi. I am a big fan of his architecture, so that was very cool to see.  In addition to seeing his work, we learned a lot about him. 

As a child, he was very sick so he spent all of his time in a wheelchair observing anything and everything. He learned about forms and details of objects, and that is one of the reason he became the wonderful artist that he was. We also learned that the last building he built was for a very wealthy family. This family wanted something different, something that would stick out from the rest of the houses in Barcelona. He made the apartment, but they absolutely hated it. So, they took him to court in order to get all their money back. Obviously, they did not win the case, and Gaudi was awarded the money. He then donated all the money to the poor. Gaudi lived his life as a commoner, even though he was very wealthy. He seemed like a very interesting man, and it was great to see all of his work!

We also visited Sagrada Familia. It is a church that Gaudi was working on before his death. It has been under construction for around 60 years now, and it will not be finished until like 2015 or so. It was very intricate and beautiful. 

After seeing all that, my friends and I walked around and explored the city. We walked down Las Ramblas - a famous street in Barcelona with street performers and markets. 

On Saturday, we took another tour around the Gothic Block of Barcelona. It was okay, my favorite part of tour was the Cathedral. It was absolutely gorgeous, and had a pretty cool story. The Patron Saint of Barcelona died at the age of 13, so in the middle of the Cathedral, there are 13 geese that live in the garden. There are pictures of it on Snapfish. 

We spent Saturday afternoon at the beach por su puesto! Then, we took cable cars up to the top of a mountain nearby. There was a castle at the top of the mountain and I'm sure there would have been a gorgeous view, but we managed to time it right when the fog hit. So we made our way down the mountain, stopping by the sight of the 1992 Olympics. After that, was my favorite part of the trip by far! At the base of the mountain, there was an old castle converted into an art museum. Every Friday and Saturday night, they have a fountain show that is synchronized to music. It really was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in my life, and I definitely will return to see it. That night, we went for comida mexicana! It was delicious. 

Last day, Sunday, we went to Casa Batllo, another one of Gaudi's works of art. There are also pictures of it on Snapfish. It had a very Mediterranean feel, and I liked it a lot. After that, we headed to Guell Park. You guessed it, it was also designed by Gaudi and absolutely breathtaking. It was built for the purpose of being a small village, and I have decided I want to live there. :o) Seriously though, that is another thing that I will return to see. After that, we made a short stop by the Picasso museum. I did not realize how wonderful of a painter he really was, and he started at such a young age! That was the last of our trip and we headed back to Valencia.

In addition to Barcelona, everything is going really well. We are talking with our family a lot, studying Spanish for about 2 hours a day, managing to fit in cultural activities, and I just bought a gym membership. It is going to be hard to adjust back to life at home. Here, my biggest stressor is trying to find cheap plane tickets. :o)  

Tonight, my friend, Sabrina, and I are going to see a Flamenco show with my Spaniard friend, Jose. Que divertido, no?

Well, that's all for now. Hopefully that long post made up for the long wait. I hope you all are doing well and I will talk to you soon!

Love,

Katie

viernes es manana

Hola a todos!

I´m sorry I am just now posting. We no longer have internet at our house, so I am going to have to venture out to Internet cafes. I am just in between classes right now. Today, we had a fashion show en Espanol. Muy guay!

I am going to try and post pictures after my second class, but Barcelona was gorgeous! There was so much culture.

Other than that, everything is going great! I will post later with a longer update.

LOVE!
Katie

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy late Valentine's Day to everyone! Hope everyone had a good one. I sent out yet another batch of photos. My friends and I went to a delicious Japanese steakhouse last night. It was by far the best meal I've had since we've been here. 

Today, we all went to the Arts and Sciences buildings. Inside, there is the 2nd largest aquarium in Europe. We saw a dolphin show, several sea animals, and an IMAX movie. So far, it has been a good start to the weekend.

Tomorrow, we are going with our host family to their parent's country home. It should be fun, and the dad is making us paella, which is a traditional Spanish dish.

Hope everyone is doing well and I will update soon! Love you guys!

Switzerland

I sent out an e-mail with pictures from Switzerland. We flew in Basel and immediately got on the train to a small ski town called Gyron. Our hostel was on the side of a mountain and was absolutely amazing! Two of the girls went skiing, but there were not great conditions, so another person on the trip and I went hiking. It was a lot of fun, but very cold! We were misled by the tourguide into thinking that it would be a little warmer. However, it was all worth it because when we got to the top of the mountain, we sipped on hot chocolate and ate fondue. I kept having to pinch myself. We were sitting at the top of the Swiss Alps, eating fondue, and drinking hot chocolate. It still does not feel real!

Our next trip planned is for Barcelona, Spain. It is a trip planned through ISA (the study abroad group), and I am really excited. Barcelona is supposed to be gorgeous with a lot of history.

My Spanish is improving everyday. Tonight, we are attending an "intercambio." It is a meeting between Spainards and Americans who want to learn each other's languages. So when you meet someone, you spend half the time speaking in English and the other half in Spanish. I think it will be interesting.

Classes are still going very well. There is a lot of interaction between us and our professors which is always good practice. I am learning so much.

Okay, well hope everyone is doing well! It rained today, so my friends and I spent our time in a cafe and ducking in and out of stores. So please pray for beach weather for me! :o)

Love you all!

Katie

Everything is going well here! Classes are really interesting and I am learning so much in and outside of the classroom. My Spanish is improving everyday. Today, I started taking notes in Spanish without even realizing it. I understand everyone when they speak, now I just need to work on speaking smoothly and quickly.

We just planned another trip for this weekend. We are headed to Basel, Switzerland! I will be sure to post pictures as soon as I can!

I really having the time of my life - I really wish I would have signed up for the year program! :)

proud Wildcat in Valencia!

Everything is still going well here in Valencia. I love the family that I am staying with and classes are going really well. Our assignment for Monday is to throw our professor a "typical, American college party." I'm not sure she knows what she is getting herself into, but I'll let you know how it goes. :)

Other than that, some of us went out for a Flamenco show the other night and it was really good music. Last night, we went out and did some of our own dancing. We have met some Spanish friends so that is really nice to practice the language with them. Today, we walked around the city and did a little shopping. Our only plans for tomorrow are ice cream and the beach, and we are going to go from there. 

Well, hope everyone is doing well! Everyone start thinking about when you are going to come visit me! :)

nuestro piso/our apartment

Pictures of our apartment should be in your e-mail inbox!

Love,

Katie

pictures finally!

I had better luck uploading the pictures to Snapfish, so I sent out a link to the McCaffrey e-mail group. Enjoy!

picturas

The computers we are using do not have USB outlets, so I will have to load the pictures next time we have computeres with USB cords or wireless internet. We leave early tomorrow morning for Toledo. We will spend some of Friday and Saturday there, and then it is off to VALENCIA! So, I am not sure when I will have Internet again, but I will post pictures then. Okay, we´re off to go get some tapas for dinner!

el segunda dia en Madrid

A couple of the girls and I stopped by an Internet cafe so I thought I would write a quick blog. My roommate Jamie and I were roaming the city today and we saw Juan Carlos! It was very interesting; he received a lot of applause. I took a lot of pictures so I will try to post them tonight after our bus tour.

Love you all!

MADRID

!Hola a todos! Yo estoy en Madrid. We landed this morning and I met another girl from Bridgewater, Mass at the airport. We took a taxi to our hotel. The hotel is fabulous! After we got settled in, we spent the afternoon walking around Madrid and exploring the city. Madrid is very commercialized, but it is still a nice city. Right down the street from our hotel is a KFC, Burger King, McDonald's and TGI Friday. We are right in the heart of the city so that may be the reason it is so commercialized. 

Tonight, my roommate and I met up with about five other ISA students and went out for dinner and drinks at a local pub. Overall, it has been a relaxing and fun day. Tomorrow we are having a group meeting and taking a bus tour of the city. It should be very interesting. 

So far, the hardest thing to get used to is the time change. It is 2 AM here, but I feel like eating dinner. :) I'm sure I'll get used to it soon enough. That is all I have for now; I just have a short time on the internet. I will try and write again soon. Take care!

Love,

Katie