The Time Flies By…

Hey all. Now that the sun has come out and the warm weather is here to stay, I am reminded how my semester abroad is actually beginning to wind down. While I have already spent more than 2 months away from home, a part of me feels like I just got here. I only have 4 weeks of classes left after this week and two weeklong vacations.

Okay, I guess that’s actually a decent amount of time, but this is such an amazing experience and I want to soak up as much as I can before I return home. Not many people get the chance to travel to another country in their life, let alone study in one so I want to take advantage of my time here and truly appreciate it for what it is: A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Speaking of taking advantage of opportunities, I have a week long break coming up and am planning on traveling to Salamanca (city in northern Spain) for a few days to visit a fellow Batesie who is studying abroad there. Pictures and stories to be posted after the visit.

In the mean time, I am focusing on my midterm exams (examenes parciales). 3 down and just 1 more to go (tomorrow!). The exams have varied in difficulty but all in all were manageable with some good studying. Most importantly, I feel like I’ve already learned a lot from those classes.

In my spare time I have been exploring new areas of the city (I always seem to find something new) and enjoying city life. Last Wednesday I went to a flemenco show and it was incredible. One woman dancing, two guitarists, four male singers. I still can’t get over how the woman dances the way she does in high heels. Don’t know what flemenco is? Check out the video below. I’ve seen flamenco at this very spot:

I will have much more news to share after this weekend because I can fill you all in on my trip to Salamanca and tell you about Semana Santa (Saint’s Week) and the special celebrations that will occur in Sevilla, which is more or less the capital of Semana Santa. A story for another day.

Until next time… hasta luego…

Enough about Spain!

Hey all. The rain finally seems to be letting up and hopefully tomorrow the sun will peak out from behind the clouds and provide Sevilla with some much needed sunshine. When the weather does improve, I hope to get outside with my camera and snap some more pictures. In the meantime, I thought I’d take a break from talking about Spain to focus a bit on life back at Bates. Because study abroad is just one aspect of Bates life, I thought it would be good to tell all those perspective students out there about current happenings back on campus.

Snoop Dogg recently preformed at Bates and I heard it was quite the scene. Some Bates friends of mine who attended the concert told me it was an epic performance and a good time had by all. Check out the picture of Snoop performing at Bates:

(Photo courtesy of The Bates Student and Maddy Talias)

In other news, Bates received federal recognition (President’s honor roll) for a high-level of commitment to community service. Read more about it here.

Bates’ mainstage theater production this semester is “You Can’t Take It With You”. Check out The Bates Student’s review of the new show.

Finally, check out this opinion piece in the Bates Student about allowing food + drink in the Bates library. I couldn’t agree more!

That’s all for now, more updates from Spain to come soon. Hasta luego…

The rain in Spain falls mainly on the… everywhere.

Hey all. Unfortunately the weather in Sevilla continues to be rainy and wet. It has drizzled/rained/poured here on and off nearly every day for the past several weeks. Unofficially, I’ve heard that this is the most rain Sevilla has had in the last 60 years. I play basketball once a week with other students from my program and with local residents of Sevilla and one of the players told me he has lived in the city for 34 years (his entire life) and he has never seen weather this bad. One student I talked with who studied abroad here last semester told me it only rained ONCE in his entire first semester experience.

Everyone in Sevilla, my señora included, keeps apologizing for the terrible weather. Honestly, after living in the Northeast of the United States my whole life, this doesn’t seem like bad winter weather. In fact, even though it has been rainy, the temperatures have been mostly mild and even warm at times. Still, I can’t help but think what I might be missing if the weather were just a bit nicer. Here’s to hoping for sunny days ahead.

Soon I must start thinking about Bates housing and course registration for…gulp… my senior year in college! Exciting and nerve-racking all at the same time. More pictures, news, and random ramblings to come. Until next time. Hasta luego…