MOROCCO

As you may have noticed from earlier blogs, my program strives to balance between immersing us in Granada as well as having us experience other locations nearby. By this point we have been to Alpujarra, Ronda, Sevilla, Málaga, Córdoba, and now MOROCCO! Yes, that’s right, a beautiful country on a different continent. IES Granada has …

Classes in Coming to Life

One of my courses here at IES is Historia y Memoria de los Judíos Sefardíes or History and Memory of the Sephardic Jews. Through this course I have been learning not just about the Jews of Spain but naturally the historical context as well, therefore giving me a broad understanding of Spanish history. Semana Santa …

Choir and El Clásico

Most of Spain follows two religions: Catholicism and Fútbol! Recently held was El Clásico, the ultimate soccer match between Real Madrid and Barcelona. This match is the equivalent of the United States Superbowl, complete with intensely loyal fans, advertisements galore, and houses and bars full of people glued to the screen. In fact, nightlife throughout the …

Semana Santa Part 2

As aforementioned, Semana Santa, or Holy Week is a very important religious holiday for Spain. Therefore, most everyone is given the week off from work, include us students! During this week, many of us take advantage of being in Europe and travel. First stop: Dublin, Ireland. I had to pleasure of visiting a good friend …

Visiting the Capital

On occasion we have a long weekend in which we don’t have classes on Monday. Naturally this means we have time to travel around Spain. For our first long weekend I went to Madrid, capital of Spain. Madrid is like the New York City of Spain, but prettier and less structured. With the largest city …

Semana Santa Part 1

3/19/16-3/27/16 Happy Easter! He is risen! I just returned from a week of vacationing aka traveling during Spain’s Semana Santa or Holy Week leading up to Easter. (More to share about my vacationing in Blog post Part 2) Being that Spain is a very Catholic country, this week is extremely significant and full of events. …

Moorish Spain: The History and Religion of Andalusia

03/12/16 Getting to know a foreign place involves taking winding side streets and in the process discovering the most amazing coffee shop imaginable. It means getting absolutely lost, asking someone for directions, and wind up becoming rather good friends. Tasting every food in front of you, making a fool of yourself trying to explain that …

Another Week, Another City: Seville & Cadiz

03/05/16 This program does an amazing job of showing us a lot of Spain! Today’s blog: Seville and Cadiz. Seville is the largest city of Andalusia with over 1.5 million people. Like most of Andalusia, Seville used to be under the reign of the Moors until being taken over by the Catholic King Ferdinand during …

Mi Ciudad

02/26/16 Greetings from Granada! These past days were full of highs and lows. Highs included being accepted into a lovely choir that happens to be singing some of my favorite pieces ever. Lows, I got a horrible stomach flu and was bed-ridden for a week. In case it was ever unclear, being sick in a …

The Many Sites of Spain

2/8/16 Hello again from Spain! I cannot believe that I have only been here for two weeks. To justify my shock somewhat, I have been to a total of 8 cities in 13 days. Two such places are La Alpujarra and Ronda. In the region of Spain where I am living, called Andalusia, there is an …