Most people know of the big hitters in Andalucia: Sevilla, Granada, Cordoba, Malaga. But you might not know about some of the smaller towns that hold just as much charm. I recently got the chance to explore a few hidden towns in Andalucia I had never heard of while participating in a Spanish immersion program, […]
The native Spanish speakers at my dinner table broke out into hysterical laughter. While gesturing to demonstrate short sleeves, I said “cortas armas” during a conversation at dinner one night. I didn’t know the word for “sleeves” in Spanish, so I guessed. I’m not sure if, in the moment, I thought “armas” was the word […]
I’ve never made a bucket list. I think having a list of goals is great, but I never felt the need to officially put together a bucket list because I fear that 95% of it would just be a list of places I want to visit. And let’s face it, that list of places might […]
Shortly after arriving in Germany, Andy and I went into the immigration office to get my visa allowing me to live here. Since Andy has a job here and we’re married, there really wasn’t much to it. But I was told I needed to take a German integration course, which is 600 hours of language […]
I know you probably didn’t think you needed an instruction manual for throwing out your garbage. Just put it in the garbage can, right? Maybe separate your glass, plastic and aluminum containers for recycling. Simple. Not so here. Garbage and recycling in Germany is way more in depth. Throwing out the trash is like a […]
So I didn’t really write this summer. I’ve been living with Andy in Freiburg since early July, and I definitely had enough I could’ve written about over the past two months. But everyone reacts differently to stress, and apparently this summer my way of dealing was to shut down. I spent the first couple of weeks dealing with […]
Two days after visiting Mitad del Mundo, I went to dinner with Hannah and Natsumi, friends from the language school. We were on a mission to try cuy, guinea pig. I knew I couldn’t leave the country without eating cuy, even if guinea pigs are a common pet in the States. The only reason I even took the picture of the live guinea […]
No trip to Quito, Ecuador would be complete without a visit to Mitad del Mundo, Spanish for Middle of the World. Mitad del Mundo is the tourist attraction marking where the equator runs through Ecuador just a short drive outside of Quito. Everyone takes cheesy photos with one foot in the northern hemisphere and one foot in the […]
On my last day in Quito, I met up with some friends from school. We went to the volcano Pichincha and took the teleferico (cable car) up to see the view. Now, the altitude of Quito is 2820 meters or 9252 feet, which is almost twice the altitude of Denver, CO. As I previously mentioned, I had […]
On the first day at the language school in Quito where I was taking a Spanish class for a week, one of the teachers took us for a tour of the city. We spent lots of time in the Plaza de la Independencia where the governmental building is. We got there in time to see the […]