kaetlin
Kaetlin Kwiecien Joined: August 11th 2008
Logged in: May 15th 2009
Logged in: May 15th 2009
Travel Blog Posts
Photo 1
My mom sent me stuff to make sugar cookies and decorate them! Today, Easter Sunday, when Sarah got back from her vacations, we made them and decorated them together. Magdalena loved them and asked for a recipe for sugar cookies. Wow... I would never call that an "American food" but I guess I just take them for granted! I love decorating holiday cookies and it was great to add that in to my spring break! Thanks mom! Happy Easter... read more
cool!
This week, I went on a 6 day trip through a few parts of Morocco! It was amazing. I went with a group of about 100 people my age, mostly girls, mostly american students. Here, I will tell you how it went down! Day 1 (Friday, April 3) I woke up at about 4am after going to sleep at about 2. I do not recommend that sleeping schedule AT ALL!! I got ready and walked down the street to where we were all meeting the bus. We pulled out of Sevilla at 5:15am and were headed for the Southern border of Spain... Tarifa (the beach town I went to with Laura and Gaby). There, we got off of the bus to get onto the ferry that takes you on a 40 minute ride to Tangiers, Morocco. ... read more
at breakfast
I am alive... I swear. After a long winter break of travel with the fam and Brendan and then some couch bumming in Laura´s flat, I am back to the semester life. This semester I am staying with a family in a house near where I lived last semester in the dorms. More will come soon on my house. We just finished our three week intensive period and I celebrated by traveling to that funny little tippy thing at the bottom of Spain. That is TArifa! We decided to go to Tarifa because... well... we needed to get out of Sevilla. Sevilla is just starting to get super beautiful again and we are all falling in love with it all over again, but how can I ,miss it if I never go away, right?! So we ... read more
It has been a busy past few weeks. We are getting very close to the end, so everyone is trying to get their papers written. I have one of my final papers going; good thing because it is due next week! Otherwise, I have spent the last two weeks just trying to survive. I got another horrible virus and ended up going to the doctor this time. I missed a lot of school due to the fever that left me in pain. It started to get better with the prescription advil I got. However, I started throwing up and having diarrhea also. Finally, after a week of antibiotics, it has been confirmed that I am allergic to penicillin. I have a rash all over my body. Just great! Otherwise, Spain is great. Christmas lights went up ... read more
we ordered 3 coffees
This weekend was a blast. On Thursday, we took Ashley to a show at la Carboneria to see Flamenco. Friday, we chilled, went running, went shopping for boots, and went to an international fair. Then... on Saturday, we went on the bike trip that I planned. It was in a tiny town called Puerto Serrano. We took a bus about an hour and a half South of Sevilla. There, we rented bikes to go on these nationally preserved trails that were originally supposed to be railroad lines. They ran out of money or something, so they never put tracks down. Instead, it is just a big trail fit for a train. The tunnels are like the ones trains go through... Anyway, the trails were beautiful. There was a river, farms, beautiful hills, and we watched the ... read more
plaza in Lisboa
My weekend in Portugal was amazing. Today marks two months in Spain and I can't imagine going home yet! I am almost positive that Lisboa (Lisbon) is the prettiest city I have ever been in. It was like a mix between the beautiful hills and bay of San Francisco, the green lushness of Portland, and the cultured European vibe of Paris. Yes, that perfect! If only they spoke Spanish instead of that silly language they call Portuguese. So weird. We left on Friday morning. I huffed it to the bus at 8:30am and well, stopped at Starbucks for a yummy treat to have on the bus. Yay $29 mocha. The bus ride was really long, but I love all the girls that went on the trip and I was reading a really good book ("Where Rainbows ... read more
tortilla con camarones
Yeah, they don't really celebrate Halloween here except for in some bars because this is such a hot study abroad place. There is a party tonight at our school, but it won't be well attended because we are on our "fall break" so a lot of people already left for Italy, London, France, Barcelona, or Prague(Antonette). I am still here because my trip leaves tomorrow morning for Lisbon, Portugal. Yay! So all of the girls going on my trip will probably be at the party, but that is not very many. Well, I am working at the party, which means I help set it up and keep an eye on the drinks and make 20 euros. I don't have anything else to do. I am planning to go dressed as Cola Cao, which is the chocolate ... read more
I VOTED
This weekend, we went on a school trip to various towns in Extremadura, which is the province above Sevilla. Check out the map I added. We started on Friday morning. The bus left for Merida, which is a town that is famous for its well conserved Roman ruins. They have a gorgeous amphitheater and a theater. The theater is the best conserved Roman theater in Europe. There is one that is also well preserved in Northern Africa. It was very pretty. Then we went to the Roman museum that is also there. The museum is so beautiful. It was a little hard to stand because we were all starving when we were at the museum and I am really sure that everything has to be physically perfect for a museum trip to be tolerable. If you ... read more
Some of you may have been able to tell from my posts that things have been falling apart a little for me. I have been struggling quite a bit with daily life these past two weeks. I think it has been a combination of my honeymoon period of culture shock going away, not getting enough sleep, missing people at home, and lack of intellectual stimulation. It is really hard to express yourself in a second language. Whenever we have pretty serious discussions in class or debates, I end up talking more than anyone else in the class and still leave feeling like I was not able to say anything that I wanted to. That is a really big change from being in Berkeley in a lecture hall that is all about thinking wow thoughts. I am ... read more
view of the beach
I am back and ready to tell about more that you have missed. I forgot, in my other blog, to talk about the day that Antonette and I decided to get out of our room for the siesta and do some exploring. You see, I had gone for a walk that morning just to pass the time, and within 5 minutes I realized I had no idea where I was. Ok, I knew where I was in respect to where I live; I was not lost, mom. But, I had never been there before which is interesting because I was very close to where I go all the time. So I realized that we have been sitting in our little comfort zone for a few weeks and we needed to explore. You see, the city is ... read more
