CatK

Today reminded me a lot of my Nations, States, and Boundaries class for my International Studies major this past semester. What is a state? A nation? Where is the overlap? The United States of America defines itself as a collection of states under one red, white, and blue flag and national government. However, it is not a nation. Few countries are both nations and states (nation-states). According to Wikipedia (I know, legit source right? Good thing my English teachers aren’t here), “The state is a political and geopolitical entity; the nation is a cultural and/or ethnic entity.” Japan is a nation-state because it is politically, geopolitically, culturally, and ethnically homogenous. Americans are united by our government, but incredibly varied in ethnicity and culture. We are the melting pot of nations. Nonetheless, we exude patriotism (defined as ... read more

This past weekend I went on an awesome two-day excursion with friends from the program: Sarah, Corey, and Jessica. I left my house by taxi at 6 AM on Saturday (it's not safe to walk alone at that time) and met up at Alcala's train station. We headed into Madrid to the main station and caught our AVE bullet train to Sevilla. The next morning we left early for Córdoba, in between Sevilla and Madrid. We had tons of fun even though the temperature was about 106° the whole time! Here are some of the highlights of the weekend: Sevilla Since my boyfriend said this was his favorite place in Spain, I knew I had to see it. When Sarah, Jessica, Corey, and I were trying to get to the center of town from the train ... read more

Traveling with over 20 people is never a good idea. Our tour bus picked us up early this morning and we got started on the 6-hour bus ride. The first problem that came up was that one girl didn’t make it in time! She got left behind as we began the group trip. According to Spanish law drivers have to stop to rest every few hours, so we made two stops where we enjoyed the picnics packed by our families. We passed from the Madrid area into Castilla-León, the original area of Spain before it added all of the rest of the autonomous communities. In Castilla there were fields of grapes and solar panels equally. Next came Asturias, our destination region. Mountainous and green with rivers, Asturias looks completely different from Madrid, which is suffering from ... read more

19:00 Some of you asked what my life is like outside of school and day trips to other parts of Spain... I'm sitting in the plaza de Cervantes, the center square of Alcalà. I just pulled out my iPhone to write this because I've found that its easier to narrate my life out in the midst of things than at home on a laptop. Though this is usually a fun place, horns and whistles are blasting because a union of hospital workers is protesting. They're matching around the main street with a banner. Awesome... Now they're walking right past my nice quiet bench. I had thought it was getting louder... Ignoring them, the Plaza de Cervantes is beautiful. I don't remember if I've mentioned him before, but the famous writer Cervantes was born in Alcalà. Another ... read more

Although I haven't finished writing blog 3, it's time to move on. I'm writing from the train on an adventure to Toledo! We don't have classes on Fridays, so at 9AM I left the train station in Alcala with my friends Corey and Sarah for a lovely day trip. It has been quite an adventure. We needed to take a train from Alcala to Madrid, buy tickets, and take another train to Toledo. However, we accidentally took the first train in the opposite direction! Hey, nobody else got to see Toledo AND Guadalajara today!! We had lots of time though to exchange our love histories and get to know each other better. After finally arriving in Madrid we learned how to buy train tickets, order coffee/breakfast at a cafe, and find a train. From various experiences ... read more