CU Abroad – Elizabeth Krevsky

As my semester in Sevilla is winding down, I can’t help but think about all the things I’m going to miss about Sevilla. I’ll miss being able to tomar un café (have a coffee) with a friend on a lazy weekend afternoon, watching the consistently well-dressed Spaniards strolling through the sunny plazas. I’ll miss the [...]

I apologize for waiting so long before writing another blog post, my friends, as life after Feria caught up with me. In the past couple weeks I wrote two final papers, gave three final presentations, and taught my host-mother’s granddaughter how to make chocolate chip cookies. I visited the Picasso museum in Málaga and I [...]

Last week Sevilla celebrated its famous Feria de Abril, the annual week-long festival which consists of nearly constant eating, drinking, dancing, more drinking, and socializing from mid-afternoon until dawn. A huge open space reserved for Feria in Sevilla’s neighborhood of Los Remedios is lined with rows and rows of casetas, temporary and brightly-colored striped tents [...]

Everyone in Spain has a “significant other.” I’m serious. Either they’re married, widowed, in a relationship, or they’re younger than fourteen years old and therefore don’t count. Either that, or else they’re trying way too hard.   Take Juan*, for instance. A few weeks ago I participated in an “intercambio” (exchange), the University of Seville’s [...]

“Sgeun un etsduio de una uivenrsdiad ignlsea, no ipmotra el odren en el que las ltears etsan ersciats, lo mas ipormtnate es que la pmrirea y la utlima ltera etsen ecsritas en la psiocion cocrrtea. El rsteo peuden estar ttaolmntee mal y aun pordas lerelo sin pobrleams. Etso es pquore no lemeos cada ltera por [...]

Semana Santa is Spanish for Holy Week, the religious observance leading up to Easter Sunday. This past week, thousands of Sevillanos and tourists filled the streets to observe the striking pasos in their processions throughout the streets of Sevilla. Pasos consist of a set of religious images, usually life-sized (or larger) wood-carved and painted statues [...]

If you talk to Spaniards, most of them will speak more of their own regional pride rather than national Spanish pride. For instance, before my weekend trip to Barcelona last Friday, I asked my señora what she thought about the northern Catalonian city. She promptly screwed up her face and made her typical “oishhh” sounds that I’ve [...]

Before embarking on my studying abroad adventure, I had heard various opinions regarding the level of difficulty of Spanish university classes. The vast majority of friends/relatives assured me, “Don’t worry about it!,” claiming that the academic rigor would be far less than that of Cornell. By and large, they’re right; most of my classes have [...]

I’m a news writer for the Cornell Daily Sun, and when one of the editors contacted me about writing an article regarding Spanish students’ perceptions of the Gaza conflict, I was intrigued; Israel’s retaliatory rocket attacks on Gaza has sparked tremendous discussion and debate on Cornell’s campus, and I knew that I could make an [...]

I consider myself a pretty reliable, very “on time” sort of person, so my first day as a student at the University of Seville kicked my butt way far out of my comfort zone and right into a chaotic, bureaucratic mess.   Classes for the Faculty of Geography and History* are located in the massive Fábrica [...]