Well I think I've waited too long to blog this time, and have too much to tell you. I'll try to keep at a reasonable length:)

First off, last weekend a friend from Vandy came to visit me, and Barça became champions of all of Europe! It made for an awesome weekend. Tyler got in on Friday night, and we spent the day Saturday being supertourists, seeing as much as is possible to see of Barcelona in one day, and rescuing a slightly clueless and very lost Canadian couple from the confusion of the metro system. After a full day of sightseeing we met up with a friend of mine from church and joined the crowd at Arc de Triomf to watch the game. Normally for a game like this, the city sets up a big screen in Plaza Catalunya, but since Plaza Calalunya was, and still is, being occupied by "the indignants," protesters, they moved the screen to Arc de Triomf. We got there about two hours before the game, and their were already tons of people there. By the end of the night, the whole place was packed and people were climbing up lamposts and trees, and even sitting on top of porta-potties to be able to see. Barcelona pretty much dominated Manchester United, so the whole game was a huge celebration. At one point the guy behind us opened up a bottle of champagne or something and we got drenched. We sang lots of Barça chants and songs and joined in the uproar when Barça scored, at which point people lit flares and fireworks and just generally went crazy. One of said fireworks went off right next to us and may or may not have permanently damaged my left ear. Other than that and the fact that I could never really see the screen very well because of my shortness, the night was a huge success. After the game, the three of us went and got Gelatto and sat in Plaza St. Jaume eating our ice cream, talking, and watching Barça fans trickling through the plaza singing and cheering for Barça. On Sunday, Tyler had just enough time to go to church with me before catching his plane back to Madrid. 

notice the people perched up in the lamppost

During the week I didn't do much other than write and turn in my last paper at the UB (yay!) and study for my possibly monstrous final coming up this week. Yesterday, though, a friend of mine from church took me to see  his town, Manresa, which is about 45 minutes away from Barcelona. Apparently it was the capital of Spain at some point in its history, and it was a really pretty place. We walked around for a while and then decided on a whim that we might as well go to Andorra for the day. I had never been and wanted to go, and he had never been and wanted to go. Andorra is a tiny country in the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain. The drive there was beautiful (mountains are pretty much my favorite thing ever). It was a very rainy day but that didn't stop us from seeing the sights in Andorra and getting back safely to Barcelona. It was a great day-I got to see the Pyrenees, add another country to my list of places I've been, and speak a lot of Spanish. 

Today was my last Sunday at Iglesia Evangelica de la Gracia de Barcelona, and I'm going to miss it a lot. It has been a great place to grow this semester, and I've been really blessed to have been able to be a part of their family here. Praising and studying with the people there, and getting to know them has definitely been one of the best parts of my semester. I was sad to say goodbye to them.

Well, this time next week I will be home! I guess maybe I'll write one last blog post at the end of this week, and then I'll get to talk to you in person instead!:)

Glimpse of the Costa Brava

Hi friends,

I meant to tell you about this earlier, but I had two finals this week, so my time got eaten up by studying. Now that they are done (woohoo!!) I can take some time to write. Last weekend, I discovered possibly my new favorite place in the world: a little town on the Costa Brava called Cadaqués. It's gorgeous. It's situated on the shore of a little cove on Cap de Creus (cap=cape), with foothills of the Pyreness behind it. All of the buildings are matching white-washed stucco, connected by narrow, winding cobblestone streets. Ahhh I just loved it.

My friend and I decided to go there and back in one day, which was a little crazy because its a 3+ hour trip one way, but we made it just fine. We got there and ate lunch on the beach, and then went on a little hike around part of the cape. We thought we were lost at times, but luckily the path did make a circle back to Cadaqués, and we made it back all in one piece. At that point we were really hot and thirsty so we got popsicles and water and cooled off in the shade. Then we wandered through the streets for a while before heading back to catch the bus.

Here are some pictures:

Driving over the mountains to get there

possibly the three happiest kids I've ever seen

So yeah, that was my glimpse of Cadaqués. It's also pretty famous in the art world, because Salvador Dalí spent a lot of time there and used it as a setting for many of his paintings. 

Earlier in the week my Catalan language and culture class went on a field trip that was pretty awesome, and definitely worth mentioning here. We went to my professor, Laia's, home town to see a Castellers practice and visit a Gigants (giants) factory. Castellers are teams that compete in making human towers, the tallest of which is 10 levels high I think. I've seen them perform as well and they're pretty awesome to watch. Laia actually grew up being a part of the team, so she knew a lot of the people there and introduced us to some of her friends. Gigants are another Catalan tradition. They're basically big replicas of people are used in parades. Each Catalan town has it's own set of Gigants. They're of fictional characters, famous people, or just normal people from the town. One of Laia's friends is from a family with a long history of Gigant making, owning one of three Gigant factories in Catalunya (and probably in the world). He was really nice, and cute, I might add, and he showed us how they make the faces and the clothes, and even let us try some of them on and dance while he played the accordian. It was really a really cool experience, and I was also pretty excited that he explained everything in Catalan and I understood it. Here are some pictures:

Gigants

Castellers

the factory

As of today I'm officially done with 2 classes and have just one final paper and one final exam left. I have a friend from Vandy coming to visit me this weekend (yay!) so I'm excited to get to show him around Barcelona   and take him to my church on Sunday. Then I will only have two weeks left before I leave for home!

Fins aviat!
Kori

Hello Everyone!

This past week, Barcelona became league champion (in soccer, of course) for the third year in a row, and on Friday night there was a big celebration/parade. The team took a tour from the port to their stadium in a double decker bus with an open top, and tons of people came out to see them. I went with a couple of friends and we saw them go by once, then took a short cut to get ahead of them again, then walked/ran alongside the bus until they got to the stadium. It was fun to see the players up close and to see all the Barça fans going crazy. Here are some pictures:

On Saturday I went with my friend, Katie, to Figueres to see the Dali Museum. Figueres is about 2 hours away by train, and this time, the ride was quite comfortable. We decided to get on the train a stop earlier so that we could get seats. We did, and we had a very nice train ride talking and listening to our ipods and watching the Spanish countryside go by. The Dali museum in Figueres was definitely worth seeing, even though I am not a huge fan of Salvador Dali. However we had just learned about him in my Catalan art class, and it was very interesting to see his works and the museum that he designed for them. Here it is from the outside:

I had a great morning at church today. Our pastor preached on A Church with a Passion for the Church, talking about seeing the church as God sees it, loving it like He loves it, and serving and loving one another in and through the local church. I realized that this is something that my church here is really good at, and am so happy to have been a part of it for a while here. Tonight the youth pastor who is also a singer is performing the songs from his new CD as the last part of the celebration of the church's 6 year anniversary. 

Well, things are winding down here. I have one and half papers left to write, and three final exams left to go in the next four weeks. Apart from that, I'm planning my last few weekends, the thing that I'm most excited about being a trip to the Pyrenees, hopefully complete with a hike that crosses the border into France!

Well, that's all for now. Hope you all are well!

Love, 

Kori

Hello All!

First of all, happy Mother's day to all the mom's who are reading this. Thank you so much for all that you do and I hope you have a wonderful day celebrating. Last weekend was Mother's Day in Spain, so I thought of you twice:)

The past two weeks have been a good balance of productive and relaxing. I got a few beach days in, spent some time with friends from my program and friends from my church, and have also gotten a good amount of work done. It's weird to schoolwork to do when all my Vandy friends are done with finals and celebrating the beginning of their summer break. Unfortunately, I wont be finished until June 9th this year. Ugh! Oh well, I guess I can't complain too much. I am, after all, in Spain, and I'm excited to have 5 more weeks to explore and enjoy this country.

Yesterday, my friend Katie and I took a trip to Girona, which is about an hour and twenty minutes away from Barcelona by train. The train ride was, unfortunately, really unpleasant. It was packed with people, and we had to stand in the aisle packed like sardines. It got hot, and a girl almost passed out. They really shouldn't sell more tickets that what they have room for on those trains, but anyway, we arrived safely and were very happy to have some fresh air once we started walking around the city. Girona is probably one of the prettiest cities in Catalunya. It's surrounded by hills and still has parts of the city wall from medieval times, or at least reconstructions of it, that you can walk along and look out over the city. Yesterday was the first day of a celebration there called Temps de Flors (time for flowers, or something like that), where all the public areas and some private homes opened up their gardens and patios all decorated really elaborately with flowers. That made a really pretty city even prettier, and despite a little bit of rain we had a really good time walking around and seeing as much as we could. Here are some pictures:

flowers up the steps to the Cathedral

display of flowers inside the old Arab bathhouses

part of the old city wall

Well I hope you all are well, and I look forward to seeing you this summer in Colorado, or this fall in Nashville, and in the meantime I will focus on my classes and enjoy my last few weekends in Spain.

Spring Break trip- Ireland & Great Britain!

Hello everyone,

Here's the scoop on my trip! We started in Dublin, and at first, it was really weird to talk to people in English. I really wanted to ask for my bus ticket from the airport in Spanish, and had to keep reminding myself of where I was. It soon became obvious that I was in Ireland, from the accents, the flags, the pubs, and just how green everything was. We checked into our hostel, which turned out to be pretty grimy, and then went and got some dinner at a traditional Irish pub. The next day, we went and did a free tour of the city. Actually, we did the free tour in each of the cities we visited. It was really nice to have someone explaining what everything was and the history behind it, because otherwise we would have been seeing things and having no idea what they were or why they were important. I think my favorite part of Dublin was Trinity College. The campus is probably the prettiest one I have ever seen, and if I could study abroad again, I would be there in a heartbeat. Maybe it was because I was missing Vandy, but out of all the things we did, just wandering around the campus was one of my favorites. Plus, we got to sit for a while and watch a game of Cricket.

Dublin was nice- it reminded me a little bit of Boston, but we really wanted to get out of the city a little bit to see some countryside and a little more of Ireland. The solution was a daytrip to the Cliffs of Moher, which are the Cliffs of Insanity from the Princess Bride, and also appear in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. More importantly they are absolutely gorgeous, and we got to see some really pretty parts of Ireland along the way. Here are some pictures:

The Cliffs!

The Cliffs again

Irish countryside

more Irish countryside

 The trip to the Cliffs of Moher might have been my favorite part of the entire trip, and I was sad to leave them. We spent the next day exploring in Dublin again, and taking a little trip to Howth, which is a smaller city on the coast that you can get to by metro. Unfortunately I don't any pictures from Howth, because my camera took a fatal tumble out of my clumsy hands that morning. Sad day. I had to buy a new one, which I had up and running for our trip to Edinburgh.

Our trip to Edinburgh started bright and early. We left our hostel at 4:00 am, and landed in Edinburgh by 8:00. We walked around for a while and then got on the free tour at eleven. Our tour guide did a really good job, but she was Canadian, which was rather disappointing to me because Scottish accents are my favorite, and I had been looking forward to listing to one for three hours on the tour. Oh well. We learned lots of good stories and history of Edinburgh. The next day we hiked Arthur's Seat, a hill that overlooks Edinburgh, and finished up seeing what we wanted to see in Edinburgh. Here are some highlights in pictures:

Edinburgh Castle

St. Giles Cathedral

to Arthur's Seat

Arhur's Seat

After two days in Edinburgh, we took the train to King's Cross Station in London. I was super excited about just riding on the train, and the fact that King's Cross Station is the one that they use in Harry Potter. We tried to get to Platform 9 and 3/4, but we couldn't get to it without a buying another train ticket. London was awesome, but proved to be the hardest on my poor feet. We refused to spend money on public transportation and walked everywhere we needed to go. We did the free tour in London, which took us to Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, the Parliament, and Trafalgar Square. We did another tour in the afternoon that took us to St. Paul's Cathedral, Tate Modern, the Globe Theatre, and the Tower of London. We had a day to explore on our own and go to some new places as well as spend some more time in places from the tour. Here are some pics from London:

Big Ben

Parliament

Buckingham Palace

Hyde Park

Travel Buddies!

On Saturday, we had a picnic in Hyde Park and then spent from 2:00 to 11:00 walking/bussing/flying/bussing again/metroing home. It was a wonderful trip (I should add that I never needed my umbrella), but I was really glad to be back to go to church on Easter Sunday. Now I have another week of spring break, which so far hasn't but probably should include some time in the library. I have about 4 more weeks of classes, one free week in Barcelona, and then I'll be home!

Birthday, Cavas, Sitges, and Palau de la Música Catalana

Hi Everyone!

Last Wednesday was my birthday, and it was so fun to be able to celebrate in Barcelona. A few of my friends surprised me with cupcakes at lunch, and we sat outside on the lawn at the UB and had a little picnic. Then I went to dinner that night with some other friends, and we went and celebrated with Gelatto afterwards. I also got lots of cyber birthday well-wishings, so thanks for those!

This weekend we had our last planned CIEE events. On Saturday we went on a tour of Codorníu, a Cavas company near Sitges. Cavas is the same as Champagne, but they can't legally call it that because it doesn't come from a certain region of France. Apparently Codorníu is one of the oldest family businesses in Spain, and also in Europe. The facility was beautiful, and we had studied some of the buildings and art work in my Masterworks of Catalan Art class. We got to go into their underground stores, and take a rollercoaster-like train ride through part of it. After the tour, we went into Sitges, and had some time to walk around and lay out on the beach. Here are some pictures:

The Cathedral in Sitges

The beach in Sitges

I went to church on Sunday, and I absolutely loved it. After missing it last Sunday, I was really glad to be back. Sunday night, we had a CIEE trip to El Palau de la Música Catalana (palau=palace), which is another place that we studied in my Masterworks class. I'm so glad I got to go inside! It might be my favorite of all the architecture here. We saw a flamenco performance, which was cool, but I couldn't see very well, and I'm probably never going to like a flamenco performance more than the one I saw in Sevilla. Here's a picture of the Palau:

Now I'm getting ready for Spring Break! woo hoo!!! I leave for Dublin, Edinburgh, and London on Thursday, and I get back with another full week of break. I can't wait to tell you all about it:)

Much love,
Kori

GBU retreat

Hello all!

I didn't blog last week, because I didn't have much to tell you. Until Wednesday last week I was busy with school work: my first midterm, and my first paper turned in for a class at the UB. Ahh!! The midterm went really well because it was a CIEE (the study abroad center) class, but I have know idea if the paper I wrote was really good or just flat awful. We'll see.

Spring is here! It's warmed up a ton and there are beautiful purple flowers blossoming outside of CIEE that smell like lilacs and make me really happy every day. Leaves came out on the trees on Las Ramblas. On Friday we went to the beach, and it was actually warm! We had a picnic, walked in the water along the shore, and sat basking in the sun for a while. It was delightful. 

Friday evening, a friend and I went to a retreat with GBU (grupos biblicos universitarios), which was really wonderful. I was a little nervous going at first, because I didn't know most of the people, and icebreaker games are not my favorite thing, especially when they are in Spanish, but it turned out to be a really great weekend. There were about 40 Spanish students there, 4 from the UK, 5 or 6 from the US, and a couple other international students. I thought they did a really great job with it. There were both Christians and non Christians there, and they started out with the idea of just stopping for the weekend, taking a break from all the busyness of life and thinking about what really matters. Saturday they did some workshops to get people thinking, and encouraging people to figure out what they believed, and to seek the truth. On Saturday, they had a panel of Christians, where everyone wrote down anonymously questions they had about Christianity, and the panel answered. There were really good questions asked and good answers that really presented the gospel. In our down time, we played lots of games, went to the beach and played volleyball, soccer, frisbee, baseball, and just relaxed and talked. Great weekend all around.