My Schedule

Hi everyone I thought since I've picked my classes now and began school today that I would update you as far as what I will be studying while I'm here. Although I only need 8 more credits to finish my spanish major at UMD, I've decided to take 15 credits here in Seville. The classes I will be taking are

The Golden Age of Andalusion Art
Cinema and History, Greeks and Romans
Culture and Society in Contemporary Spain
The Semantics of Spanish
Contemporary Spanish Cinema

I'm really excited about the classes and can't wait to begin all of them. The first class I've had is Greeks and Romans Cinema which seems like it will be a lot of fun and the professor seems to be nice. Well I will talk to you all soon, Janelle I'm sorry I haven't called yet but I will try and call tonight. Love you all.

B

Ireland

I just wanted to give everyone a quick update as to where my next trip will be to. Yesterday I booked tickets to London and Ireland. I will be leaving on the 9th of Octubre (October) where I'll spend one night in London and will then be leaving to Cork, Ireland with Ashleigh (my girlfriend). We'll be returning together on the 12th to London and getting to spend another 6 or so hours together in the city before I leave again to return to Sevilla. The tickets turned out to be really cheap and I am really looking forward to making one of my most desired trips with Ash. Hope you're all doing well, I'll update you on how the trip went when I return as well as post some pictures.

Luego,

B

Cultural Identity and my transition

One of the hardest things about studying abroad is forgetting your culture and adapting to another one. It's been harder to forget about my culture this time and easier to see the important differences between the two cultures. Now that I've been here for awhile and I've gotten a chance to see some of my fellow students (American) around the city, I've begun to realize its time to let go of whats comfortable to me and adapt something different. A lot of the students (extranjeros/abroad) set a terrible stereotype for our culture and its not something I care to support. I can't blame some of the bars, and Spaniards for looking at American students in away that expects immature actions. From what I've seen thus far, many Americans come abroad and fall into a trend of going out to drink every night, being overwhelmingly loud, and they tend to stick out like light in a dark room. Its not easy to say but I'm actually embarrassed to be abroad in another country and to have someone else setting such an example. This next week I'm going to consentrate on fitting in, separating myself from the normal and habitual tendencies of so many American students and looking for something a little more offbeat. I'm learning a lot over here and have enjoyed everything about the city so far. I've been running in the mornings next to the river and during the day I've been studying and enjoying more of the city. I hope you're all doing well and fall is nice in Minnesota, I'll keep updating the blog as much as I can, (as much as the internet connection will allow). The biggest thing I've seen lately is the cethedral in Sevilla. The cathedral is the biggest in Spain, and the third biggest in the world! The amount of money and time spent on the cathedral is evident the moment you step into it and look at the amazing complexity of the ceilings, sculptures worked into the walls, themes incorporated into the work, paintings, and the humbling amount of gold throughout the church. If the physical attributes of the church wasn't enough to awe you, maybe standing next to Cristopher Columbus's tomb will... it sure did for me.

Hasta pronto,

Brian

Amsterdam, Madrid, Seville... who needs more

Hello everyone I hope you're all doing well. Sorry I haven't updated the blog since I got here. The internet has been hard to find lately. Anyway I suppose I should tell you a little about my first week in Spain and how everything is going. I hit the ground running in Madrid... literally, I landed in Madrid around 12:30 p.m. and needed to get my luggage and find the group if I wanted to leave on time and receive a ride to the hotel I was staying in. Well as I'm sure you can imagine airports are not the easiest fascilities to figure out in limited time, a new country, and little sleep. I ran around trying to find my group for 30 minutes, I finally was talking to a cab driver who had politely told me terminal four (the I should be meeting my group at) is a completely different airport. He then tried to con me into taking his taxi for 50 euros. I said no thanks, hopped on a bus to terminal 4 went down the elevator and met my group in time to take the bus to the hotel... WELCOME TO SPAIN. When I got to Madrid I met my roomate and some of my group members here in the program before we went out for dinner and a night on the town. My first impressions of Madrid were that it was extremely clean compared to what I had initially thought and second that, "wow", "I am in Madrid". We spent three days in Madrid and left for Toledo/Seville on the fourth day. During our time in Madrid we went on excursions throughout the city, toured the royal palace, visited the Prado art museum, and took another excursion to another amazing near by town. Its difficult to describe the emotional part of having seen some of these places with my own eyes after having read and studied them for many years. I stood in a tomb full of dead Kings and Queens and the very families that had conquered Spain throughout history and the families that were so important to its history that I have studied them many times even in the United States. In the museum I saw paintings from El Greco, Bosch, Goya and Valasquez... some of the most remembered and influential artists ever to be known. Some of these works were hundreds of years old. Bosch's "Garden of Delights" painting that I studied about in college in Minnesota was three feet before me after being completed by Bosch over 500 years ago! I've seen a lot so far, a lot more than I'm able to tell you about right now but I wanted to share with you at least some of it for now and to let you all know I'm safe in Sevilla, Spain. Hope you're all doing very well, everyone is great here and I really enjoy both the culture and the setting. Hasta luego.

Last week in the U.S.

Hi guys i hope you're all doing well. I am in Chicago, Illinois right now picking up my student visa from the Spanish Consulate and waiting to return to Minneapolis in a little over an hour. It's hard to believe that everything is now in place and in under a week I'll be traveling overseas to a foreign land and speaking another language for the majority of my time their. I've been thinking about taking this trip since I was a freshmen in college at UMD I simply didn't believe it would actually happen until the other day when someone asked me when I was going to leave for Spain and my answer to both my surprise and theirs, was in one week. As I am getting all of my stuff ready and going through my checklist of things I need to get ready the experience still seems a little surreal and fictional... which I am sure it will until my plane sets down in Madrid, Spain on Sept. 15th. For those of you who are not completely up to date with where I am going, how long, and for what reason, I'll update you. I am a Spanish major in my senior year at the University of Minnesota Duluth and will be graduating in the Spring of 09. I haven't traveled much until this last year and have been determined to study abroad since my sister did many years ago and came back with an infinite amount of thrilling and personal growth stories for us all to hear. I've decided on studying in a warmer section of Spain located in the it's southern region. The city and university I'll be studying in is the University of Seville or Sevilla for those who speak Spanish or like to pretend to. I will be in Sevilla from Sept. 15 until December 22. The reason I chose Spain was because I thought its history and culture are both very rich and Europe has so much to offer in its efficient and less costly travel. I don't want to bore you all quite yet and for that reason I'll stop my first post here. I simply wanted to let you know what I'm doing, where and when. Again I hope you're all doing very well, I would love to hear from any of you while I'm abroad whether on Skype, email, or mail.

Hasta Luego,

Brian