semana santa and family

my dad just told me we are staying in the alfonso XIII when we visit sevilla. how gorgeous! (how extravagant, ooph) but also how exciting, to keep seeing such beautiful things and to spend a whole week seeing them with my familylove!

sunshine lovely barceloona

catalan canción de protesta from the end of franco's rule

accented

every time someone tells me i sound like a little mexican speaking spanish, i feel both embarrassed and proud. embarrassed that i sound noticeably different, but proud of my history with the language and those ties to home. being abroad is amazing amazing of course, but re-connecting with and learning more about this language is absolutely why i feel that i am here - what i love the most about being here.

de donde crece la palma

girona y figueres (the dali museum)

casa mila (la pedrera)

also known as my continued love affair with antoni gaudi.

ay ay carnavalllll

(photos all stolen from lovely catherine)

we went in a big group of spanish and american students to sitges (a beach-town near barcelona) for the last day of the carnaval parades/fiestas. we got lost from our group, danced on the beach, ate the most delicious churros of our lives and had a lot a lot of fun. also, we did not sleep until 7am the next morning (ooph!).

desarrollarse

it will be nice to just stay (more or less) in barcelona this weekend. i still don't feel like i have my head on straight.

berlin (valentine)

weekend in berlin was total perfection. i knew i was needing some best friend-y time but it ended up being even more needed than i expected. jennilein, thank you again - you are so much my shiny snowflake love light.

the first full day in berlin it was snowing lightly and beautifully all day. jenni took me to the holocaust memorial which was amazing to walk through with snowflakes falling silently down and through the rows of concrete blocks. it is such an eerie, effective memorial, totally lacking in obvious reference or symbolism. i really loved its quiet power, its refusal of statement, its insistance on participation. we also saw the east side gallery and the wall, went to two berlinale film festival films and explored jenni´s new neighborhood; all so fun.

also, the food we ate was all delicious delicious. oreos and peanut-butter, turkish cheese spinach pasteries, san francisco burritos, valentines lasagna, mmmm.

pina bausch, kontakthof

more on berlin (which was heavenly) tonight!

kalt and liebe this weekend

velazquez a picasso: "las meninas"

lovelisboa

temperature in lisbon

i have never been so happy to see 60 degrees and scattered showers. and also, superbowwwllllll.

euskadi (el país vasco)

this weekend we took the train from barcelona to bilbao. in bilbao there was extreme rain and wind but also the guggenheim and jeff koons' puppy and half an hour of sun. then, we headed to san sebastian which was also rainy and freezing but gorgeous gorgeous and delicious delicious. a few of us braved the chill and went into the water and it was so much fun in the cold that i can only imagine how amazing the summer months would be.