Student Exchange Video

A friend of mine recently made this for all of the exchange students for Christmas. What a great memory.

Murci, Spain (One of many posts on this beautiful place)

These are a few of my favorite images from Murcia, Spain, where I lived last January to July. Murcia, Spain, is a beautiful city in Southern Spain. It's about an hour away from the coast and has so much history and beauty. Instead of visiting the typical cities in Spain, which are also beautiful, I definitely recommend checking out smaller cities like Murcia, Alicante, etc.



This is the Murcia Cathedral. There is a huge plaza with restaurants and a few shops. The best time to see it is night time. It's so easy to get lost through the allies branching out from the plaza.



This is in Plaza Santo Domingo. The plaza is about a block from the university campus and is the most popular one for eating and simply hanging out with family and friends. There is also a church and an elementary school in the plaza, so there was always a bunch of kids playing. I had to walk through this plaza more than twice everyday. The plaza is beautiful and it's amazing how people take time out of their day to simply sit down and have a drink, talk with friends or have a coffee.



This is the view from the Cathedral into the plaza. The people in the photo are a group of friends.



This is the church in the Plaza Santo Domingo.



This church was about two blocks from my apartment, down one of the many allies. I hadn't seen it until I went for a walk when my mom was visiting for a week and it was an absolutely beautiful sight.

Kodak PlaySport HD Waterproof Pocket Video Camera

Happy early Christmas. Or more like happy early school supply shopping?

This spring semester, I registered for Intro to Digital Production. It's a sophomore level required course, but my schedule never gave space to it.

Instead of a textbook, we're required to buy a camcorder to film projects. As Cyber Monday came to a close, I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to buy the camera. Not only will it be an interesting class, but I'll be able to take this waterproof camera with me to Uruguay this Christmas break. Hello underwater jellyfish shots.

Hopefully, the reviews were true and it's a great product.

The Invisibles | Trailer by Gael García Bernal and Marc Silver

I can not get enough of this documentary by Amnesty International and Gabriel Garcia Bernal. After meeting a lot of Mexicans while I studied abroad in Spain, I can't help but keep thinking about this country that's so close to the U.S. and going through so much. I hope this documentary gets around, especially since it's available on YouTube.

South Dakota

It's getting cold in South Dakota, but worth visiting once all the snow is down on the ground.

I wish all my family vacations had looked like this. **Correction: If my family were fair skinned and all had lighter hair, we'd look like this.

Uruguay

In honor of Uruguay and the Celeste's (nickname for the national soccer team) upcoming match against Chile tomorrow, I decided to upload a few shots from a trip back in 2008. Hopefully seeing these photos and the video at the end will entice you to visit this beautiful country and get me excited to visit family this New Years. If you do decide to visit, let me know and I will be your personal...trip advisor. Enjoy!



Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, has a boardwalk all around the coast. It's impossible to get lost, just head toward the water. After 7 P.M., friends and families gather at the "rambla" to drink some mate or exercise. Each neighborhood has their own "rambla" and most have their own beach. It's such a beautiful time of day!



This is another part of the "rambla". Just around the bend from where this photo was taken, my two North American friends who came along for the trip and I enjoyed our last outdoor meal of the trip. Fresh and delicious seafood.



This is a photo from the lighthouse of Cabo Polonio. Such a beautiful place to visit and a once in a lifetime opportunity.



This is another photo from Cabo Polonio.

Anthony Bourdain did a great episode on Uruguay and some of the food that can be found there. Here is a short clip.

Photojournalism Project: Through Other Eyes: 24 Hours in a Temporary Neighborhood

Open publication - Free publishing - More antiguo

This project was created for my photojournalism class last semester in Murcia, Spain. The assignment consisted of us finding a topic we felt we could dig deep into.

The following text was translated from my project description:

The San Andres neighborhood, where I have installed myself during my studies in Murcia, has been my neighborhood for the past six months. Through this report, I hope to capture and leave testimony of its everyday life, the tranist of people from all parts of the world and the places I have had the chance to know.

(El Barrio San Andrés, en el que me he instalado durante mis estudios de intercambio en Murcia, ha sido mi barrio durante los últimos seis meses. A través de este fotorreportaje, espero poder capturar y dejar testimonio de su vivir diario, su transito de gentes de todas partes del mundo y los lugares que he podido conocer.)

The Photos (Las fotografías)

During the process of taking the pictures, at first it took me a while to decide what elements from my neighborhood were necessary when describing how I perceived it. At first, all the photos I took were dark and of elements that did not favor the neighborhood; however, after slowing down and walking through the neighborhood instead of just passing through it, I was able to find exactly what I wanted.

(Durante el proceso de ejecutar las fotos, al principio me costo decidir bien que elementos de mi barrio eran imprescindibles en cuanto a como lo percibía yo misma. Al principio, todas las fotos que tomaba eran oscuras y de elementos no muy favorecibles a un barrio. Pero, después de caminar mas lento por el en vez de caminar por pasada, pude encontrar exactamente lo que yo quería.)

Taking the pictures also helped me meet people I saw on a daily basis on the streets and in the plaza infront of my apartment. Before doing this report, I only knew them from seeing them everyday and now was able to establish not a friendship, but at least know about eachother.

(Tomando las fotos también me ayudo a presentarme a gente que he visto casi diariamente por las calles y en la plaza enfrente de mi apartamento. Antes de realizar este fotorreportaje, solo los conocía de vista y ahora he establecido no amistades pero por lo menos una imagen de quienes son.)

Photo Editing Style (Estilo de edición de las fotografías)

After uploading all the photos onto the computer, the second dilemma was deciding how to present them. From the start, I didn't like the photos in color, but I found them to be too dark in black and white. In normal color, the views I wanted to demonstrate in my report did not stand out enough: antique, history, diversity, etc. I chose the antique color because in my opinion and because of the same opinion from my friends, the neighborhood was just that: antique and foreign. Rarely did I walk down the street and here Spanish being spoken. The only thing young from my neighborhood were the children and even they were different from the children I know in the U.S.A.

(Después de tener todas la fotografías cargadas en la computadora, el segundo tema era elegir de que manera presentarlas. De primera, no me gustaban mucho en color, pero me parecían muy oscuras en blanco y negro. A color normal, no resaltaba tanto las vistas que yo quería demostrar en mi fotorreportaje: antiguo, historia, diversidad, etc. Seleccione el color medio antiguo por que en mi opinión y por lo que mis amigas han percibido de mi barrio es exactamente antiguo y extranjero. Rara vez camino por la calle y oigo Español. Lo único “joven” de mi barrio son los niños y hasta ellos son muy distintos a los que conozco de EEUU.)

Presentation (Presentación)

The photos are placed in an order that would generally represent the way in which someone would arrive at my neighborhood. From the bus station, to the plaza and then directly to Arrixaca Street.

(Las fotografías están puestas en un orden que generalmente representaría la forma en la cual alguien puede llegar a mi barrio. Desde la estación de ómnibus hasta la plaza y después generalmente derecho por la calle Arrixaca.)

Conclusion (Conclusión)

In the end, I feel that working on this report helped me appreciate and enjoy my neighborhood more than I had. The first months living in it were hard because I didn't understand why there was such a large number of people from different countries passing by everyday. But after taking the photos and with the few weeks I hve left, I think I'm going to miss the things I see on a daily basis and in a sense the people as well.

(Al fin y al cabo, siento que trabajar en este fotorreportaje me ha ayudado a apreciar y disfrutar más de mi barrio. Los primeros meses viviendo en el eran difíciles por que no entendía el gran numero de gente de diferentes lugares que pasaban todos los días, pero cada vez que salía tomar fotos y con las pocas semanas que me quedan en el, pienso que voy a extrañar a las cosas que veo diariamente y en un sentido a la gente también)