Jen Hoy checks in from Spain for her second entry. She is currently volunteering abroad for 3 months of the off-season:

At la Plaza Cataluña with my amazing mother. She and her closest friends had planned a two week vacation to Spain months before I knew I would be here! I visited her in downtown Barcelona, Sevilla and Malaga on three different weekends when I wasn’t tutoring or training.

While my mom was here in Barcelona we visited La Catedral de la Santa Cruz y Santa Eulalia. The construction of the Barcelona Cathedral began in 1298 and ended in 1459, although some significant additions were made later on in the nineteenth century.

I was fortunate to get to another FC Barcelona game, and this time Messi was healthy and back in action! Barcelona beat Espanyol 1-0 with a brilliant assist from Neymar.

This picture was taken from inside the Seville Cathedral, the third largest cathedral in the world. It was completed in the 16th century, and in 1987 it was registered as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. It is also the burial site of Christopher Columbus.

On the rooftop of our hotel with the Seville Cathedral off in the distance.

A few weekends ago I went for a ride on the back of my friend’s moto, and he brought me to a local festival that overlooked all of Barcelona. La Sagrada Familia is located off in the distance towards the middle of the picture, so it’s hard to believe that when construction began in 1882 it was actually located on the outskirts of the city.

My host family’s children, Pol and Carla, after receiving some gifts from the United States. I couldn’t let them experience a childhood without Candy Land and Connect 4 so I asked my mom to put them in her suitcase before she came to visit.

An Andalusian sunset in Málaga.