Europe: The Grand Tour

January 11, 2010

When I began planning for my time in Spain, I decided that travelling within Europe would be a top priority (perhaps second only to improving my Spanish). The plan is underway: I visited as many new countries during the last three weeks as I had previously visited in my entire live. The winter vacation tour [...]

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Here Come the Kings

December 19, 2009

As of today, I am on Christmas break. Odd, but true. It’s one of the joys of living the school calendar. What’s more is, while my coworkers (the actual professors) have been wading through the mire of developing, administering and grading exams, I’ve spent my days playing bilingual word games to the tune of Charlie [...]

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A Walk Around Herrera

November 15, 2009

I thought you might be interested in seeing the lay of the land around here, so I took a walk around Herrera yesterday with my camera.  Welcome to my pueblo. Here’s a map of the town with a few points of interest highlighted. The plaza – mainstay of Spanish pueblo life. This is the fountain [...]

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Notes and Updates from Over Here

October 29, 2009

Seasoning, compliment or biblical reference? Two of my favorite new Spanish words are salado and soso, which translate literally to “salty” and “saltlessly bland” respectively. They can also be used coloquially to describe people. Someone who is salado is a nice, friendly, rather attractive or generally a good person. Someone who is soso is boring, [...]

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Four Things I’m Learning About Spain

October 16, 2009

Spain is an often misunderstood place, perhaps for good reason. Spanish culture has changed at an alarming clip during the past several decades, as the country has transitioned from a conservative dictatorship to a quasi-socialist democracy (and monarchy). In addition, certain parts of Spain differ so widely from one another that they often seem to [...]

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Living the Good Life in Herrera del Duque

October 11, 2009

Who knew life in a pueblo of 4,000 could be so good? Here´s a quick rundown on my first week in Herrera: Arrived last Friday and spent the weekend in the home of my “tutor,” Pablo, and his family.  Pablo is a member of the local schools´ language staff and also the guy in charge [...]

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Madrid > Cáceres > Herrera del Duque

October 3, 2009

The only consistent force this week has been change — from the roaring metropolis of Madrid to the humming ancient town of Cáceres to the whispering pueblo of Herrera del Duque. Six months in the making, I have finally arrived in my hometown in Spain. As you can probably guess, I’m thrilled. So, let’s start [...]

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Orientation City

September 29, 2009

I arrived in Cáceres by train last night at about 11:20pm.  No problem finding the hostel (although it was a long walk — should have taken a cab). Teacher orientation begins tomorrow evening with a get-to-know-you dinner and probably a welcome speech of some sort. I am looking forward to meeting a few of the [...]

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More Pics from the City and Next Steps

September 23, 2009

I ventured back into the city yesterday to look around and pick up a few more things. First stop was the famous Estadio Bernabéu, where Real Madrid has played since its construction in 1947.  It seats just over 80,000 — on par with the larger NFL stadiums (although the Cowboys’ new $1.15B behemoth can be [...]

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In Madrid

September 20, 2009

So far, my time here has been fabulous. I am staying  in the home of Fabio and Ofelia, family friends who have kindly offered to keep me for the duration of my stay in Madrid. Fabio, Ofelia and their six-year-old son Felipe are all fluent in English, so we split time between the languages.  However, [...]

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