December Puente in Italy

So what the heck is a puente anyway? Most holidays in Spain fall on a fixed date rather than a day, so if that date is a Saturday or a Sunday, you lose out. On the other hand, if the holiday falls on a Tuesday or a Thursday, it's really not worth going to work on the Monday or Friday, so you have a "puente". For example, this year Día de Andalucía is a Tuesday. Therefore, Monday is a puente and everyone has two days off. (Literal translation: "puente" = "bridge".) In my case there were two holidays back to back, with one day in between: Constitution Day on December 6 and the Immaculate Conseption on December 8, so what´s the point of working on December 7? - a puente is in order.

I decided to travel to Italy during my time off with a group of three other people in my program who teach in the small town of Zafara: Kristen Rooney, Katharine Foote and McCallum Foote (siblings). Our itinerary (yes we literally had one thanks to Katharine) included Rome and Florence and just about every monument, statue or piece of art you could see in either place. It was an enlightening and exhausting trip to say the least.

Although transportation is always an issue out of Extremadura, we were lucky to have chosen a flight that flew out of Lisbon, Portugal rather than somewhere in Spain. The Spanish air traffic controllers went on strike the day we were scheduled to leave. My teachers say this is ''una verguenza'' - an embarassment.

Upon our arrival in Florence we headed to the most famous Cathedral in the city:  The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore. Begun in 1296 in the Gothic style, the Basilica was completed structurally in 1436. The materials used and design of the Cathedral Complex are nothing short of impressive.

The dome remains the largest brick dome ever built and we had the priviledge of working off our pizza lunch by climbing to the top. Below you can see Katharine, Kristen and McCallum beginning the long and narrow haul up the stairs.

View from the highest point (indoors) in the dome:

Part of the painting on the dome ceiling:

And the gorgeous view of Florence from the top

Speaking of great views, my friend Maggie who studied abroad in Florence a few years ago recommended that we go to Piazza Michelangelo. It was another long haul but well worth it as it gave us an entirely different perspective than the one on top of the dome. Additionaly, the piazza is home to a bronze replica of the statue of David (the original is in a museum within the city).

After seeing the piazza we made a visit to the famous  Ponte Vecchio - Bridge of Gold. As you can see, the bridge is not made of gold. Instead, the shops on the bridge are made up of goldsmiths. It´s the place to go to find jewlery and if you´re lucky, you may witness a proposal.

Kristen and I, sitting on the bridge:

Aside from hitting up the main tourist destinations, we walked around the city and its many piazzas, bartered at the local markets and checked out the leather industry. 

A few more pictures around Florence:

Our next destination: Rome. And if it seems like we saw a lot in Florence, it´s nothing compared to everything we saw in Roma. I´ll try to just mention the main things.

First, the colosseum in Rome. The largest ever built in the Roman Empire, it´s considered one of the greatest works of Roman architechture and Roman engineering. If you do go to see it, I´d recommend paying a little extra for a tour guide as we did. Not only do you get to find out exactaly what you´re looking at, you also get to skip the gigantic line to get in.

Our tour included the Roman Forum, which is directly west of the coliseum and extends from the foot of the Capitoline Hill to that of the Velian Hill. Our tour guide told us to imagine walking on the same ground that Julius Caesar did years and years ago. Besides the fact that all of these things made me want to go home and watch Gladiator again, it is really amazing that some of it is still standing.

Looking down at the Roman Forum:

What´s left of Julius Caesar´s grave:

Another sight to see in Rome is the Spanish Steps. The monumental stairway of 138 steps was built with French diplomat Étienne Gueffier’s bequeathed funds of 20,000 scudi, in 1723–1725, linking the Bourbon Spanish Embassy to the Holy See, today still located in Palazzo Monaldeschi. It is the longest and widest staircase in Europe.

Found this photo online, you can actually see what the steps look like since there aren´t a million people on them here:

A picture from the top, overlooking the constant crowd of people. Down that street is naturally where I do my shopping: Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Channel, you know - the usual.



After hanging out on the Spanish Steps we went to what was probably my favorite thing in Rome - The Trevi Fountain. The Trevi fountain is at the ending part of the Aqua Virgo, an aqueduct constructed in 19 BC. It brings water all the way from the Salone Springs (approx 20km from Rome) and supplies the fountains in the historic center of Rome with water. My picture doesn´t do it justice.

In addition to the steps we also go to see the Pantheon. The word pantheon comes from a Greek adjective meaning "to every god". It is a building commissioned by Marcus Agrippa as a temple to all the gods of Ancient Rome, and rebuilt by Emperor Hadrian in about 126 AD.

The building is circular with a portico of three ranks of huge granite Corinthian columns under a pediment opening into the rotunda, under a covered, concrete dome, with a central opening (oculus) to the sky. Almost two thousand years after it was built, the Pantheon's dome is still the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome.

Last but not least, we toured Vatican City and the Vatican Museum. I saw countless paintings and sculptures, some of which were vaguely familiar to me as I grew up seeing them in history books. Noteably, the Sistine Chapel with Michelangelo´s famous fresco painting, The Last Judgement on the ceiling and St. Peter´s Basilica.

Inside the museum:

In Vatican City, you can see the dome of St. Peter´s Basilica in the first one:

Aside from the drama of getting back home to Spain, that about concludes my Italy trip. I´m sure whoever stuck through this entire blog entry is sick of reading it by now. I´ll keep everyone updated on my next adventure!!!

Thanksgiving Weekend in Valencia

As Thanksgiving approached, I prepared a PowerPoint for some of my classes about the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. Among topics covered: Pilgrims and Native Americans, food and family traditions, the Macy´s Thanksgiving Day Parade and of course, American football.

Going over American pastimes can make you realize how much you miss them. For this reason, I was glad to have planned a trip to visit an old friend, Cameron Mellin, in Valencia. During this time of year, our friends from high school usually reunite in our hometown (Cary, NC) and catch up so it was nice to carry on that tradition with at least one person from the gang.

Cameron is obtaining an International MBA and his program is unique in that it incorporates a partnership among several Universities around the world including one in Valencia. He will complete his second term at UNCW (Wilmington, NC) starting in February.

Upon my late Thursday arrival (Thanksgiving day) I was greeted with the leftover Turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes that Cameron had eaten with his roommates and other fellow students. Among Cameron´s two roommates is Hunter Outen who actually is from my hometown as well but was unfortunate enough to have attended our rival high school, Green Hope. Lucky for me, Hunter decided his economics class on Friday was not worth going to so I had someone to walk around the city with.

A main attraction in Valencia, the the Cathedral of Saint Maria of Valencia is something I had the priviledge of seeing when I spent a weekend in the city two years ago. The church was consecrated in 1238 by the first Bishop of Valencia after the Reconquista. Aside from being an impressive piece of architecture, this church is the supposed home of the holy grail.

One of Valencia´s other main attractions is the City of Arts and Sciences, a unique complex devoted to scientific and cultural dissemination which is made up of five main elements: the Hemisfèric (IMAX cinema and digital projections), the Umbracle (a landscaped vantage point and car park), the Príncipe Felipe Science Museum, the Oceanográfico (the largest aquarium in Europe with over 500 marine species) and the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía (which takes care of the operatic program). The Ágora gives the complex a multifunctional space.

Below are a few of my pictures from the area:

Hunter and I decided to pay entrance into the aquarium as he still had not yet been. The Oceanográfico is divided into sections based upon geography and climate. We covered them all, the arctic, the antarctic, the mediterranean, temperate and tropical, islands, wetlands, oceans and the dolphinarium.

Here are a few pictures from inside the aquarium:

My favorite weird fish:

Little Guys!

One of the highlights, the dolphin show:

After touring the aquarium, walking around the city and even getting lost in a random dead end trail that smelled like sewage, Hunter and I met back up with Cameron.

Thanks to the uniqueness of their program, Cameron and Hunter´s group of friends in Valencia is extremely diverse with students from Spain, France, Malaysia, Germany and Romania to name a few. Of course, these differences and language barriers make for interesting, and often hilarious conversations.

Some of the group, Friday night:

Mi hermano, Cameron:



The following morning Cameron made his roommates and I feel bad about ourselves by continuing on with his P90X routine in the living room.

Later that day we got ready to go to a traditional paella dinner. Many cities in Spain have a signature dish. As is the case with Valencia, where paella is the specialty. There are many different variations of this rice dish (seafood, mixed, etc.) but two key ingredients are olive oil and saffron.

After dinner, the group hung out at Cameron´s apartment before one more night out. This night was especially entertaining due to a few Spaniards who liked to tell everyone what they learned about the United States from the TV show, American Dad: ''I learned on American Dad that you have to chew tobacco to be a man and have a gun.'' Obviously, they were joking for the most part and really just making fun of us Americans - and it was pretty funny.  

At the apartment haha:

The next day I caught an early train back to Extremadura. Once again I had completed a successful weekend trip. I hope to meet up with everyone from Valencia again before they leave Spain in February.

Beanut Comes to Visit

I apologize to any friends and family who were keeping up with my blog as I haven´t been able to update it in quite some time. I´ve been having issues with internet lately and have only been able to access WiFi (prounced Wee Fee here in Spain haha) at the high school for small periods of time to respond to emails and catch up on Facebook. Luckily, my roommate David left me with his computer along with his 3G stick for the weekend so I can catch you all up on my adventures from the past few weeks!

During the second week in November one of my best friends, Bernadette Healy came to visit me here in Spain. This trip was extra special because it was not the first time that Bee and I were in Spain together, we met when we studied abroad in Segovia over two years ago.

So naturally, when she arrived we decided to make a pilgrimage to that magical place, Segovia. It was strange to be back there, a foreign city that we knew so well. (Bee are you enjoying my cheesiness right now?)

As we walked around the city we reflected on how lucky we were to live there for a short period. Segovia is not one of the biggest cities in Spain, nor is it among the top five most popular tourist destinations in the country, but it´s one of the most beautiful.

So what´s Segovia known for? First and foremost, the Roman Aqueduct which runs through the center of the old part of the city. One of the most significant and well preserved monuments left on the Iberian peninsula, the aqueduct is suspected to have originated between the second half of the 1st Century BC and the early years of the 2nd Century—during the reign of either Emperor Vespaisan or Nerva.

Another distinguishing sight in Segovia is the Alcázar of Segovia (literally, Segovia Castle) it is one of the most distinctive castle-palaces in Spain by virtue of its shape - like the bow of a ship. The Alcázar was originally built as a fortress but has served as a royal palace, a state prison, a Royal Artillery College and a military academy since then.

In 1474, the Alcázar played a major role in the rise of Queen Isabella I of Castile. On the 12th of December news of the King Henry IV's death in Madrid reached Segovia and Isabella immediately took refuge within the walls of this Alcázar where she received the support of Andres Cabrera and Segovia's council. She was crowned the next day as Queen of Castile and Leon. It was also the site where she married Ferdinand II.

If my below pictures look familiar to you don´t be surprised. Cinderella Castle in Disney World was modeled after this one.

The third main landmark in Segovia is the Cathedral in it´s central plaza. Bee and I enjoyed looking at it while sipping on wine upon our arrival. I remembered going to a church service inside the ancient building with my ''madre'' (host mom) two years ago.

A picture from our table in the main plaza (looking in the opposite direction of the Cathedral) the first day:

Aside from seeing the familiar landmarks of Segovia, we enjoyed just walking around, catching up with some of our old Spanish friends, and knowing exactaly which destinations to hit up when we went out for the night.

Me with two old friends: Emiliano and Alejandro (also known as DJ Alex V) respectively: 

A picture of Bee and I outside of a bar we used to call ''The View'' for obvious reasons:

When the weekend came to a close we had a surreal feeling leaving the city, but we figured it´s a good sign that we´ve already made it back once.

Sunday afternoon we hopped on the next bus to my current home, Herrera Del Duque. Bernadette came with me to help teach my classes which was fun and hilarious at the same time. Additionally, we had a blast hanging out with my co-workers here in town.

On Tuesday night we had dinner at my friend Angel´s house. Since the handful of attendees didn´t include all of the usual culinary talents, this particular instance consisted of take out hamburgers (actually made from pig meat of course) and fries. Don´t be fulled, this burger was as Spanish as they come: a pig burger topped with a piece of ham and an egg fried on top of that - typical.

Adding another American into the mix made things pretty interesting. My fellow teachers practiced their English with us, which of course improved with each beverage that was consumed. The funniest questions asked about our culture, ''Is it really like ´American Pie' in the United States?'' ''What are these University parties really like?''

Thursday night, Bee and I participated in the usual Thursday night ritual of going out with all of the teachers. Below is a picture of us at one of the local ''hot spots'':

As the work week came to a close, we decided to spend our final weekend in Madrid as Bernadette had to fly out of there on Sunday morning.

Madrid encompasses the excitement and fast-pace of any big city and it´s for this reason that some people love it and some people hate it. You won´t feel the same ''in a time warp'' sensation in Madrid like in some of the other ancient cities of Spain but you will find great museums, food and lots of people.

Since Bee and I had already toured the Prada and the Reina Sofia we decided to spend most of the weekend in Puerta del Sol (a pretty central location) and walked around the shops. There are plenty of other things that I haven´t seen in Madrid but I will most likely see them later as I often have to travel through the capital city.

A few pictures from the crowded streets around Puerta del Sol:

Our first night in Madrid we were able to meet up with my friend Glen who is also in my program. He works in the small town of Guadalupe which I mentioned in my first blog entry. Glen was visiting his friend, Jake who is teaching English in Madrid. Jake was a good resource since he knew his way around and also provided us with some Spaniards to hang out with which always makes things more interesting.

Below a picture of Glen, Jake, Bee and I plus Jake´s Spanish friends (Americans on the right) before a night out in Madrid:

The week was a huge success that I hope to repeat before I leave. Bernadette left a lasting impression on my friends and students here in Herrera, though they have significant issues pronouncing her name, or her nickname for that matter: ''Where´s Bernadaa? Where´s Pee? Where's Beep? Donde esta Peep?''

I promise my next entry will come MUCH quicker!