Valencia

We arrived at the hostel (the same one I stayed at for Las Falles in 2010) around 2pm and quickly decided to walk to the beach as it was another day above 90•F. We knew it wasn't going to be a short walk, but neither of us expected to walk about five miles. On the way there we passed by many monuments including the Grand Prix, City of the Arts and Sciences towers and the "river." We stayed at the beach for a while because the water was nice and warm, but on our way out we found a lot of garbage along the edge of the water. We were told it was from the festival held there last weekend.
. Having learned our lesson, we opted to take a cab back to the hostel, where we got paella for dinner.

The next morning I took the free guided walking tour of the city while Emily went to the beach. On the tour I learned a few local legends and a bit of Spanish history. One story in particular stuck with me.

When Valencia was settled by the Romans it was a small islands surrounded by a river, separating it from the mainland. During the time of the Moors it became a larger city. The river would flood every few years. One year the water rose to a very high level and washed out most of the city. So the city government decided to cut off one of the legs of the river and let all the water go to one side, so that it wouldn't flood. Because of this, Valencia is no longer an island. In the 1980s left with just a dry riverbed, the city decided they wanted to build a highway. Everyday the city workers would try to convert part of the riverbed into a road and every night the citizens of Valencia would come through and plant trees to undo the work done by the city workers that day. After a while the city gave up their highway aspirations. So the riverbed sat empty for another few years until it was eventually converted into a park. This park includes the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències (City of Arts and Sciences), which is a group of buildings designed by Santiago Calatrava, a famous Valencian architect who I am told is also currently designing the Ground Zero monument in Manhattan (although some sources say that this is untrue).

Another fun fact about Valencia is that it was the last refuge for the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War.

He vuelto a España, first 3 days back in Spain

Bueno, I am back in Spain, this time only for two months. I got to Becky's place on Tuesday morning while she was at work. So, I did my best to lay low but stay awake til she got home to help me with jet lag. It was only 10am (4am on the East Coast). I managed to only stay awake about an hour since I had only slept an hour at the beginning of the flight. So, I slept for a few hours until Becky got home.

On Wednesday my roommate Emily joined us and I tried to keep her active to get her used the time difference. We tooka few walks around Madrid, going to the Paseo del Prado, El Parque del Retiro and even running into a teacher strike, even though it is summer vacation. We each bought a shirt to support the cause. Finally we want for dinner and crashed Becky's living room for good night sleep.


On Thursday morning Emily and I went towards the centre and we tried to see the Palacio Real but it was closed to the public because there were some ambassadors from South America visiting however, we got to see a nice possession of horses soldiers, guards and a royal carriage. After visiting the Palacio Real we went to the Catedral, Plaza de Sol and Plaza Mayor before heading home for a home-cooked meal thanks to Becky.

After lunch we met up with a friend of Emilys who's teaching here in Madrid. Then we tried to go to an Egyptian temple but it was closed, so we went to a Chileno restaurant for dinner and dessert. Finally we went to see our friend La Risa (or Larisa) selling scarves at her house and then came home around 1 AM.

Montreal

Only a day after moving into my new house in Lebanon, New Hampshire, I took off for a trip north of the border, to Montréal.  It was a trip I had been wanting to take for years, to finally see my favourite band, Ace of Base, in concert!  They had not made a trip to North America since their 1995 to promote their second album The Bridge which features their hit song "Beautiful Life."  I didn´t see them in concert then because I was all of nine years old, but even then they were my favourite band.  I tried several times while I was in Europe to see them, but even then, they only performed in Estonia, Lativa and Lithuania.  All three are countries I would like to visit one day, but, they are not serviced by the budget airlines from Western Europe, and so a weekend trip there would have cost me about a month´s pay, which didn´t seem worth it for a concert if I was going by myself.  Of course, they came to Spain about a week after I moved back to the Americas (figures, doesn´t it).

So this time, with the band performing only a few hours drive away, I decided I had to go.  Despite all the build up, my expectations were low.  The two singers who were in the band in my childhood have left.  One left after a fan tried to stab her sister.  The sister (and second singer) left the band a little over a year ago, due to the record companies demands.  So the band hired 2 new singers and I had not been impressed by their new music with the new girls, or with their versions of the songs that made them famous.  Anyway, I decided to go ahead and see the concert because I probably wouldn´t get another chance.

Boy was I pleasantly surprised!

They started off with what is probably their best known song The Sign.  Then they sang their most famous song in Europe, Life is a Flower.  Then they sang Vision in Blue, which is my favourite song from the album with the 2 new singers.  Next up were Lucky Love and Clara singing a cover of Russian Roulette by Rihanna, and another cover song that I did not recognize.  Happy Nation, Black Sea, Cruel Summer and Golden Ratio were their next songs.  After that they had more songs, but since I am posting this months later, I do not remember which they were, sorry.  Very anti-climactic, I know

2011-2012: A year in review, part 1 of 3

Bueno, it´s been quite a while since I have written in here, mostly because I have been travelling a lot less this year than in the past few.  However, I am on summer vacation now!  During vacation I will be going to take a nice journey and should be writing more often again (although I will have limited internet access, so I might not write immediately, but will probably blog about it after the journey has completed).

That said, I wanted to reflect a little bit on the highlights of the 2011-2012 school year.

First off, I moved back to the US.  Many of my friends and family were thrilled by this.  I was not.  However it has been a decent year, and financially it has been far more rewarding than living in Costa Rica or working part time in Spain.  I movemd to Lebanon, NH, which for those of you who don´t know is the town next to Hanover (or should I say Dartmouth, because Dartmouth College is half the town and owns most of the rest).  I started the Spanish programme at two schools in Vermont.  At Thetford Elementary School I teach Spanish K-6, and at the Newton School I teach Spanish 5-8.  I had my reservations about teaching Spanish as a foreign language.  I really didn´t think it was what I wanted to be doing, but it turns out I really enjoy it!  So, I´ve signed on for a second year!  First time since college I´ll be staying at the same job for two years!  So that´ll bring my total to 5 schools (and one language academy) in 5 years.  So, still not the best average, but at least it´s moving the right direction.  It turns out at work I have one co-worker, Sarah Zack, who I had several classes with at UVM.  I also work with AnMari Kicza, who taught at the CEC/Cloud Forest School in Costa Rica six years before me!  What a small world it is.

Anyway, I moved into a house with three roommates: Emily, Amena and Nate.  Nate didn´t stay very long (thankfully) and a guy named Kyle moved in.  The four of us hung out a lot and would spend most of our free time together.  In September we had an issue where the upstairs shower was leaking into the downstairs shower.  Even though my room was upstairs, I always showered downstairs because the upstairs shower head was only about five-feet four-inches off the ground, making it impossible for me to wash my hair unless I kneeled on the floor.  So, one day after noticing the leak, I was about to shower downstairs when my roommate asked me if I wanted to get groceries, so I decided that was a priority.  When we returned less than an hour later, the ceiling from the downstairs shower had fallen onto the floor.  For a few days the downstairs bathroom was unusable.  However, we shouldn´t have been using the upstairs shower either, because the floor underneath was basically mush, you could easily stick your finger through it.   When the landlords (in India) finally authorized work to be done (five or six weeks later) they had to remove the shower, and along with it most of the insulation on that side of the wall, and the walls between the bathroom and my room and my closet.  From my bed I could see the toilet upstairs, the toilet downstairs and into the shower downstairs!  It made for a very interesting week, especially with Kyle having just moved in.  Some highlights from the week include me yelling to Kyle late at night (jokingly) “Don´t pee in my bedroom”  Anyway, after about a week of making sure I wasn´t in my room and awake if someone was in the bathroom, and having toilets basically set up like bunk-beds where you could hear the other person in the other bathroom, it got fixed and we got a new shower that was tall enough for me!  

View from my bedroom

On a related note, all year we thought we had a laundry chute, but had blocked it off so the cats wouldn´t accidentally fall into it.  However, this past week, I dropped a sponge in to see where it goes, and it did not seem to fall anywhere.  This just adds to the long list of weird things in the house such as a doorbell in the kitchen that seems to ring in the basement.  The hole in the basement, large closets and the “caves” in Emily´s room and my room, hooks on the stairs, indoor wind chimes, the “poop-swastika or poopstika” the light switch on the stairs that shuts off the hot water heater, the TV that is heard best outside the room its in, many light switches that don´t seem to turn anything on, the random chords in the cabinet and, of course, the fact that we´ve never seen a key for the front door.

Simon (left) and Roxy (right) 

As previously mentioned, we (technically Emily) got 2 cats, Simon and Roxy (aka Profe Simone and Profe Foxxy, according to one co-worker).  They are adorable little kittens, but I won´t go into the cutesy cat stories now, although they are a lot of fun.

I started my master´s degree with Jones International University, an online school based in Colorado.  I would prefer not to take courses online, because I learn more socially, and I am still not sold on the credibility of an online degree, but they offer the courses I need to get a full-fledged license to teach Spanish in Vermont, so I´ve taken the first course and I have nine courses left.  I believe I will finish no later than December 2013.

Road Trip, Stop 3: Washington, DC.

The third stop on my quick tour of the Atlantic US was to Washington, D.C.  This was only my second trip to the capital city.  The first trip I made there was a few years ago with my father to check out Gallaudet´s grad programme in bilingual education.

This trip, I got to spend some more time and view more of the sites.  The city was over 100´F (38´C) each day, so time outside was limited, but the trip was definitely worth it.

The main reason I went to D.C. was to visit my friend Laura, who I had not seen in a year or two, so I stayed with her during my stay.  When she wasn´t working, she was my tour guide.  On the first night I was in DC we went to a movie in the park.  We went along with a deaf friend of hers to see one of the Bourne movies, but I can´t remember which one (I think it was the last one).  It was pretty to have a movie in the park right off the river.

On the second day, I travelled around and saw the many monuments at the Mall.  I got to see the Washington Memorial (inaccurately named Monument because it was not completed before his death).  I also went to the Lincoln Memorial and was surprised to find that they have the first few lines of the "I have a Dream Speech" engraved on the floor, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered  the speech.

That night we went to an Major League Soccer (MLS) match between the DC United and the New England Revolution.  Unfortunately both teams have been struggling this year and last, but are usually decent franchises, at least by US standards.  They could never compete with the likes of FC Barcelona or even the lowly Real Madrid Club de Fútbol.  The United had the first real chance to strike, with an unwarranted penalty kick, which was saved by the Revolution´s keeper.  Later on, in the 86th minute (I might be off a bit), the Revolution went ahead 1-0, and held on for the win.  So, Laura was happy that it wasn´t a shut out match.  I was happy that New England won, but sad we didn´t get to see any red cards (player ejections), but it was a decent match anyway.  It was also a nice cheap price.  Because it was student night, we each got in for $15 a piece and sat in the, I think 6th row almost at midfield.

I also got to see the war memorials and the other monuments on the Mall, but I was disappointed to learn that the reflecting pool is currently being renovated, and so, right now it is just a large hole.  But the Mall as a whole is still very impressive.  I was surprised that you really can´t see more than 2 of the monuments at a time, no matter where you are standing.  I liked that the Washington Memorial was right in the centre, and from there you could see each of the other main attractions (Capitol, White house, Lincoln Memorial, World War II Memorial).   The last day I was there I took Laura´s advice and went to the Old Post Office, which had a tower that you can climb up (or elevator up) to see the whole of Washington at once.  Unfortunately they have weird bars on the windows that make picture taking rather difficult, but the view is still worth seeing.

On that day I also went to Gallaudet again to get updated information on their Masters programmes, who knows, maybe I´ll apply to go there in the next few years.


The morning I left, Laura and I decided to venture to Alexandria, Virginia for breakfast, where we got to walk the length of town (twice) to check out their farmers´ market and waterfront.  It is a pretty city, I wish we had more time there, but we had to rush back so I could catch my bus to NYC.

Second Stop: Philadelphia and Media, PA

After New York City, my next stop was to Philadelphia and Media, Pennsylvania.  In Media I got to visit my friends Jess Holmes (soon to be Borthwick) and Mark Borthwick.  They live in Media, a little down in the outskirts of Philadelphia, just a metro ride away from the downtown.

On one night in Media, Jess, Mark and I went to see the Rockaphillies in Media´s big park, which hosts five nights of arts in the parks every week during the summer (The Rockaphillies said that they didn´t know of any town that had more than that).  It was a nice venue nestled into a natural amphitheatre.  

My first day in Pennsylvania, Jess took me around to see the sights in Philadelphia.  We checked out Independence Hall, The Liberty Bell (only from the outside, because the line to get inside is very long, and you can see it just fine from outside) The Bridge to New Jersey and the rest of the downtown area.  My favourite part however, was the Once Upon a Nation storytellers.  There are 13 rounded benches throughout the city at important landmarks where you can find theatric storytellers who will share with you a story of something that happened in that part of the city.  We heard several stories during day, including one about a slave from the south who shipped himself in a box through the mail service to freedom in Philadelphia, a famous British Singer who fought her wealthy husband over the living conditions kept for his slaves in the South, The Signer and an explosive party in Philadelphia.

New York City con mi hermanita, parts 1 and 2

A few weeks ago I took a little trip to see the signs of the Atlantic Coast (part of it at least) and to visit some friends along the way.  My first stop as well as my last stop were  to visit my little sister in Manhattan.  Allie moved into a studio apartment near Sutton Place back in the winter, and this was my first chance to check out her new place.  

I was thrilled to see her, it was the first time we had seen each other since we were both in Cobleskill at the beginning of January.  During the first visit we decided to just wander around her neighborhood and check out all of the little parks on Sutton Place, next to the River.  Most of the streets that end at Sutton Place have a small public area for watching the river, playing chess, walking dogs or just enjoying the outdoors, without being surrounded by buildings.

On my second visit to the Big Apple, we took the gondola to Roosevelt Island to see where our parents went on their first date. 

Semana Santa Part 3, Playa Negra and Cahuíta, Costa Rica

So, I´ve gotten even more delayed on my postings, but better late than never.  Here are the highlights from Part 3 of my Semana Santa vacation this year: Return to Costa Rica!

For our first few days back north of the border, in Costa Rica, we stayed at Brigitt´s place in Playa Negra, Limón, Costa Rica.  As the name says, it was a beautiful beach with black sand (playa-beach, negra-black).  The hostel was a 30 second walk from the beach, and next door to two small, relaxed sodas (open air restaurants) where they had pura vida service with a smile and reggae music at all hours.

When we got to the beach the first time, I learned about a rule Samanta has for her beach adventures.  When she gets to a new beach, she has to walk the length of the beach, so we went on a nice walk across all of Playa Negra.  The beach had nice, calm waves, and an assortment of broken branches, shells and coconuts scattered on the soft black sand.  The beach itself was calm and cool with the music playing in the background, from all directions.

The nice part about Playa Negra is that it is calm, but within reach of the more touristic sights in the area.  While in the area we went to the Sloth Sanctuary in Puerto Viejo. 

In Costa Rica, there are two Sloth Sanctuaries, one in Puerto Viejo and the other in Monteverde!  They are run by the same family, who had a student at the Cloud Forest School for most of the 2nd semester (When we saw him, it was cute, he seemed disappointed that the teachers found him on his vacation).  When we went to the sanctuary in Puerto Viejo, we saw dozens of sloths, many of whom have been in the sanctuary for most of their lives, because they would not be able to survive on their own in the wild.  The ones that can survive are rehabilitated and returned, but monitored, so they have a very high survival rate for the sloths that return to the wild. 

My favourite part of this leg of the trip though, was Cahuíta National Park.  We went to the park twice.  Once just for a walk, and the second time after snorkeling, we decided to walk back through the park.  The park, a long stretch along the coast is home to many different species of plants and animals.  We were able to spot several groups of howler monkeys (one seen below), capuchín (White Faced) monkeys, lizards of various species I cannot remember how to spell.  Amanda was also able to identify several types of bugs and birds.  

This picture played in perfectly for an inside joke with one of the student teachers back a the Creativa

On the first walk, I fell through an anthill.  I was just walking and suddenly, my right foot was about 2 feet into the ground.  Luckily the ants didn´t attack my leg too badly, they didn´t even bite.  I was sorry I destroyed their house.  

Those were the highlights of the last part of the Semana Santa 2011 for me!

Hopefully I´ll be better about the next few blog entries.  However they will not take place for the next week as I will be on my next adventure-- NYC, Philly and DC

Semana Santa Part 2, Panama

Wow, this is way overdue, but I´ve finally got enough time to sit down and write about my vacation back in April.

After the long journey just to get to Panamá, we were able to relax and enjoy the beauty of Bocas del Toro.  Bocas, I´m told is the most naturally beautiful part of Panamá.  It is an archipelago of islands on the Caribbean side of the country.  We stayed in Bocas town on Isla Colon (the main island).  The town itself is rather touristy, filled with hostels, Spanish schools, eateries, everything you´d expect from an economic tourist attraction.

Luckily, that is just the first few blocks of Bocas Town.  Once you go about three blocks away form the docks, you are in a Panamanian town that is relatively gringo-free.  We took a walk one evening, and after about 2 minutes we realized that there weren´t any more hostels, restaurants, or water taxis.  We were in the Panamanian Bocas.  We saw a baseball game going on.  I´m not sure, but I think it was part of the Panamanian League (I know they have a team in Bocas).  One one walk we ran into a local guy who was very friendly and was telling us about the bars, games and places to get good deals on the island since we were clearly willing to break out of the touristy* zone.  We followed him for a little while and eventually went to a pulpería to get some ice-cream.  I bought a trit (pronounced treat, an ice-cream cookie sandwhich).  Trits were one of my favourite snacks in Central America, but this one was disappointing, because it was missing a bite.  Clearly someone had taken it out of the freezer, bitten it and returned it. 

Most of the Bocas province seems to revolve around water taxis.  So each little adventure included a taxi ride and views of the islands and the piers, like the one above ( from our day of surfing) and the one below (from Bocas town).

On two occasions we got to go snorkeling.  One day we took a tour and went to Hospital Point.  The area got it´s name because the original regional hospital was on the tip of the island.  We snorkeled around the calm water near Hospital Point and we saw lots of small fish of all different colours, especially blue and green.

Later that day we went to Red Frog Beach, which was a small private island.  When we got to the far side of the island we were greeted by a couple of kids with red frogs.  They were about the size of a penny, and were being held in leaves.  I think that the kids wanted to be paid, but we were all out of cash.

The next day we got to go snorkeling further out in open water, where we saw larger fish, and lots of starfish.  We saw sea cucumbers and dolphins from the boat.  Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures of the coral or fish, because I was afraid of my camera getting wet.

On our last day in Bocas, we went surfing.  We had a teacher who was from Argentina, and had the stereotypical surfer mentality.  We spent a few hours trying to surf.  I was able to get up on the board a few times, but fell flat on my face each time, but it was a lot of fun.  I would definitely try again.

*I am surprised that touristy is accepted as a word by my spellcheck.

Semana Santa I: Journey to Panama

A few weeks ago was Semana Santa (Holy Week).  We had the week off, so Paulina and I decided to make a visa run (see note below) to Panama.  

My friend Samantha came down from Kansas to join us on the trip.  I was very excited about this, because Sam and I had travelled together a lot when we studied in Spain back in 2007.  Unfortunately, we had not seen each other since then.  By joining me in Costa Rica and Panama, Samantha and I have now travelled to seven different countries together (Spain, Morocco, Andorra, Switzerland, Germany, Costa Rica and Panama).  That is the most countries I´ve been to with anyone.

Paulina´s friend Raj joined us from New York, and the high school science student teacher, Amanda, came along for the trip too.

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Samantha flew into Juan Santamaría Airport, where my uncle works, on Friday evening, so I took the bus to meet her at the airport, where my aunt and uncle picked us up and brought us to their house.  We spent the evening catching up and reading out back in the ranchito.  The following morning we met up with Paulina and Amanda as they got off the morning bus to the airport.  We went to the Budget rental place to rent our car.  This wound up being one of the most difficult parts of the trip.  They wanted the driver to be the person who paid for the rental.  I had planned on paying for the rental, and having others pay me back, since I have lost my ATM card from the US, and can´t access that money.  They wouldn´t let me pay for the rental, because I didn´t have a copy of my last stamp for entering Costa Rica (you can only drive legally in Costa Rica if you have been there for less than 90 days, and I had been there for about 100).  So Amanda decided to try, but her license had expired and her ID said NON-DRIVER.  This however was not an issue for Budget Car Rental, but we felt bad and told them about it.  Then my uncle, being the very generous person that he is, let us do everything in his name, and we just added Paulina as an additional driver.  This process took us about 2 hours, 30 minutes actually working this out, and 90 minutes waiting in line, which we were only 4th or 5th to begin with, so it was extra annoying.

Finally, we were able to drive to the airport and pick up Raj.  Raj had wanted to be the sole driver, but he was flying in late, so we picked up the car before he arrived.  Also, he did not have a valid drivers license either.

It was late, so my aunt and uncle lent us their GPS, a cell phone and a cooler full of soda for the road.  We drove down to Cahuíta, Costa Rica to spend the night before figuring out how to leave the car in Costa Rica and transport ourselves to Panamá.  On the way down we laughed as Carlotta (the GPS voice) would try to pronounce all of the Costa Rican road names as if they were English words.  Our favourites included Interamericana 1, and Avenida 36a (the ordinal number for 36th in Spanish) and of course, any roads named after people were fun.  As we neared Cahuíta we were driving down the coast and could see the Caribbean through the trees on the driver´s side.  At one point we saw a load of crabs, and Paulina did her best to avoid hitting them, but I´m certain that she ran over a few.  It was impossible not to, but she says she didn´t hit any.  When we arrived at the hostel there were more crabs and we joked that they were the ghosts of the ones we had killed.

We stayed at a beautiful hostel, whose name I don´t remember, but in the morning they helped us get cash out of the only ATM in town, find a parking garage to leave our car in while we went to Panama and arranged a private shuttle to bring us to the Isla de Colón, where we would stay in Panama.

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US Americans can stay for 90 days on tourist visas in Costa Rica.  In order to restart those 90 days, you must leave the country for 72-hours.