DSR1700

Hola a todos, The last week of September was "la semana del deporte" (sports week) in Santander. Various sports clubs and gyms worked with the city to organize a wide variety of free activities and I participated in several events. The Real Sociedad de Tenis de la Magdalena, a very elite tennis club in Santander with RED CLAY courts, was hosting an open city tennis championship. I entered the tournament so that I could play some tennis for free and experience playing on red clay courts for the first time! I was also curious to see what the level of play would be in the tournament and was thinking it would be great to perhaps have the chance to meet some players my level. The tournament started on Monday night and went all week through Saturday ... read more

Hola a todos!! So far since arriving in Santander I've gone on two very fun day trips within Cantabria with a friend that my roommate Alissa made last year in Santander. Javi is a "santanderino" (from Santander) and our second week in Santander Alissa and I went with him and some of his friends to a beach near Santander called Playa de Covachos. Much more used to flat coastlines, like most of the coastline in the eastern United States, I'm continually awed by the rocky and cliff-lined coasts in northern Spain. This beach was a cove surrounded by cliffs and I thought it was gorgeous. We went in the afternoon and stayed for a few hours. It was a windy day and I decided not to swim but we did walk out to the rocky outcropping ... read more

Hola a todos! Two weeks ago I went to the concert of a Spanish rock band that I like a lot, Fito y Fitipaldis. They have been on tour in Spain since January after they released their latest album "Antes de que cuente diez" (meaning: Before 10 is counted or Before you count to 10) last fall. The concert was in Zamora, the capital city of one of the provinces in Castilla y León that borders Portugal. I went to the concert with one of the teachers that works at the other high school in Guardo, Juan, and his friends. He's from Zamora and returns there every weekend, so when I found out that one of Fito's concerts was going to be in Zamora, it turned out Juan was interested in going too so I arranged ... read more

Hola de nuevo, This is my last blog entry about my trip with my parents. We left Ronda at noon on Tuesday and arrived in Granada around 3 pm. We were staying in a hotel up on the hill near to where the Alhambra is located. As usual it took awhile to park the car and we had a late lunch at a restaurant near our hotel. After resting for a bit we left the hotel around 6:30 and took a bus down to the historic center of Granada. We walked near the cathedral and then entered the Albayzín (the old Muslim quarter of the city). Here the houses are whitewashed like in many places in Andalucía and the streets are winding and cobblestoned. This area is below the Alhambra and faces it, so it has ... read more

¡Saludos a todos! In Spain, Easter is celebrated for an entire week, beginning with Palm Sunday and ending with Easter Sunday, known as Semana Santa, or Holy Week. In Castilla y León this year school kids and teachers had off Thursday and Friday of Semana Santa and the whole entire following week (so from Thursday, April 1st through Sunday, April 11th.) Mom and Dad came to visit me in Spain during this time and we traveled around Andalucía! It was so good to see them after being in Spain for 7 months and not seeing anyone in my family since last September. I met my parents in Madrid on Thursday morning, April 1st, at the airport and we took a high speed train to Cádiz, arriving around 4:30 pm. After checking into our hotel in the ... read more