Hola from Toledo. After a very short week in Virginia, we were off on Monday afternoon for Spain. Unfortunately, Alec's trusty MacBook Pro went South on Sunday, rendering it unusable for the trip. Fortunately, we purchased an extended warranty from Best Buy, so we stopped there on the way to Dulles to drop it off for repair, and to purchase a new MacBook to bring on the trip. Andrew was about due for a replacement anyway, so we'll use it on the trip, then pass it along to him for the Spring semester. Our flight to Spain was via Amsterdam. I [View Full Entry]

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Thursday 5.11.2009 Day 21 We had bfast with the Pramax, Ducati, Yamaha, KTM and Aprilia teams. Then we went to the track for the ride for health day. Ride for health day in Valencia. We did a pit lane walk and saw lots of riders only Kello from the Ducatti teams was there and I got my photo taken with him. [View Full Entry]

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A lot can happen in 2 weeks. To pick up from where I left off from my last blog, I had no idea how what I would be doing over the next few days let alone the next two weeks. Ok, I did end up in Granada the following weekend, but never in a million years would I have predicted that at 6am on November the 1st, I'd have ended up in a fountain (again) with Roisin and Laura, dressed as a zombie in clown pants. That's just the way life goes here, I love the spontaneity of things, spur of [View Full Entry]

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Hola a todos! I went to Salamanca for this past Halloween weekend where I met up with six other auxiliares in my program. Five of them are working at schools in Palencia capital and one is working in the Basque Country (in Vitoria). I had met most of them at my orientation in Madrid and had visited one (my friend Brooke) in Valladolid the weekend before (she is living in Valladolid, a much larger city, and commutes to Palencia for work.) Salamanca is known as Castilla y Leon's most beautiful city and it is one of its liveliest as well due [View Full Entry]

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Just uploading a better map of Spain with the city of Caceres highlighted. More entries to come soon... [View Full Entry]

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Ce soir je vais essayer de commenter un peu plus mes photos. Ce n'est pas un récit de voyage comme tel car je ne peux avoir cette prétention. Ce blog est surtout un moyen que j'ai de pouvoir partager avec vous quelques moments de ce voyage et aussi de recevoir de vos nouvelles selon vos humeurs. Barcelone est une ville culturelle, multiethnique et dynamique à tous les points de vue. Ici on se sent chez soi parce qu'on y retrouve des gens de partout et on entend parler plusieurs langues. Ily a encore beaucoup de touristes à ce moment de l'année [View Full Entry]

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We have arrived in South Eastern Spain, a little resort town of Torreveija, south of Alicante, which is south of Valencia. We departed Figueres and drove 4 hours to Valencia...we survived a tire blow out on the super highway. Not alot different about changing a tire in Spanish than in English. The drive is very nice and bordered by mountains, orchards, and the sea. We decided to visit Valencia for a couple of days before hitting the resort for a week. Valencia is the orange growing area of Spain and the city is surrounded by groves of orange trees! You know [View Full Entry]

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Erster Abend im fernen Spanien…. Die Anreise hierher verlief eigentlich (fast) ohne Zwischenfälle, jedoch ist der Eindruck eher negativ. Nachdem ich viel zu früh aus dem Bett geschmissen wurde, um auch ja nicht meinen Zug zu verpassen verlief alles nach Plan und ich kam gut am Münchner Hauptbahnhof an. Dort jedoch stieg ich dann nach 10 minütiger Verspätung in die S-Bahn um, da eine Frau zufuhr ihr Kind in die S-Bahn geschoben hatte und dann der Zug losfuhr. Was für eine Aufruhr und die Notbremse legte dann den Verkehr völlig lahm. Im Endeffekt waren Frau und Kind wieder zusammen und i [View Full Entry]

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So we didn’t spend much time on the south coast around Almeria, which disappointingly was basically a tomato plantation, the whole of the coast for miles from Capa de Gata to Malaga is covered in plastic tunnels to protect the crop, it is basically a huge commercial agricultural plantation. We started our journey to from Cabo de Gata to Granada by visiting one of the sets left from the Spaghetti Westerns that were filmed in the Sierra Nevada during the 60’s and 70’s. They have been kept in tip top condition with Saloon, bank, jail, boot hill etc. It was all [View Full Entry]

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Barcelona, Barcelona!!! Thank you for all your recommendations...The city has exceeded my expectations... From the Ramblas to the "La Boqueria" Mercat San Josep, to the Gaudi apartments, to the Sagrada Familia, to the Park Guell, to the Cathedral, to the old Roman walls...This is a spectacular city...Easy to navigate, great to do shopping at, wonderful to walk in the parks or along its docks...This city does not sleep, the food is spectacular, the people are friendly and courteous, and I am thoroughly enjoying every moment of it...I am staying until Sunday...Tomorrow checking out the Barcel [View Full Entry]

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