Blogs from Palencia, Castile & León, Spain, Europe - page 2

Over the past three days I moved along another 46 km, mostly flat ground, upon a terrain which has been for the most part monotonous and unassuming. There have been surprises, of course, like viewing sunrise from the peak of a morning mountain with a friend or coming upon a field of sunfllowers bowing to the rising sun. I have seen more sunrises here than possibly in all my life until now combined. The morning hours are surely the most rewarding ones for walking. These past days have also included a bit of inner conflict. Once, near the peak of my turmoil, I was relieved to discover that I am not alone in this. It seems many are going through this kind of thing, at this stage of the walk. I can best illlustrate mine through ... read more

Notebook Entry Early morning departure after being woken early in the common room. Descent out of Castrojeriz then fairly steep ascent onto the mesata. Bitter wind and had fully regalia on for most of day into Fromista. After Itero de la Vega another, slower climb to the Tierra de Campos, and then steep descent before a relatively flat walk into Boadilla del Camino. Picked up beanie on way in - turned out it belonged to Nik, one of the young women from Cairns. Long flat walk along the Canal de Castilla. Close to Fromista, Orla and some of the other young ones began catching up at the end of the canal stage. She was able to recover some credibility for the Irish! ... read more

Hola a todos! Last weekend Carnival was celebrated in Guardo and students in Castilla y León had school off on Monday and Tuesday. I was originally thinking of traveling over the long weekend to Valencia (where I studied abroad 2 years ago) but I ended up deciding to stay in Guardo for the long weekend and I was glad I did! Guardo becomes quite lively during Carnival and many people, young and old alike, dress up in costumes on the weekend to celebrate. On Friday night, the network of underground bars in Guardo (a.k.a. "los Bajos") held a cross-dressing competition and when I went out on Friday night with Ana and some of her friends, we saw a lot of impressive and hilarious costumes! We were playing cards in a bar and seated at some of ... read more

Dear family and friends, My students have been singing the Christmas carol "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" all week in preparation for the holiday performance scheduled for next Tuesday (their last day of class before break). Many of the students really enjoy the catchy tune of the carol, so it's been fun singing the song with them! Like I did for Thanksgiving and Halloween, I prepared some holiday oriented activities this week for Christmas. My students read a text about the origin of Santa Claus, took on roles in a short skit about St. Nicholas and played some Christmas vocabulary games. On Tuesday night I baked a double batch of chocolate chip cookies (with Lacasitos = Spanish version of M&Ms) to share with the teachers at my school on Wednesday. I set them out in ... read more

Hola a todos! This Friday I celebrated Thanksgiving a day late with my flatmates in our apartment. Unlike Sofia and Mariana, I don't work at my school on Fridays so I had plenty of time to go out and buy all the ingredients for our Thanksgiving feast. I pretty much spent all day buying things or in the kitchen cooking but I had a good time seeing the fruits of my labor! There is a street market in Guardo on Fridays so I went there first where produce is much cheaper than in the supermarkets. I bought sour apples for our pie and green beans. I had to go to 2 different supermarkets before I found sweet potatoes. I was about to give up on having a sweet potato dish when I finally spotted them (called ... read more