I am back in Spain for another year. I will continue to do updates like I did all last year.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

80's Night at the Magic Fountain

I went to Barcelona last weekend and had a great time.  I sight-saw, visited family and relaxed.  The weather was beautiful, sunny and not too cold.  I have lots of pictures I will upload and videos of the Magic Fountain (It only took me 4 trips to Barcelona to finally see the fountain show).
Also on my trip I saw La Sagrada Familia, the famous church designed by Gaudi.  The last time I was there was 3 years ago and there was still scaffolding inside with plastic tarps and almost everything still covered with only one stained glass window visible.  This time I went and the inside is completed, it is beautiful and very different from anything I have seen so far, the pictures are below.  Two things surprised me though, the price and the line, luckily we went very early in the morning because as the day goes on there is more than an hour wait outside.  The price has been doubled from the last time I went which is to be expected I guess, since now you can see a lot more and it is worth the higher admission.
Visiting with my aunt and uncle was great again.  It is always nice to chat with them about different things that are going on.
Now for pictures and video (Now people who haven't seen my scrapbook for my previous trip to Barcelona can't complain!):
Walking toward La Sagrada Familia

Inside La Sagrada Familia

The ceiling

The alter

Me with the Three Kings

Plaza Espanya

Olympic Stadium

Outside of the Olympic Stadium


Magic Fountain

Barcelona Beach

Me on the beach






  I have a much longer video but it isn't loading onto my blog.  This is just an example. And in the future I will try to post the longer one.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

¡Los cojones, que soy de Bulbuente!

Roughly translated its, "Bullshit, I'm from Bulbuente."  This phrase was taught to me this past weekend to respond to people when they ask me if I'm from the United States.  The complete story is later in the post.

Classes were fine again this week, and we had Friday off so no meeting but, I tried to go get all my paperwork done when Jody, the Canadian, had her appointment.  Unfortunately even with my lying and playing dumb they didn't take me so I have to go back on March 4th but, at least I know everything that the process entails.  I know the United States is just as bad with paperwork but it is annoying and time consuming and by the time I get my identity card the program will be over.  It's only worth it because I hope to stay longer.

Saturday, it was beautiful weather here in Tarazona, sunny and not too cold.  It was also the feast of Santa Agueda which is celebrated as a day that women friends get together and go out.  I went out with a student and her friend and we went to a really nice dinner at one of the hotels here in town, afterwards we went for drinks.

Today, I again met up with the group from last night and we went to el Moncayo which is the mountain that provides the beautiful backdrop for Tarazona.  There were some people in our group who I had never met so when I was introduced they said, es Paige y ella es Americana.  I laughed because that is my primary description ever since coming to Spain, first my name then that I am American.  Later, I was introduced to more people the same way and so they said to be funny you should say the phrase above with a good Spanish accent to freak people out.  Needless to say it was a lot of fun today.  Also, as a side note Bulbuente is a very small village on the way to Tarazona from Zaragoza, the bus I take stops there occasionally and it was chosen because it's easy to pronounce and chances are people know it but they aren't from there.

Now for some pictures:

This is the start of the Queiles River, this river is the one that goes through Tarazona.

This is the castle in the town of Vozmediano one of the towns on el Moncayo.

This is an old hospital on the mountain that is falling down and apparently is haunted, so naturally we explored a bit.  They also told me that a camera crew filmed there recently and caught supernatural noises on tape but I don't know if I believe them.

The peak of el Moncayo, it is beautiful and snow-capped.  There is a lot of wildlife on the mountain but I didn't get to see a jabalí (wild boar) which I learned about during my summer course at Temple.  I want to see one before I leave Spain.