Montserrat Y la Fira de Santa Llúcia

Montserrat es una montaña, un monasterio y una cantante catalana. Aunque no conozco mucho catalán creo que significa una montaña serrada.
Hace unos días, fui a ver el monte y el monasterio. Hice el viaje en tren con una amiga que estuvo aquí en Barcelona unos días.
Cogimos el tren en Plaça Espanya y una horita después llegamos a la parada de Montserrat para hacer el trasbordo y continuar el viaje en la cremallera.
Montserrat es a mountain, a monastery as well as a catalonian singer. Although I dont know much Catalan I think it must mean serrated mountain- as in jagged like a breadknife. 
A few days ago I went there to see the mountain and the monastery. I made the trip with a friend who was visiting Barcelona for a few days. 
We got the train in Plaça Espanya and an hour later arrived at the Montserrat stop, to make the transfer into the ¨zipper¨ that took us up to the top. 

Aquí se ven el monasterio y la montaña. Allí hacía mucho más frío que en la ciudad. 

Here you see the monastery and the mountain. It was much colder up there than in the city.

La vista desde el mirador- abajo se ven el funicular y el valle hermoso.

The view from the lookout- the funicular and the beautiful valley below.  

La entrada de la iglesia donde está la Moreneta- la virgen de Montserrat.

The entrance to the church where the Moreneta is- the black virgin of Montserrat.

El santuario de la iglesia de Montserrat. Había una cola enorme para ver la virgen y como no soy católico no la vi. 

The sanctuary of the church at Montserrat. There was a really long line to see the virgin, and since I am not a catholic I didnt see it.

La Fira de Santa Llúcia

Aquí se ve el Cagatió- un tronco que caga turrón y dulces. Tambien se ve el caganer en el cartel en el fondo. ¡Vaya tradiciones que tienen los Catalanes!

 La Feria de Santa Lucia es un mercado con cosas para la Navidad. Aquí se puede comprar todo lo que es parte del pesebre.
Here- above you can see the Cagatió and the Caganer. The Cagatió is a log that poops out candies and sweets at Christmas time. Also on the poster at the back is the caganer- a pooping shepherd boy.
The St Lucia fair is a market where you can buy all sorts of Christmas things- mostly everything for a nativity scene- to build your own at home. 

Un pequeño tió- un poco cutre pero mono a la misma vez...

A little tió- a little cheesy but cute at the same time....

Más tiós- 

Galicia

Galicia es una de las 17 comunidades autónomas de España y está en el noroeste del país, al norte de Portugal.
Como Cataluña, Galicia es uno de los lugares en España donde se habla un idioma regional-o sea el gallego.
Decidí ir a Santiago de Compostela- el final del antiguo Camino de Santiago de los peregrinos. Quería visitar la catedral y la ciudad, también quería ver la costa gallega y ver las rías.
Galicia is one of the 17 autonomous communities of Spain (they´re like its provinces). It is located in the northwest, north of Portugal.
Just like Catalonia, Galicia also has a regional language called Gallego- it is a cross between Spanish and Portuguese. I decided to fly into Santiago de Compostela the last stop on the Camino de Santiago, or in English the Way of St James. I also wanted to see the coast and the estuaries that characterise this region. 

 La catedral de Santiago- un ejemplo de arte románico- Gracias profe Enrique jeje- Es impresionante esta catedral con su reliquia, el cuerpo de Santiago apostel- según las leyendas, yo, pues, soy un escéptico.
The St. James Cathedral, an example of romanesque art- I still remember some things from my art history class. It was impressive with its relic- the body of St. James the apostle- according to the legends, but I am a skeptic. 

Tuve la oportunidad de participar en una queimada- una ritual de los gallegos- acompañada con un chico tocando la gaita- un instrumento típico de la región- nos tocó una muñeira entre otros ritmos. Después bebimos lo que es la bebida de la queimada- aguardiente con azúcar, manzana y otros ingredientes.

 Later we decided to take the car and go for a ride along the coast- Destination Fisterra (the end of the Earth...or so they thought when they named it) Here I am along the coast-very typical- lots of green, cliffs, and clouds/fog.

 A small village- like many that we passed by along the way to Fisterra. 

 The hórreo or sideways silo of Carnota- these structures were quite common around Galicia and were used to store grain- The photo below is of one that is significantly longer than others I had seen, and was labelled from the roadway as an attraction. 

 La playa de un pueblito donde conocimos unos pescadores- uno de los cuales nos habló en inglés-por haber trabajado mucho tiempo en Holanda- según nos dijo.
The beach of a small town where we met some fishermen- one of whom spoke English- because he worked in Holland- he said. 

 Una pera- postre después del menú del día en Vigo- muy simple pero muy bonita ¿no crees?
I thought this simple dessert was quite nicely presented, so I decided to take a picture- it´s just a pear!

Una calle peatonal de Vigo con las decoraciones de Navidad- increíble que ya es diciembre.
The main shopping street (no cars allowed- just pedestrians)- Christmas decorations already? I can´t believe it is Navidad!

Una de las muchas playas de Vigo- Gracias a Lisa y su compañero Manuel Felipe que me mostraron la belleza de su ciudad. ¡Gracias! Tengo muchas ganas de volver a comer más mejellones, almejas y pulpo :)
One of the many beaches of Vigo- Thanks Lisa and your friend Manuel Felipe for showing me how beautiful your city is! I really want to come back and eat some more mussels, clams and octopus!

La Mancha

La Mancha- Tierra de Don Quijote.

Fui a Madrid donde alquilamos un coche para viajar a La Mancha. Primero fuimos a Consuegra y después a El Toboso donde está la casa de Dulcinea y finalmente a Campo de Criptana. Al día siguiente regresamos a Campo de Criptana para una fiesta. El molinero estuvo y nos explicó como funciona un molino de viento- después la gente del pueblo nos invitó a tomar un vinito y a comer gachas (un plato típico de La Mancha).

 Consuegra- The town of Consuegra

 A Windmill. The rod at the back is used to rotate the cap to the best orientation to catch the wind. 

 Don Quijote y Sancho Panza

La fiesta de los molinos (The windmill festival- the men to the right are preparing food to serve) 

Notice that the windmill´s blades have a sheet in them to help catch the wind, the other windmills don´t. We were told they put them in only on the festival day when they want to demonstrate its use.

¨Don Quijote¨ and me

País Vasco

In English in red below
Este fin de semana ha sido el puente de todos los santos, o sea que no he tenido que trabajar ni hoy ni ayer.
Fui en avión a Bilbao a ir a un concierto de Cut Copy, pero por la tarde fui al famoso museo Guggenheim. Normalmente no puedo pasar muchas horas en un museo, pero la instalación de Richard Serra fue impresionante y hubiera podido pasar más tiempo andando por las esculturas. El construyó unas esculturas de hierro que son interactivas en el sentido de que la gente puede entrar en la escultura y sentirla. No sé nada nadita de arte pero de alguna manera me gustó mucho.
Como no se permitía sacar fotos dentro del museo sólo tengo fotos del edificio desde afuera.
This weekend was a long one, two days off for the All Saints´ Day. I took the opportunity to go to the Basque Country and see two major cities there as well as some of the coastal towns. I flew into Bilbao and saw the Guggenheim museum. Normally I am at my limit after 2 hours in a museum, but this place was amazing. There was a steel sculpture that you could walk through, designed by Richard Serra. It was definitely my favourite.
Since the museum did not permit taking photos inside mine are all from the exterior (which was pretty cool too!)

 La entrada del museo The museum´s entrance

 Una escultura de una araña- igual que la del museo de arte nacional canadiense en Ottawa. A sculpture of a spider- like the one outside the National Gallery in Ottawa. 

 Una vista del museo y del río. Another view of the museum and the river 


Donostia- San Sebastián
Una ciudad con dos nombres- como muchas de país vasco- me he quedado encantado de esta ciudad...la comida, las vistas, el mar, la comida ;)
A city with two names (one in Spanish and one in Basque, the regional language here) like many of the cities in the Basque Country. I was very impressed with this city-the food, the views, the ocean, the food ;)

 

 Una vista de Donostia desde un parque de atracciones, detrás de mí se ve la playa de la concha que tiene forma de concha de vieira- el símbolo del camino de santiago.
A view of Donostia from a theme park, behind me you can see the playa de la concha (the shell-beach) which has a scallop-shell shape, also the symbol of the St James´ Way (A pilgrim´s trail through norther Spain)

 La costa vasca con unas montañas verdes al fondo ¡Precioso!
The beautiful basque coast with the green hills in the distance. Beautiful!

Entré en Francia y fui a Biarritz y St. Jean de Luz. Aquí se ve Les Galleries Lafayette- cuando estuve en París me encantó esta tienda.

I drove into France and saw Biarritz and St Jean de Luz. This is a photo (and not a very good one) of Les Galleries Lafayette. When I was in Paris I really liked this store. 

Ibiza

Ibiza is an island in the mediterranean sea that belongs to Spain. It is invaded every summer by Germans and the English. It has a few municipalities on it, the main city called Sant Jordi or Eivissa and is where the airport is located.
I decided to go here for the weekend, arriving on Saturday morning and staying until Sunday night. It turned out that this was one of the last weekends that all of the island´s hotels and attractions were still open.

Here I am next to a canon along the walls of the old-city of Ibiza (known as the Dalt Vila)

 This is the hotel that I stayed in in Santa Eulalia on Ibiza. It was the last night of the season so it was cheap 23€ a person. I think there may have been 25 guests in the entire hotel.

 I decided to roll up my pants and get my feet wet in the sea. It was well worth it!

 Saturday evening I went to Sant Antoní and decided to take in the sunset next to the famous Café del Mar. It turns out it is free to sit on the dock next to the café and drink a pop from a grocery store, while enjoying the music from the café and watching the sailboats go by.

 The following morning on Sunday, I went to see El puerto de Sant Miquel. This small port was beautiful. I would love to return in the summer and sit on the beach for a week.

 In Sant Miquel there is a cave called La Cova de Can Marçà. Apparently it was used by pirates to store their goods. The guide also told us with great pride that the cave had been altered and that they had added stalagmites to make it more interesting...below is a picture of the man made waterfall inside. I would not recommend spending the 9€ I gave them to get in.

 Turns out the 9€ I paid to see the cave wasn´t a total flop, I did get to see this view of the water from the walkway. It was so clear and blue. Again, I want to come back here in the summer and sit on the beach to take it all in.

 On the way back to Ibiza town from Sant Miquel I stopped at Can Caus to see some of the traditional products of the island. Shown below is a sandwich made with Sobrasada (raw meat with onion and spices). The sandwich and the glass of vino...1€

An Interview with Brian

Gemma (the English teacher at school) thought it would be a nice idea for the students in grade 6 to think of questions to ask me about Canada and then use those questions and answers to create a mural. Half of the students worked on this while the other half thought of questions to ask me about myself. We split the latter group in two and filmed it. And here are the interviews.

Escola Banùs

English in red
La escuela donde enseño se llama Escola Banús (en catalán) y está en Santa Coloma de Gramenet, en las afueras de Barcelona.
Querría poner unas fotos del colegio en el blog para que veáis como es y como son los alumnos. The School where I teach is called Escola Banús in Catalan and is located in Santa Coloma de Gramenet a suburb of Barcelona. I wanted to put some pictures of the school in my blog so that my friends could see what it is like.

 El aula de Gemma, la profesora de inglés. Aquí damos las clases de inglés del primero hasta sexto. Tenemos muchas ventanas en el aula pero lo malo es que entra mucho ruido de la calle y del patio.
This is the English classroom. Gemma and I teach grade 1-6 in here. There are 6 big windows to the patio outside (shown below). It is quite noisy because the kids have PE there.

 La vista del patio de la escuela desde el aula de Gemma. Aquí vemos los niños en la clase de educación física. En la escuela no hay un gimnasio, los alumnos tienen que salir al patio para practicar los deportes.
The view from the English classroom to the patio below. The school doesn´t have a gym, so this is where the kids go fro PE.

 Los alumnos del P5- una chica con Densel el pato del libro de inglés.
Students in P5, preschool age 5, this particular student is holding Densel the Duck- a character from the text we use. 

 Un alumno con Cookie- el gato-protagonista del libro de inglés.
Another student from P5 with Coookie the Cat- the main character of our book.

 Y el otro personaje del libro- el canguro Lulu.
And one more with Lulu  the Kangaroo.

 Estamos aprendiendo los miembros de la familia de búhos y el cuento del Baby Owl.
We´re learning the words for family members in English.

 Aquí contando el número de búhos en el árbol de la familia.
We´re counting how many owls there are in the owl family....well actually we´re singing it, but I decided not to video this...if you´ve heard me sing you´ll know why. Below is a link for the owl family video we put in Youtube. The kids acted out the story from our book.
El enlace abajo es un vídeo de los alumnos presentando su obra de The Owl Family.

Aquí unos alumnos del sexto pintando un mural con información sobre Canadá. Antes de pintar me habían preguntado unas cosas sobre Canadá y luego pusieron las respuestas aquí (la comida típica, el clima, las fiestas, y tal)
Lastly, some of the older kids are making a large poster to hang on the wall- highlighting all the information they learnt about Canada- it´s cold, we ate lots of maple syrop and we all speak both national languages...ahem.