To stay healthy, it´s recommended that you walk 10,000 steps a day. In Spain, no problem achieving that goal. Walking around Madrid yesterday, I logged 36,028 steps!My pedometer was panting. No wonder I hit the bed at 10:30 p.m. hecho polvo...ground into dust! What a day! What a city! Madrid has got it going. The energy in the streets is invigorating. People out walking, talking, laughing, enjoying life. I think a pedestrian culture lends itself to a higher (better) quality of life. You get out, rub shoulders, breathe the air, smell the (delicious) smells. You live outside of your hermetically sealed bubble (office, car, house).
We enjoyed an incredible breakfast at our hotel, Tryp Norte near Chamartin train station, and met in the lobby at 9:30 a.m. to take the metro to the Prado. It remains one of the greatest art museums in the world. Mother, Casey, Blair, Aedan and I soaked in the works of art by Velazquez, Goya and Bosch, among others. ¨Las Meninas¨ by Velazquez makes everything else pale in comparison, I think. However, Bosch´s ¨Garden of Earthly Delights¨ still gives me a thrill. When I was in college, I learned that he painted the triptych just after Columbus landed in America. His dark view of the unspoiled land (paradise), human degredation of said land, and hell (think end of the world) pulls you in. Take a look at it when you have a chance.
From the Prado, we walked down Castellana Avenue to the Bank of España metro stop to ride to the Canal metro stop. We dropped off eight pounds (literally) of Aunt Aggie De´s Pralines (made in Sinton, Texas) to my Spanish family that I lived with in 1981-1982. It was great to see Pilar, my Spanish mom who just turned 80 but looks like she´s 60, and Paco, my Spanish father, who also looks much younger than his 80+ years. (Life in Spain definitely agrees with them.) We stayed for a short while since we plan on having a big reunion with the whole family---my five Spanish sisters and their spouses and kids---when we return to Madrid.
We walked down Cea Bermudez, the street I lived on, toward Moncloa, the university area. We then went to El Corte Ingles on Princesa for lunch on the seventh floor. It felt good to sit down after such a long walk, and we enjoyed croquetas de jamon y papas fritas (ham croquettes and fried potatoes). After lunch, we cruised around the store. Didn´t buy anything. One Euro equals $1.40, so everything is very expensive. We then walked over to the Chocolateria San Gines, our favorite spot in Madrid. My mother said, ¨Someone could walk in here with a bad attitude and they´d walk out happy.¨ I agree. Chocolate, especially San Gines´ rich dark chocolate, is ambrosia of the gods. Chocolate y churros at San Gines is enough to make anyone take a plane to Spain. (I´d like to open up a franchise in San Antonio. I think it would go over big.)
From San Gines, we strolled through La Plaza Mayor, filled with artists, living ¨statues¨(people dressed up in costumes who stand completely still until you drop money into their tip jar...we saw Velazquez and a Princess Amadala-type character), people sipping coffee at outdoor cafes, and souvenir shops. One artist I spoke with gave me his card, and I learned that his name was Antonio. I told him that we were from San Antonio, Texas. He reminded me that today was Saint Anthony´s feast day. I´d forgotten. Saludos a San Antonio!(If you ever lose anything, ask Saint Anthony to help you find it. He´ll come through for you.)
We met up with the group at Kilometro Zero en La Puerta del Sol at 6:30 p.m. (All roads in Spain start and are measured from that point.) Dinner at Anonimatto. Delicious roasted chicken and mashed potatoes.
Today we left the hotel at 8:30 a.m. after another grand breakfast. I told my students not to get used to it. Breakfast in Spain in usually very meagre: coffee and a couple of cookies or a hard roll. This breakfast buffet beat all. I especially enjoyed the jamon serrano and tasty queso (cheese), not sure what kind, only that it was delicious. The bus ride to Burgos was about 4 hours. We stopped and took a stretch break on the way. The scenery enroute was spectacular: rolling hills, bright red poppies, ancient stone churches with beautiful bell towers, red tiled roofs, and no visual pollution (billboards) save for the occasional silohuette of a big black bull (toro), a liquor ad.
We have a 4 p.m. tour scheduled at the Cathedral, so I want to finish up this entry so we can grab a bite to eat before then. We´re in a ¨Cibercafe¨ called Caberet. The bartender is very nice, and he told me that he visited the U.S. (Baltimore, DC and NYC) in February. I love that the Internet connects all of us, but I especially love that we are able to travel back and forth to each other´s stomping grounds, forging new friendships and experiencing new sights, sounds, cultures, tastes, and ways of thinking, seeing and being.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Madrid, Spain: We´re here!
It´s good to be ¨home¨! (Madrid was my home during my junior year of college, and it always feels good to be back.) We just ate our fill of paella, carne con papas, and neopolitan ice cream at El Museo de Vino near the Puerta del Sol. Now we´re typing in our blogs on deadline. Gary, our tour director, wants us to meet at 9 p.m. to head back to the hotel.
The flights from San Antonio to Newark and Newark to Madrid were good. Cramped, but good. Everyone´s luggage, but mine and Sarah´s, arrived without a problem, and ours arrived on the next flight. (Thank goodness! The Continental employee who helped us was an American--from Honolulu--who´s lived in Madrid for the past 25 years. I told her that I understood why.) On the plane, we met a group from the Canary Islands, who´d been visiting San Antonio for a week. They did a special misa folklorico (folkloric mass) at San Fernando Cathedral while they were in town. I´m sorry I didn´t know anything about it, or I would have gone. I believe they also performed at the Folklife Festival. Nice people! They invited us to visit the Canaries on our next trip. I´d love to take them up on the offer.
From the hotel, we got on a tour bus and traveled down Castellana, a lovely tree-lined boulevard with beautiful red and yellow flowers designed to look like the flag of Spain. We passed the Real Madrid Soccer Stadium, a giant El Corte Ingles (with a mermaid billboard), a Botero sculpture (giant hand), the U.S. Embassy, a square dedicated to Christopher Columbus, the Palacio de Comunicaciones--an unbelievably beautiful post office, and Cibeles fountain. We then turned onto Alcala and then onto Gran Via, two of Madrid´s main streets (think Fifth Avenue). Tons of shops, too many McDonald´s, and giant billboards for American films (Ocean´s 13, Spiderman 3, and Pirates of the Caribbean 3).
We traveled to the Palacio Real, Spain´s royal palace, for a guided tour. Until I read ¨The History of Spain,¨ I didn´t realize the king who built the palace was originally from France, so that´s why the palace looks so French. Think Versailles. Rich tapestries in gold, silver and silk, parquet wood floors, marble for days, gold everywhere, painted ceilings, and on and on. The ¨Smoking Room¨ is my favorite room. Chinese-style enamel everywhere. The gigantic dining hall isn´t too shabby either. (I would love to go to a state dinner there some day!)
From the Palacio Real, we made a stop at La Plaza de España to see a sculpture of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. When we return to Madrid at the end of the trip, our hotel will be nearby. Great location, close to everything I want to see and visit.
Dinner at the Museo de Vino was quite good. I sat with some of our Alaskan busmates. I also met a family from San Antonio whose daughter is studying in Madrid for the summer. Small world!
Stay tuned for more scoop. Right now, we´re all tired after our all-day travel across the Atlantic. (Although not as tired as our friends from Alaska. It took them 26 hours of non-stop travel to get here!) It´s good to be back in España. Thanks for traveling with us!
The flights from San Antonio to Newark and Newark to Madrid were good. Cramped, but good. Everyone´s luggage, but mine and Sarah´s, arrived without a problem, and ours arrived on the next flight. (Thank goodness! The Continental employee who helped us was an American--from Honolulu--who´s lived in Madrid for the past 25 years. I told her that I understood why.) On the plane, we met a group from the Canary Islands, who´d been visiting San Antonio for a week. They did a special misa folklorico (folkloric mass) at San Fernando Cathedral while they were in town. I´m sorry I didn´t know anything about it, or I would have gone. I believe they also performed at the Folklife Festival. Nice people! They invited us to visit the Canaries on our next trip. I´d love to take them up on the offer.
From the hotel, we got on a tour bus and traveled down Castellana, a lovely tree-lined boulevard with beautiful red and yellow flowers designed to look like the flag of Spain. We passed the Real Madrid Soccer Stadium, a giant El Corte Ingles (with a mermaid billboard), a Botero sculpture (giant hand), the U.S. Embassy, a square dedicated to Christopher Columbus, the Palacio de Comunicaciones--an unbelievably beautiful post office, and Cibeles fountain. We then turned onto Alcala and then onto Gran Via, two of Madrid´s main streets (think Fifth Avenue). Tons of shops, too many McDonald´s, and giant billboards for American films (Ocean´s 13, Spiderman 3, and Pirates of the Caribbean 3).
We traveled to the Palacio Real, Spain´s royal palace, for a guided tour. Until I read ¨The History of Spain,¨ I didn´t realize the king who built the palace was originally from France, so that´s why the palace looks so French. Think Versailles. Rich tapestries in gold, silver and silk, parquet wood floors, marble for days, gold everywhere, painted ceilings, and on and on. The ¨Smoking Room¨ is my favorite room. Chinese-style enamel everywhere. The gigantic dining hall isn´t too shabby either. (I would love to go to a state dinner there some day!)
From the Palacio Real, we made a stop at La Plaza de España to see a sculpture of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. When we return to Madrid at the end of the trip, our hotel will be nearby. Great location, close to everything I want to see and visit.
Dinner at the Museo de Vino was quite good. I sat with some of our Alaskan busmates. I also met a family from San Antonio whose daughter is studying in Madrid for the summer. Small world!
Stay tuned for more scoop. Right now, we´re all tired after our all-day travel across the Atlantic. (Although not as tired as our friends from Alaska. It took them 26 hours of non-stop travel to get here!) It´s good to be back in España. Thanks for traveling with us!
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
San Antonio, Texas
This week at Palo Alto College has been a journalistic boot camp. The students are learning how to write like journalists, which is a very different style of writing than what they have done in their English, History and Government classes.
Yesterday, we reviewed what makes something newsworthy (impact, proximity, timeliness, prominence, novelty, conflict, cooperation/consensus, information, and common experience) and how to prioritize facts/information. They also learned how to write a lead, the opening paragraph in a news story, using only 19-20 words. We talked about journalists' rights (First Amendment) and responsibilities (accuracy and fairness). Roy Peter Clark's "The Writing Process" (sniff around, explore ideas, collect evidence, find a focus, select the best stuff, recognize an order, write a draft, and revise/clarify) provided a road map for their writing. "Be Specific" and "Don't Tell, but Show," chapters from Natalie Goldberg's book "Writing Down the Bones," also gave concrete examples of what makes writing excellent.
Mariana lead discussion of the first chapter in "The Story of Spain" by Mark Williams. I have to say I love her choice of texts. Williams knows how to craft an engaging tale that makes you want to read on. What a soap opera the history of Spain has been!
Today, the students talked about what stories they'd like to research (report) and write about in their lifetimes, and I was impressed by the range of interesting ideas. They also talked about stories in their neighborhoods that are under reported (or not reported on at all) that they'd like to cover or see more coverage on. We then reviewed the lead exercise they completed at home. Passive voice versus active voice has been placed on tomorrow's agenda. I passed out an inverted pyramid story exercise for them to complete at home today. Their challenge is to write a one-page news story with provided facts and quotes.
Mariana then lead discussion on the second chapter of Williams' book. We learned about the Roman's influence on the Iberian peninsula. It's so amazing to think that the Romans built the aqueduct in Segovia at the end of the first century/beginning of the second century, and it's still standing...almost 2,000 years later! The Romans, who were very big on infrastructure, also built roads and bridges.
Tomorrow is our last class day at Palo Alto College. We'll be learning on the run while we are in Spain. Time on our motor coach will provide us with ample opportunity to continue our discussions. Plus, we'll be learning in each and every place we visit. For those who would like to travel along with us, here's our itinerary:
12 Madrid (Orientation/Prado)
13 Madrid (Sightseeing/Palacio Real)
14 Santo Domingo de Silos/Burgos
15 Bilbao/San Sebastian
16 San Sebastian
17 Pamplona/Barcelona
18 Barcelona
19 Valencia
20 Granada
21 Granada/Torremolinos
22 Torremolinos
23 Sevilla
24 Sevilla
25 Cordoba/Puerto Lapice/Madrid
26 Madrid
27 Madrid
28 Madrid
29 Madrid
30 Madrid
1 Madrid
2 Depart Madrid
Yesterday, we reviewed what makes something newsworthy (impact, proximity, timeliness, prominence, novelty, conflict, cooperation/consensus, information, and common experience) and how to prioritize facts/information. They also learned how to write a lead, the opening paragraph in a news story, using only 19-20 words. We talked about journalists' rights (First Amendment) and responsibilities (accuracy and fairness). Roy Peter Clark's "The Writing Process" (sniff around, explore ideas, collect evidence, find a focus, select the best stuff, recognize an order, write a draft, and revise/clarify) provided a road map for their writing. "Be Specific" and "Don't Tell, but Show," chapters from Natalie Goldberg's book "Writing Down the Bones," also gave concrete examples of what makes writing excellent.
Mariana lead discussion of the first chapter in "The Story of Spain" by Mark Williams. I have to say I love her choice of texts. Williams knows how to craft an engaging tale that makes you want to read on. What a soap opera the history of Spain has been!
Today, the students talked about what stories they'd like to research (report) and write about in their lifetimes, and I was impressed by the range of interesting ideas. They also talked about stories in their neighborhoods that are under reported (or not reported on at all) that they'd like to cover or see more coverage on. We then reviewed the lead exercise they completed at home. Passive voice versus active voice has been placed on tomorrow's agenda. I passed out an inverted pyramid story exercise for them to complete at home today. Their challenge is to write a one-page news story with provided facts and quotes.
Mariana then lead discussion on the second chapter of Williams' book. We learned about the Roman's influence on the Iberian peninsula. It's so amazing to think that the Romans built the aqueduct in Segovia at the end of the first century/beginning of the second century, and it's still standing...almost 2,000 years later! The Romans, who were very big on infrastructure, also built roads and bridges.
Tomorrow is our last class day at Palo Alto College. We'll be learning on the run while we are in Spain. Time on our motor coach will provide us with ample opportunity to continue our discussions. Plus, we'll be learning in each and every place we visit. For those who would like to travel along with us, here's our itinerary:
12 Madrid (Orientation/Prado)
13 Madrid (Sightseeing/Palacio Real)
14 Santo Domingo de Silos/Burgos
15 Bilbao/San Sebastian
16 San Sebastian
17 Pamplona/Barcelona
18 Barcelona
19 Valencia
20 Granada
21 Granada/Torremolinos
22 Torremolinos
23 Sevilla
24 Sevilla
25 Cordoba/Puerto Lapice/Madrid
26 Madrid
27 Madrid
28 Madrid
29 Madrid
30 Madrid
1 Madrid
2 Depart Madrid
Monday, June 4, 2007
San Antonio, Texas
We're off and running! A week from today, we'll be on our way to the Kingdom of Spain.
Mariana Ornelas, a professor of Humanities, and I, Denise Barkis Richter, a professor of Journalism/Communications at Palo Alto College, are leading a group of 13 students to Spain during the first summer session.
Today, the students read "A rat in my soup" by Peter Hessler and "In Madrid, there's no such thing as too much ham" by Daisann McLane to understand the type of writing that they'll be learning how to do while we're studying and traveling abroad. Both stories feature amazing descriptions that incorporate all five senses, abundant humor, complete dialogue, interesting facts/information, and make-you-want-to-continue-reading leads, the opening sentence, that hook you in. The students discussed what makes these stories excellent, and we aspire to write like this during our time on the road and here in San Antonio.
My hopes and dreams for this study abroad are that each student traveler will return to San Antonio a savvier world citizen with an appreciation for the people, culture, language, lifestyle and history of the Iberian peninsula. I spent my junior year of college in Madrid, Spain, in the early 1980s, and I firmly believe that there is no better educational opportunity. This experience will stay with these students the rest of their lives, and I am excited and happy for them.
I imagine that Spain will be as delightful as ever. This will be my fifth trip to Spain, and I never tire of it. I can't wait to visit some of my old haunts. In addition, I look forward to exploring some new places. Thanks for joining our adventure! We hope that our blogs give you an insight into Spain that you might never have had before. Welcome!
Mariana Ornelas, a professor of Humanities, and I, Denise Barkis Richter, a professor of Journalism/Communications at Palo Alto College, are leading a group of 13 students to Spain during the first summer session.
Today, the students read "A rat in my soup" by Peter Hessler and "In Madrid, there's no such thing as too much ham" by Daisann McLane to understand the type of writing that they'll be learning how to do while we're studying and traveling abroad. Both stories feature amazing descriptions that incorporate all five senses, abundant humor, complete dialogue, interesting facts/information, and make-you-want-to-continue-reading leads, the opening sentence, that hook you in. The students discussed what makes these stories excellent, and we aspire to write like this during our time on the road and here in San Antonio.
My hopes and dreams for this study abroad are that each student traveler will return to San Antonio a savvier world citizen with an appreciation for the people, culture, language, lifestyle and history of the Iberian peninsula. I spent my junior year of college in Madrid, Spain, in the early 1980s, and I firmly believe that there is no better educational opportunity. This experience will stay with these students the rest of their lives, and I am excited and happy for them.
I imagine that Spain will be as delightful as ever. This will be my fifth trip to Spain, and I never tire of it. I can't wait to visit some of my old haunts. In addition, I look forward to exploring some new places. Thanks for joining our adventure! We hope that our blogs give you an insight into Spain that you might never have had before. Welcome!
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