Ría de Pontevedra

Could have sat here all day.

Valencia

Better late, than never, right? Here are some pics from Valencia where we went in November. I loved the city. It was small enough to feel manageable, yet big enough to feel urban. And it has the beach. I'm always a sucker for city + beach combo.

I thought this was a lovely bread shop. It looks so modern yet is selling something so ancient and staple.

Awesome market where we got some delicious Mediterranean eats.

Crazy awesome trees all over this park. I've actually since seen them in Barcelona and Sevilla as well. And I sadly can't remember the name of them. They look similar in the leaves to magnolias (which I always picture as quintessential "Southern", along with azaleas and wisteria, intrusive it may be, but we have all of those plants in Ourense too). When we did a city tour in Sevilla (different city) we were in a park where the guide said was the designated botanical garden in the city for the plants brought back from the Americas and that this kind of tree was one brought back. Making it almost 500 years old.

The Mediterranean! We unwisely decided to walk there. It looked so close on the map and we thought, "hmm...if we just walk, we'll pass by all of these cool things in the city and then get to the water." That was the case, but miles and miles, excuse me, kilometers and kilometers later, we arrived. Totally worth it though. Even though it as November, it was warm enough to lay there a little while and enjoy some rays.

There is a huge science center, museum center and aquarium there. The buildings are really modern and bold. We were cheap and didn't want to pay to get in, but they were a sight from the outside! It sits at the end of a long park. There was a river that used to flow through the city that flooded too much so they rerouted it a several decades ago and made a park out of it. I guess it's sad to no longer have a river in your city, but it seemed like a great concept to have a park that stretches the length of the city. It was very much in use. There were people biking, playing soccer, running, doing yoga, etc. all in the park.

O Grove and beaches nearby

Went to some lovely beaches in Galicia with a professor! Absolutely breathtaking. Click this link to see where it is on a map. That's ocean on both sides.

A Coruña

A Coruña is a lovely city in the north of Galicia. A friend and I spent the weekend with another friend there. I never tire of seeing the ocean here!

The Tower of Hercules. It is from the First Century and the oldest lighthouse still in use from antiquity. It is now a UNESCO World Herigate Site. We walked up the ramp inside for an incredible view!

Some more from Barcelona

Sagrada Familia. Let's talk about the neck cramp I had after awe-inspiredly walking around forever inside. I couldn't get over all of the minute details everywhere. And it's not even finished yet! I think they started building in 1882...and it's still being completed! As a designer always having to think about division of space it's cool to see how that applies to architecture too. A guidebook said Gaudí designed it so that the columns filter the light coming in as a tree wood, giving you the sense that you're in a forest...and indeed, I somewhat did. I also had to stop and take a moment to realize that EVERY SINGLE little design in there (every little stained glass window, every little motif, every emblem) had to be crafted. Even if it was just little abstract glass windows, the artist/craftsman had to take time to draw up each design and consider color, division of space, repetition, etc. This made those seemingly pointless 2-d design projects take on a whole new importance to me!

A detail from Parc Guell designed by Gaudí as well...what a prolific artist/architect. I was mesmerized by all of the endless colors and patterns. A visual paradise. Tucked away up on a mountain and with a view looking out over Barcelona all the way to the sea. I absolutely loved how colorful and diverse Barcelona was. And I'm sucker for any city on the sea. Water makes all the difference. I went alone on my first solo trip ever when I went and thoroughly enjoyed it! Travel offers a unique time to be stripped of your comfort zone, open your mind, give you time to think, write, contemplate, etc. And of course see new things, meet interesting people, and be blown away by the immensity of the world. You can go at your own pace, and take all the time you need to soak it all in. It always removes the somewhat stressful need for group decisions...you can callejear (wander the streets) as you please. Saw all the sites and had some fun cultural surprises like the locals doing their traditional dance on the cathedral steps. Almost had my purse stolen (thanks to all those travel tip books I had put the strap of my purse between my legs at the restaurant so when the guys tried to grab it, they couldn't). Ended the trip with a trip south to Sitges for the afternoon to soak up some rays on a jetty at the beach.

Like many big cities, it often comes with eye-catching graffiti:

Caderno

My awesome new journal I bought at this super cool store, A Vida Portuguesa, in Lisbon, and made by Serrote. (again, itouch photo, sorry for quality).

Counting my blessings

My roommate, Katie, started getting The International Tribune in the mail here. This is was I walked down our apartment stairs to the other morning. Talk about a welcome to the day. Then left our apartment to walk by several people in the street asking for money, a fairly common site in most cities throughout Europe (in the States too, but I've just never lived in a city big enough to see it on a daily basis there). Sometimes the heaviness of reality sets in even though I don't fully grasp it all. (bad quality, taken on itouch)

La Sagrada Famila

I could have stared at these doors of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona all day! They were a powerful work of art in and of themselves, apart from the whole church. There were impressions of keys, letter collages, references to other works in art history, scripture, Gaudi's signature, random form combinations, etc. What a modern treasure.

Travel fuels ideas.

When asked "What is the best advice you have ever received, and what is the one piece of advice you would offer to a young, aspiring interior designer?", India Hicks replied: "For a young designer I would say, explore. Travel fuels ideas. Witness the trappings of another life; look for the tradition and beauty within it. Document each trip and all of the details, whether an upholstery fabric or a roof-tile pattern, a wooden fretwork balustrade or an old painted sign. These will one day inspire your work. My father’s famous tablescapes got much of their energy and interest from mixing poor and rich objects, and many of the poor had been collected by him on his travels. As a designer, you should always be looking, looking, looking."

Inspired.

Interview on Design*Sponge: http://www.designspongeonline.com/2010/12/whats-in-your-toolbox-india-hicks.html#ixzz1ATTKAtam

Judge me.

I don't care. Because it tasted awesome. I'll start the New Year's eat healthy resolutions sometime, but I live in Spain so one must soak it all up...even calories. These are churros...traditional Spanish item. You dip the churros in the chocolate; yes, that's a full mug of chocolate, then drink the mug. Here is where I would normally insert a #fatamericankid tag, but hey, it was a Spanish thing. Just exploring culture! Awesome girl in pic is our friend Terese, from Philly. Such a treat to get to hang out!

"Nation Builders"

I assist in teaching 3 through 11-year-olds in my school. This is my first grade class with the English teacher Nuria. She is a wonderful teacher and has been a pleasure to get to work with! She even bought me peanut butter because she heard me mention I missed it! This was taken in front of the letter we wrote to our pen pal class with my friend's (Amy Klinner's) class in Texas.

I have thoroughly enjoyed teaching. It has been quite a shift from the design world that I'm used to, but I have found many interesting parallels. As an Irish pilot friend I met in Greensboro put it, I'm "conveying info (designer's job) the old school way by teaching." And in many ways it is. You must design the way you present information whether that's visually or just how you approach the subject with the students. I am eager to continue in life with my investigations into the role of design in education--to explore what types of designed information allows for maximum comprehension and information attainment.

One thing I've noticed about the school system here that is quite contrary to that of the States is that teachers love their jobs and continuously tell me how lucky they are to have a great job. I know teachers in America who "love" their jobs, but it's rare that they would ever boast about what a "great" job is it. If I'm correct, I remember teachers feeling under-valued, under-rated, and under-paid. They might love the impact they can have on students, but certainly do not think that it is compensated well or comes with good benefits. It is a government job which I assume comes with a little more security and long-term benefits. But in Spain teachers have extreme job security, get paid very well, and have wonderful benefits. The nation seems to value the potential their teachers have to make them a world competitor. Even in the fact that this language assistant program exists. I am here with a government program that has placed over 1200 native English (and some French, German, and Chinese teachers) in their schools so that their students can learn native accents (my poor kids learning Alabama English!). A funny side-note on that is that the materials we use in class is all British-based English. I often feel like I'm confusing my kids because they have learned words with British accents like, "I cahn go...," "I move my ahms." And words like "ladybird" instead of ladybug, "trainers" instead of tennis shoes, "rubber" instead of eraser, etc. Back to my point. Katie and I have often thought, "Wow, it seems like a waste of money for their government that we play with three-year-olds and teach them colors, numbers, animals, etc. Seems like they could put their money to better use elsewhere." But the thing is, they know if their children can master English with a decent accent, they will be immensely more empowered as a nation and individuals to be world competitors. At first this sounds bad because it seems like English is taking over the world. But it's not like their native languages are dying. The region has made huge efforts to preserve the native Galician language in addition to Spanish. So in the schools the children, by law, learn Spanish, Galician, and English. Three languages from three-years-old!

I just read an article in the NY Times today about education in America by one of my favorite writers, Thomas Friedman. He profoundly calls the "epicenter of national security" the Education Department. He notes that (I am making no political statements here on leaders or parties): "President Obama got this one exactly right when he said that whoever 'out-educates us today is going to out-compete us tomorrow.' The bad news is that for years now we’ve been getting out-educated. The good news is that cities, states and the federal government are all fighting back. But have no illusions. We’re in a hole." He says that "if you look at the countries leading the pack in the tests that measure these skills (like Finland and Denmark), one thing stands out: they insist that their teachers come from the top one-third of their college graduating classes. As Wagner put it, 'They took teaching from an assembly-line job to a knowledge-worker’s job. They have invested massively in how they recruit, train and support teachers, to attract and retain the best.'” South Koreans even go so far as to "refer to their teachers as ‘nation builders.’ ” Incredible. And true. If you educate a nation, you prevent poverty by empowering a workforce, you fight terrorism by building up citizens who aren't vulnerable to inculcation of dangerous values, you eradicate racism by promoting understanding, and you preserve your nation's heritage and history and build on it by making culture within the walls of schools. He then ends on a reminder note that education starts in homes. Parents must first value education so that there is pressure on the government to start investing in it more.

Thankful for the parents and teachers who took time to teach me.

Typical Spanish Sight

So Katie and I have finally gotten the hang of most of the buses around here. However, at first, it took several mis-taken bus rides to figure out which often cost us precious money and time. Yikes. So on one of these mal-planned trips, we found ourselves waiting in this tee-niney town the café, that was essentially the bus stop, for 2.45 hours, sans wifi. Let me tell you how fun that was. It was at least fun to observe some culture. Katie snuck this picture of all the men at the bar. Definitely a typical sight you see here. Apparently this little town is known for its ham and this café is a ham shop. (gracias to Katie Norton for the photo!)

Lost friend

Loved this flyer I saw on a lightpost the other day for a lost stuffed animal: "If you find him, please call me." Sweet parent. Hope they find it.

Galicia countryside

Taken on train from Santiago to Ourense. The gorgeous Galician countryside. Looks more or less like what I pass on the way to work everyday. Stone houses with little vineyards and patches of gardens. Sometimes women herding goats. Here is a Tour Galicia video (it's a bit sensual, sorry, but so is every advertisement here-there are definitely different guidelines on what's appropriate!). As Katie's film professor at Auburn explained it, Spanish film has way more nudity and sex than American film because for them it's beautiful/natural, and way less violence because it is something very offensive and natural. Trying to stay objective on my blog! Not saying what's better/worse about each place, just noting differences, but the whole point of travel is to immerse yourself in a DIFFERENT place. To see a new way of life. Alternative ways of doing things. New ways of approaching life, food, people, art, transportation, etc. We might return home to choose our culture's ways over the other's. But the point is that we experienced something different. I imagine at the end of this year, I'll return to sweet you-know-what Alabama and slip more or less back into "normal" life wherever that may mean, but there's no way I'll be able to return without appropriating some of these new things I've seen here.

"We do not take a trip; a trip takes us." -John Steinbeck

El Camino

After talking to all of the pilgrims on the Camino on our Santiago/Finisterre trip, all of my romantic dreams of doing it someday have been shattered. Their stories of bed bugs, wet clothes because you don't have time to stay in a place two days to let your laundry dry, having to start walking at 8:00 am which here means in the dark of night, etc. all sort of took any of those desires away. One of them told us that a good majority of people on the alk now are Germans and South Koreans. A Korean reporter or actress or something wrote a book or made a TV series on it, so it's now a popular destination for Koreans. I think a Martin Sheen movie comes out soon called The Way which will mean hoards of Americans will probably come too. For the Germans it was a popular book by a comedian, Hape Kerkeling. I loved a quote from his book I heard on a Rick Steves podcast: "The creator tosses up into the air and then to our happy amazement catches us again at just the right moment. It is like the spirited game parents play with their children. The message is: "Have faith in the one who's tossing you because He loves you and will quite un-expectedly be the one to catch you too. And when I think back on all that has happened along the way I realized that God kept tossing me into the air and catching me again. We encountered each other every single day." Hape Kerkeling

I definitely feel like I can relate to the feeling of being tossed (lost, unsure) but then feeling like He catches you and all is actually well.

Finisterre

Finisterre is what the Romans long considered the "End of the World." It is what they thought was the furthest point jutting out into the raging waters of the Atlantic with waters so rough and cliffs so rocky, it's termed the "Coast of Death." The last place before Hades or falling of the edge of the earth...actually I don't really know what they thought came next, I'm sort of just romanticizing it. Either way, it was quite fun to get there and have to say, "Excuse me sir, could you tell us which road to walk along to get to the end of the earth." One man just decided he would walk half way with us and give a little history while he was at it. Santiago de Compostella is technically the end of the Camino de Santiago, but some pilgrims decide to just keeping going until they can't walk any further because of the barrier of, well, an ocean. Tradition has it that they burn their clothes at the end of it as a symbol of burning their old life to go home to a new one. However, this summer a pilgrim caught part of the hillside on fire so they have prohibited that. We actually made this trip quite quickly, taking the train from Ourense at 7:00 a.m. to Santiago de Compostella, switching to a 2.5 hour bus to Finisterre. Walking up the 4 km hill to the end of land, pulling a Chevy Chase by looking around, taking a moment to soak it up, took some photos, walked back down, and caught the bus back, and then the train. It rained most of the way there, but cleared up as soon as we got there, making for the walk up the cliffside street a beautiful path looking out over the Atlantic with the sun beaming through the clouds. While we were past the lighthouse on the rocks that head down to the coast, the wind was so strong I literally was having a really hard time standing. I was holding onto rocks and sort of having to gasp for air because the pressure of the wind was making it quite hard to breathe. This meant we didn't just chill out on the rocks for a while as it was a challenge.

(Apologies again for terrible photos...I have finally figured out there was a huge hand print residue on my lens...uggg)

An award-winning cemetery

At first I wasn't super excited about a 2.5 hour bus ride for such a quick trip, but the last two hours of it were on a road literally on the coast (like often nothing between us and the sand of beaches). It wound in and out of all of the bays (fjords?) into little idyllic Galician fishing villages with their colorful little boats anchored in the inlets. In the gaps of our conversation with a couple of pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago, I basically sat jaw dropped staring out the window at the allure of the sea. Hemingway says that those who love the sea call it la mar (giving it a feminine gender) instead of the correct word, el mar. That's when I decided I love Galicia (still struggling a little with the rain every day thing, but this was the "wow, I live in an awesome place" moment). What amazed me was how undeveloped the shore was. We would pass through one little village on the water and then there wouldn't be much, and then another little village built up from the water. Any place like this in the States would be solid condos. It seemed like it was like if you're born to that town, you live there, but the whole doesn't move in there to be as close to beauty as possible, therefore destroying what made it beautiful.

The pilgrims we met on that bus ride and later back in Santiago were very interesting to talk to. They were all quick to state how incredible the Camino was and how it is life changing. Then past that, the rest of the conversation turned to how hard it is and the fact that half of them were limping was testimony to that. Also while back in Santiago, waiting on the train, we found an Alabama Cafe! We had coffee and asked the waiter why it was called that. He said because it's a state in the United States. We said, "Yeah, we're from there!" And he was like, "Yeah, it's a state in the United States." Um, yes, we know. : )

Our great day sailing

Just a photo...read a few posts back for description.

Ourense

I am currently living in Ourense, Galicia, Spain. The city is nestled in the mountains with the steady Río Miño flowing through it. There is an old center that fits the quintessential European appearance of open squares, stone buildings, cobblestone streets, winding alleys, and layers of different development added each year for centuries. If you peel them away there's no telling what you would find. There are few dilapidated buildings being torn down to reconstruct new ones and when I walk by I can see several feet under street level--I'd love to know what the construction workers uncover! My favorite time of day here is around 6:00 when everyone is out strolling the pedestrian-only "paseo." This main street stretches the length of the old center and is all stores and cafes on the first floors of all of the buildings. I so much enjoy walking slowly through the crowd of people. Many walk arm in arm, often with 2-3 generations in each group. Window shopping seems to be a favorite here. People do go in stores, but the window displays are intricately designed because most people just stroll by them checking out the new styles. Several people have commented to me that the citizens of Ourense are known for how fashionable they are. Zara, H & M, and Zara Home might be the death of my checkbook. Wait, let me re-phrase: the death of my cashflow. I don't have checks here and it seems like no one else does either. They surely have to have checks here, but everyone uses cash for everything, or credit cards for large purchases. I've yet to see someone pay for a meal with a card. It's so nice that there isn't additional tax. So when your pizza costs 5 euros, you pay 5 euros and aren't expected to tip. It makes group meals so much easier! Outside of the old center it feels more like any urban city with loud streets, traffic that makes me feel like each street crossing is a suicide attempt, and apartment building after apartment building. Since everyone here lives in apartments, the obvious lack of yards means that there are parks interspersed throughout the city that at night become the city's "front porch." They are always filled with kids on the playgrounds, moms in heels chatting, dads with strollers, and old men watching the world go by from their bench perches. The park by my house has a few resident peacocks which always charms me when I come across one in the middle of a city. More on Ourense as I put my exploring senses to work...

My favorite cafe in Ourense, Cafe Real.

The famous Camino de Santiago goes through Ourense (one of the trails...this one is not the main one from France that travels through northern Spain). I love walking out of my apartment and seeing a trail marker like this one that mark the camino for pilgrims. It reminds me that I'm living on a camino (journey, adventure, path) everyday. This one is on the city's old Roman Bridge.

So far my favorite piece of graphic design from Ourense. (Sorry for the terrible photo...it was from far away. These photos are more so just to show you what it looks like, not really to capture some great artsy subject!)

A church in Ourense. It's washed out up top...didn't realize this when I took it...just thankful for a sunny day though ! Everyone loves to keep reminding me how rare that is here. (It think the foggy air here makes every photo look over exposed).

Millennium Bridge in Ourense. The next bridge down from the Roman Bridge. Two thousand years of history between the two.

Spain's old peoples' favorite things seems to be sitting on benches people watching. (Bad photo because I obviously didn't want to be rude and take this photo where they could see me. I was very far away and inconspicuous!)

Part of Ourense's old center. Note the palm tree (and I see sea gulls out my window all the time). I guess it makes sense because I'm only an hour from the beach, but it sure does feel like I'm too much in the forested mountains to have palm trees. When everyone here tells me repeatedly that winter will be cold, cold, cold I rest assured that if there are palm trees it hopefully can't get too cold (fingers crossed!).

Ourense's Plaza Mayor with it's town hall.

Plaza Mayor, view two.

Roman Bridge

The surface may be small

"You say: Galicia is very small. And I say: there is a World of Galicia. Every piece of a land is in itself as the entire World. You may journey from North to South, from East to West, in little time; you may do so over and over again, and yet you shall not travel it whole. And every time you go, you shall come across new things (…) The surface may be small; in depth, entity, Galicia is as great as you wish…" -Vicente Risco

This type of cross statue very Galician. Many yards and town squares are home to such statues (however, I can't remember the special name they call them!).

Perfect Day

I promise more photos coming soon when I remember to bring my camera to the cafe with me! We took the train from Ourense to Vigo yesterday. It takes almost double the time a bus takes but it was like a dream. I got on the train thinking that I'd read or sleep the two hours there but I couldn't peel my eyes from the window. It was like a scene out of Lord of the Rings or a fairy tale. Everything I read about Galicia before coming used the word mystical and now I understand. The blankets of fog here every morning conceal parts of the landscape like they're hiding things in the mountains. As it recedes throughout the day it spreads into finger-like strands like it's releasing it's grip finger by finger from the land. The train followed the Miño River for the majority of the journey as it wound through mountains. There was little development on the river except for some rural towns or plots of family-cultivated land. Katie and I sat jaw-dropped the whole trip.

The purpose of our trip to Vigo was to hang out with Marta, a sibling in the Morales Iglesias family and see some of the other assistants with our program. Marta graciously invited us to go on her friend's sailboat in the bay. We crossed the bridge the other day over the bay and I remember looking out thinking, "Wow, so beautiful, but I'll probably never be on that water and able to see Vigo from the sea." And here we are three weeks in and I'm on a boat. It was a PERFECT DAY. The family was arms-wide-open welcoming as everyone here. And as usual, the conversation was engaging and interesting. My impression before coming (and based on my previous time in Europe) was that there is a bit of a sensitive spot between Americans and Europeans. Many Americans tramp through Europe very insensitively and very arrogantly, leaving a bad taste on the local palates. However, everyone here has shown much interest in our lives in American and have assured us that they like Americans. Whew.

We were able to sail over to a beach, past the mussel traps, and near the Islas Cies. Seeing Vigo from the water was fantastic! I just stretched out, threw off my extra sweater, rolled up my jeans and basked. So thankful for Marta, Elena, and her family. A little Frank Sinatra in the background from the boat speakers set the perfect scene.