Posted by Chris Showers on May 22nd, 2009.
Anybody have a cheap apartment in Burgos that they want to rent to me? My lease is up in the place that I’m currently living at and it’s time for me to start looking for a new place to live.
You know, the whole “apartment search” thing for me is a little stressful. After all, I can only be in the place that I’m currently at until the end of June and, because of the looming deadline, I can’t help but wonder what might happen if I don’t find a new apartment to move into by the time my current lease expires. Will I become a member of the Burgos homeless population? Will I have to rename this blog to “Abroad in the streets of Spain?” I hope not. Continue reading this post…
Posted by Chris Showers on May 17th, 2009.
AHHHHHHHHH! All of a sudden, I have had EVERYTHING happen to me at once and I am now just a little STRESSED OUT. My nice, simple life in Spain has turned into a chaotic, stressful one… but the stress will not be permanent (I hope).
You see, I’ve been procrastinating a bit over the last few months and, now that June is approaching, I’m suddenly realizing that I have a lot of things to get done. In fact, before the end of June I have the following goals: renew my residency card, look for a new apartment, get a new insurance policy, and look into a course that I want to do at the university. All this is quite a bit on top of my regular schedule at the school and giving private classes.
I have a June 30th deadline for all these things because in July I’m going home to the USA for a visit. Of course, I want to leave these things done so that they don’t “linger on” until after I return to Spain in August. Continue reading this post…
Posted by Chris Showers on May 16th, 2009.
 Guides talk about a human scull found at the Atapuerca site in Spain. If you read this blog regularly, you probably already know that this week there are several Italian and Turkish students visiting my school. Since I’ve kinda become their “official translator/guide” for the week, I had the chance to take them to the Atapuerca Archaeological Site that is located just a few kilometers away from the city of Burgos.
Before going on this little excursion with the students, I was kinda grumbling to my friends about having to go. Honestly, I didn’t think there would be much to see at Atapuerca and I felt a little as if I had better things to do with my time. I was wrong. Continue reading this post…
Posted by Chris Showers on May 12th, 2009.
 Me with Turkish and Italian students who were received by the mayor of Burgos. Well, I’ve finally ”made it big.” I’m now a star in the city of Burgos because I was in the local newspaper here. Please, leave your autograph requests in the comment section of this post (ha!).
You see, the high school that I work at participates in the European Comenius Program. If you’re unfamiliar with the program, it’s basically a student exchange in which students from various foreign countries come to Spain to spend a few weeks at our school and afterwards students from our school go abroad. In this way, students from across Europe (and its surrounding areas) get to meet their counterparts in other countries.
Anyway, right now some Turkish and Italian students are at our school visiting with the Comenius Program and, because they don’t speak Spanish but do speak English, I have been spending the week acting as their “official translator and interpreter.” This means that I had to accompany them yesterday to a welcoming ceremony held in the Burgos Town Hall by the mayor. Of course, since the mayor was involved, the press was there and I had the lovely photo that you see above taken with the students.
This picture actually was printed in two — yes, two — newspapers (one local and one national). I’m assuming it was some type of “standard press release photo” because in both papers the same photo appears with the same caption. I literally “took a picture of the picture” in order to post it on my blog, so I’m sorry if it’s of low quality. Also, I’m way in the back of the photo behind most of the students; sooooo, although you probably can’t even see me, I assure you that I’m there. Continue reading this post…
Posted by Chris Showers on May 10th, 2009.
 Ice cream stands like this one have been popping up all over the city of Burgos recently. Just within the last week or two, lots of odd-looking, brown booths like the one pictured above have mysteriously appeared around the city of Burgos. At first, I wasn’t really sure what these little booths were for since they were all closed and locked up very tightly. Later, however, when the weather began to break here, these strange little buildings that resemble tool sheds began to open their “hatches” and I soon realized that they were ice cream booths designed to keep passersby cool on those hot, summer Burgos days.
I think it’s a cool (literally “cool”) idea to have ice cream booths strategically placed around the city. I guess, in a way, these booths are the Spanish version of the familiar “ice cream truck man” that I grew up with in the States. Speaking of the ice cream truck man, does anybody know if there are ice cream trucks in Spain? Personally, I’ve never seen one here… I guess the booth is as close as they get to the whole “mobile frozen treats” thing.
Here’s something fun for this post. Would everyone who reads this post please write a short comment below telling me what your favorite ice cream flavor is? Continue reading this post…
Posted by Chris Showers on May 9th, 2009.
 It’s been a while since I’ve written a book review on the site and I thought it was about time. So, today I’d like to tell you about “La Sombra del Viento” by Carlos Ruiz Zafón.
This book has been a bestseller here in Spain for quite some time now. In fact, I believe it was released around 2001 or 2002, and since that time it has been pretty popular in bookstores. It’s no surprise to me that it’s popular here — this book is one of the best fictional novels that I’ve ever read.
The book is about a child named Daniel who one day discovers a forgotten book on the dusty shelves of the “Forgotten Book Cemetery” — a place that his father, who owns a bookstore, frequents. Daniel becomes so intrigued by the forgotten book that he decides to investigate into the life of its author: Julián Carax. Of course, there is a problem: Carax’s life turns out to be very obscure and takes many twists and turns. Daniel soon becomes obsessed with finding out more about Carax’s life and this novel basically tells the story of Daniel’s search for information.
I really enjoyed reading this book because it is set in Barcelona, Spain right after the Spanish Civil War and is written in a way that makes you feel as if you really are in the city of Barcelona. It describes the buildings there, it describes the things the people do on the street there — it basically transcends you to the Barcelona of the early twentieth century. Another thing that I found very interesting about this book is that it is full of details and is told through several overlapping stories of love, hatred, mystery, and intrigue. These intertwined stories make the book extremely interesting to read and come together perfectly at the end of the novel to form a very well-executed closing. Continue reading this post…
|
|
Recent Comments