Posted by Chris Showers on November 16th, 2009.
After a little over two months of seeing no activity on this site, my regular readers have probably been wondering where I’ve been at. I’ve been here — in Spain — but I’ve been very busy. Between teaching at the school and giving private English classes I just haven’t had a lot of time to do many other things.
I believe that things are starting to calm down a bit and I’m starting to get a better handle on my hectic schedule. That’s why (I hope) I will be able to put an end to my two-month hiatus and begin writing new entries starting today. Continue reading this post…
Posted by Chris Showers on September 5th, 2009.
 La Yecla is a narrow pass that many rare birds call home. As most of you who read this blog probably already know, I recently took a trip to the Monasterio de Santo Domingo de Silos. What you probably don’t already know is that I made another stop on that trip in addition to visiting the “singing monks.” That other stop was to a nearby natural park known as “El Desfiladero de la Yecla.”
As you can see from the photo above, La Yecla is basically a very narrow canyon which happens to have a path constructed right through the middle to allow visitors to explore its depths. The interesting thing about La Yecla is that it is home to many rare bird species — especially vultures. I didn’t manage to see any vultures during my recent visit; however, I did enjoy the rock formations and the various man-made fountains that are fed by the river which runs through the bottom of the canyon. Continue reading this post…
Posted by Chris Showers on September 1st, 2009.
As most of you probably already know, I’m an English teacher by trade. I work in a high school here in Burgos and I also teach a few private English classes on the side. I enjoy all my classes (both at the school and the private ones) and really like working with my students. Still, no matter how much I enjoy my job or like working with my students, there are always those days when things just don’t seem to go right.
Today was one of those days. You see, I just got home from a private class with a “very energetic” five year old student. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a great kid, but keeping his attention is a task. Let me give you an example….
The topic of today’s lesson was “fruits.” I went to my young student’s house with my colorful “fruit book” and I also brought along some plastic fruits to use as visual aids. I read him the fruit book a couple of times and everything went fine. After a while, my young student was starting to recognize the fruits in the book pretty well… so I decided it was time to whip out the plastic fruits and do some vocabulary practice — bad idea. My dear little student saw the plastic fruits and went totally “loco.” He began to grab the fruits from me, hit me over the head with them, and he even went as far as to step on my plastic apple leaving it totally squashed. Of course, he did all this while laughing uncontrollably and saying “frutas, frutas” in Spanish.
What have I learned from this ordeal? When using plastic fruits with five-year-olds, be careful that they don’t throw any at your head. You may also want to watch their feet just in case they get the urge to trample a plastic apple. And always carry a “back-up” supply of plastic fruit — something is bound to come up missing. Continue reading this post…
Posted by Chris Showers on August 30th, 2009.
This Sunday I would like to tell you about another useful Spanish expression: mira a ver. In a nutshell, this expression equates to something like “look and see” in English. Let’s look at a sample dialogue:
Spanish husband: Cariño, ¿lo tienes todo? No quiero tener que volver a casa a por algún artículo olvidado como la última vez. (Honey, do you have everything? I don’t want to have to come back home looking for some forgotten item like the last time.)
Spanish wife: Sí, creo que sí… pero, ¿dónde tengo el móvil? (Yeah, I think so… but, where’s my cell phone?)
Spanish husband: Pues no sé, ¿no lo habías metido en tu bolso? Mira a ver…. (I don’t know, didn’t you put it in your purse? Look and see….)
Spanish wife: Sí, tienes razón, aquí está. (Yeah, you’re right, here it is.)
And that, my friends, is an explanation of this little “frase hecha.” Continue reading this post…
Posted by Chris Showers on August 26th, 2009.
I’ve noticed something since returning to Spain a couple of weeks ago: everyone is gone. What do I mean by that? It’s simple, really: August is “vacation” month in Spain and lots (and I do mean lots) of Spaniards go to the beach, the “pueblo,” or another country during this month.
Now, it’s not at all a bad thing that Spaniards leave in August, but I kind of wish they didn’t have to close down entire stores for the duration of their absence. It’s a little inconvenient to walk down the street to your favorite bakery and find a sign on the door that says that they have closed up shop for the whole month of August due to vacations. Of course, I guess everyone — even the baker — needs to get away and relax a little, right? Speaking of relaxation for the baker, I wonder how the owners of little “mom and pop” stores in the USA go on vacation? You never see shops closed there.
Here’s a little something fun for this August “vacation” post. How about if everybody who reads this writes a comment about their most recent and/or most memorable trip? I’d be interested in hearing about the great places that you’ve visited and the corners of the world that you’ve found yourself in. Continue reading this post…
Posted by Chris Showers on August 23rd, 2009.
 The cloister of the monastery. I just got back from visiting the Monasterio de Santo Domingo de Silos and thought I would share a little information with you about the monastery and the monks that live inside it.
The monastery is located about 45 minutes outside the city of Burgos in a quaint little village known as “Santo Domingo de Silos.” It’s home to a group of Benedictine monks. Certain parts of the monastery are open to the public and visitors can pay three Euros to have a guided tour. On the tour you will see things like the beautifully landscaped cloister of the monastery and some very interesting (and very old) religious sculptures and carvings which line the walls of the complex. Continue reading this post…
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