Posted by Chris Showers on November 21st, 2009.
 A spectacular view of one of the largest altarpieces in the Cathedral of Burgos. Whether you’re Catholic or not, it’s impressive to look at. Not too long ago I wrote a post about the exterior of the Cathedral of Burgos, a thirteenth century Catholic Cathedral. As far as cathedrals in Spain go, this one is a bit on the famous side — and it’s no wonder why. The building itself is beautiful.
Just the other day I paid another trip to the Burgos Cathedral and I decided to expand upon my last post by taking some photos of the interior of the building to share with you. As you can see, the interior is very ornate and beautiful. Still, what’s really amazing to me is the fact that practically all of the art housed in this cathedral (sculptures, statues, altarpieces, etc.) dates back centuries. To put it in perspective for you, work on this cathedral began before the continent of America was even discovered by Christopher Columbus — that’s a long time for a bunch of “old statues” to survive. Continue reading this post…
Posted by Chris Showers on November 18th, 2009.
Last month I picked up my new foreigner residency card at the police station so that I could be “legal” for another year in Spain. This was the first time I have actually had to renew my card from within Spain and I must say that the process, while extremely interesting to me as a foreigner (I’d never seen anything quite like it in my life), was not exactly what I would consider “seamless.”
To give you an idea of what I had to do to get my residency card renewed here in Spain, I’m going to break the process down into steps. 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 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…
Posted by Chris Showers on August 20th, 2009.
 Cars parked outside the blue lines… is this a way for Spaniards to rebel against the parking police? I took this “aerial shot” from the living room window of my apartment (I live on the fourth floor). I wanted to share it with you because, as you can see, there are four cars parked along the street and, to my disbelief, none of them are actually parked within the blue lines the way they should be. But don’t take my word for it — click on the picture above to see the larger version and judge for yourself just how “off the mark” each car is.
No matter what time of day it is or how many cars are parked along my street, none of them ever use the blue lines. In fact, I am looking out the window right now and see over 20 cars parked everywhere but within the blue lines. When I see this, I can’t help but wonder why and how it happens. In the USA, it’s pretty unlikely that you would regularly see cars parked like this for the simple fact that they’d be fined almost immediately for taking up more than one space.
So, here’s something for us to debate in this post. Why do you think that “park jobs” in Spain are so “unique?” Are Spaniards in Burgos starting a non-conformist parking movement? Is this a way for them to rebel against meter maids everywhere? Maybe it just boils down to a different way of looking at the world? Leave your opinion below. Continue reading this post…
Posted by Chris Showers on August 20th, 2009.
 I never tire of walking past the Cathedral of Burgos on a sunny day. Here in Burgos, we are lucky enough to have a Gothic-style cathedral known as the “Cathedral of Burgos” (unique name, right?). Construction on the cathedral began way back in the year 1221 and the marvelous building has been standing ever since then. As far as Spanish cathedrals go, this one is actually a bit on the famous side and, during the summer months, tourists flock to see it.
You know, I have been living in Burgos for about a year now, have walked past this cathedral hundreds of times, and have made numerous visits to see its interior. Still, I can’t help but stop and admire it every time I walk by. When I think of the age of the building and the fact that its ornate artwork had to have been done by hand, I simply can’t help but be impressed — and believe me, the building is impressive both inside and out. I guess having it here is just another “perk” of living in Burgos.
For those of you who are interested, you can visit the interior of the cathedral any day of the week (the times vary by season). If you’re going to be in Burgos either the second or fourth Sunday of the month, you can enter the cathedral for free after 4:00 PM; otherwise, entrance costs four or five Euros. The visit includes seeing the actual cathedral itself and a walk through a small museum that explains how the building was originally built and later restored. Continue reading this post…
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