December 6, 2021 In the middle of my trip to Porto, Portugal, I signed up for a full-day tour to two nearby towns: Braga and Guimarães. I went to the meeting point and met the seven other people I'd be spending the day with: two couples from Canada, one couple from the US, and our… Continue reading Braga and Guimarães
Porto, Portugal
December 4-7, 2021 With two holidays falling during the first week of December, we had a puente, which is a word that refers to long weekends created by two holidays. More specifically, when there is a bridge (puente) over a day in the middle, such as this week, where the holidays fell on Monday (Constitution… Continue reading Porto, Portugal
Weekend in Valencia: Day 4
October 29 - November 21, 2021 On my last day in Valencia, I met up with Tony to do the 11 AM Free Walking Tour of Valencia. After this, I was planning on taking a train back to Cartagena because it's a long trek back. Unfortunately, all the trains were sold out and I couldn't… Continue reading Weekend in Valencia: Day 4
Weekend in Valencia: Day 3
October 29 - November 1, 2021 Day three was definitely the busiest day in Valencia. I started my morning by going to the Museo Taurino (Bullfighting Museum). While this was offputting to me, especially as a vegetarian with particular concern for animal welfare, it is a significant part of culture that I wanted to learn… Continue reading Weekend in Valencia: Day 3
Weekend in Valencia: Day 2
October 29 - November 1, 2021 Being out late the night before, I slept in for a while. In the early afternoon, I headed down to the Valencia City Hall square where the tourism office is located. Here, I got a pass for the weekend which included public transportation fare and some museum entries, and… Continue reading Weekend in Valencia: Day 2
Weekend in Valencia: Day 1
October 29 - November 1, 2021 My first long weekend of the year in Spain plus Halloween weekend, I decided to take a trip. I selected Valencia, mainly because it is just far enough away that a long weekend is needed, and Tony, the other auxiliar I met on the Madrid airport train, lived there.… Continue reading Weekend in Valencia: Day 1
Arriving in Cartagena
I've yet to blog about arriving in my new city! On October 18, I came to Cartegena, a city in the Region of Murcia. This is in the southeast of Spain, while Pontevedra was in the northeast. So, opposite sides of the country and certainly a different climate and culture. My friend in Galicia, Whitney,… Continue reading Arriving in Cartagena
Roadtrip to the Homeland 2.0
October 12-14, 2021 My mom was recently reconnected with one of her cousins in Canada during our citizenship verification process. She had mentioned wanting to visit this summer before I returned to Spain. Unfortunately, due to the Canadian border being closed and then the Spanish Consulate having my passport for a month, it didn't look… Continue reading Roadtrip to the Homeland 2.0
Visa Secured
Because I left Spain for more than three months this summer, I had to go through the tedious process of reapplying for a visa to return to the auxiliar de conversación program for 2021-22. Today, I made the trip down to Boston to pick it up - unfortunately it was the end of a holiday… Continue reading Visa Secured
Seattle Day 7
One last sight on my list that I really wanted to see was the Kurt Cobain bench. This is a bench in the small Viretta Park bordering his Seattle home (in which he eventually died). It's said he wrote many of his songs sitting on this bench and reflecting. While the boards of the original… Continue reading Seattle Day 7