Abby in Logroño, Spain

Santander, Spain: October 23 - 26

2009-03-17T11:36:00.004+01:00

Zaragoza, Spain - Fiesta del Pilar: October 11

2009-03-17T11:35:00.003+01:00

Santoña, Spain: September 22

2009-03-17T11:34:00.003+01:00

Gijon, Spain: September 16 – 18

2009-03-17T11:22:00.004+01:00

World Book Day at my Primary School

2008-08-07T21:00:00.000+02:00

On Friday, April 23 my primary school celebrated 'World Book Day'. After classes got over all the children went to the playground for the party to begin. My school had different little stages set up where some of the teachers read stories in Spanish and English stories to the children. All the children got to dress up all day for the party at the school. Below is a photo of one of the teachers in my school dressed up with some of her students.

Here I am standing with the English teachers at my Primary School. The two women that are in dresses are not English teachers. I loved their outfits so much we had them join the photo. The dresses were made up of different cartons and cardboard. How creative!

Ruben, the main English teacher at the primary school is telling his story in English to the students. The students had a great time!

Another Year!

2008-06-02T10:49:00.001+02:00

I am happy to say that since I have enjoyed this experience, the lifestyle, teaching and learning about the Spanish culture I will be returning sometime this coming September to teach one more year! Ben and I have been accepted to come back to teach in the same city of Logrono, Spain. This year, I worked at a Primary School and High School. Next year, I will be working at two different High Schools. I really enjoy teaching English here. Here are the websites for my two new schools for next year: IES d'Elhuyar - http://www.iesdelhuyar.com/and IES Comercio - http://www.iescomercio.com/ On the second website you can even change it to the English language to read! Click on the menu on the upper right hand corner to English. The other one is only in Spanish. I hope to see you all during the summer when I get back to the US!

Cordoba, Spain in the Springtime!

2008-05-16T15:58:00.001+02:00

Cordoba, Spain is an absolute beautiful city in the springtime! On March 27, 28 and 29 Ben and I went to discover the great city of Cordoba that I had also traveled to before. The city fragrantly smelled of fresh orange blossoms everywhere! We happened to find one of the best hostels that we have stayed in so far that gave us a cool attic-style room with a nice terrace to sit out on to enjoy the wonderful weather we had. We were also lucky to share that terrace with an older couple that came to Cordoba from Belgium. It was great to meet other travelers.

There are many different sights to see in Cordoba such as the Mezquita, a 14th century synagogue, the Alcazar of the Christian Kings, the Palace of Viana with its many patios, and many presevered Arab baths.

The Mezquita, which means 'The Mosque', dates back to the year 784 when its construction started and was eventually converted into a Cathedral after the Reconquista in Spain. Below are a few photos inside and outside the Mezquita.

Our hostel was near The Alcazar of the Christian Kings. This palace was very beautiful and had excellent gardens to walk around in. The next photos are from The Alcazar of the Christian Kings.

Another famous place to see in Cordoba is the Calleja de las Flores which means in English 'Street of Flowers'. The flowers are beautiful in this small street in the old part of the city. When you get to the very end of the street it provides an excellent photo with the street and the Mezquita in the distance. I love this photo of Ben as his sweatshirt really brings out the red flowers on the street.

This photo is one of the bridges in Cordoba. The river didn't have much water in it when we were there. This bridge leads to The Tower of Calahorra which was under restoration. Usually the tower provides a great look out point to view the city of Cordoba from above.

Cordoba is a great city. I think Cordoba would be one of my favorite cities in southern Spain right now. The people were friendly, the sights were beautiful to see, and our hostel was excellent. If you like flowers, this is the place to visit. The next few photos are just some of the flower photos I took while I was in Cordoba.

After Cordoba Ben and I had a long day of traveling to get back home to Logrono. We had to take two different bus rides which equaled to be about 9 hours of sitting in a bus. After seeing all the different cities and their beautiful sights during Easter Break, I know that my adventure through the south of Spain was definitively worth it all!

Granada, Spain during Easter Break

2008-05-15T15:12:00.004+02:00

After Gibraltar we traveled to Granada, Spain on March 25 & 26. I had traveled to Sevilla and Granada once before when I went with my high school Spanish group about eight years ago but it was great to visit and see all the beauty of the south of Spain again. The city of Granada is a very good tourist destination. It has many beautiful sights.

One of the most famous sights to see in Granada is 'La Alhambra'. 'La Alhambra' is an old palace which is made of up of many buildings built by both the Muslims and Christians. It is easy to tell which parts of 'La Alhambra' are made up by the Muslims and the Christians. The gardens in the palaces are very beautiful!! Everything is a wonder to see. There are many fountains, patios, gardens and towers. There are excellent views of the city center of Granada, the mountains that surround the city and also the famous neighborhoods on the outskirts of the city that are all white!

This is one of the most famous places to take a photo of in 'La Alhambra'. We had a remarkably beautiful day to visit the palaces.

Many of the walls in 'La Alhambra' were intricately carved. I enjoyed seeing all the different carvings in each room.

I am standing in front of another beautiful garden in 'La Alhambra'.

More beautiful fountains and gardens in 'La Alhambra'.

In the background is the famous neighborhood, in the outskirts of Granada, with all of the white painted houses.

The mountains that surround the city of Granada.

The Cathedral in Granada is in the old part of the city. It is very hard to take a photo of the Cathedral when you are close up to it. This Cathedral doesn't have any major square or plaza around it and is very close to all the other old buildings. This photo was taken from the top of a tower in 'La Alhambra'.

I'm standing on the tower with the Cathedral behind me.

I am sitting in the famous neighborhood of white painted houses with 'La Alhambra' in the background.
After Ben and I visited Granada for a couple days we traveled on to visit Cordoba, Spain for a few days before heading back to Logrono.

Gibraltar & the monkeys!!!

2008-05-14T14:11:00.001+02:00

Gibraltar was a great place to travel to for a day during our Easter break trip. Ben and I stayed in a small town in Spain called 'La Linea de la Concepcion' next to the border between Spain and Gibraltar. We walked across the border (which is an airport runway) without any trouble into Gibraltar and went on our way to find the monkeys of Gibraltar. We decided to take a small cable car up to the 'Top of the Rock'. There were many many tourists and the line was long but way worth it! We finally arrived to the top very close to the closing time for the cable car to go down to the bottom again. We decided we would stay up there longer and take photos of the monkeys and then walk down the mountain. There are some people that do that.

The monkeys were absolutely great! I loved every minute of it. I took so many photos of all the monkeys. After we stayed up there for awhile we started our descent down the mountain. I never realized how sore you can be by walking down a mountain for a long time! As we were walking down the mountain we would find random groupings of monkeys all around the road and have to stop to take many more photos of the monkeys. We were very close to the bottom of the mountain and we saw three tourists taking photos of about five monkeys. We decided that we had to go and take more photos. The monkeys were running wild all around us. I went to talk to Ben who was a little farther ahead of me taking some photos of the monkeys and as I walked past one of the monkeys he jumped on my back! I had a monkey on my back!!! I couldn't believe it. I leaned over to make my back like a table hoping that the monkey would jump off fast and luckily he did. Ben and a quick opportunity to see the monkey on my back as I shouted with surprise not knowing what had just happened to me! It felt like a big big cat had jump on my back. It was very surprising. I didn't even have any food on me so who knows why the monkey did it. Now I will always have an exciting story from Gibraltar.

The monkeys run wild and are not afraid of people. This monkey decided he want a ride down the mountain on the top of the SUV.

Ben was deep in thought with a monkey in Gibraltar. He loved miming the monkeys. The monkeys wouldn't even move if people got close to them!

I loved taking many many many photos of all the monkeys. They were all very photogenic for me.

This is my favorite photo of a monkey that was just about to jump from part of the building to a tree up above.

I am standing at the 'Top of the Rock' with the Straight of Gibraltar and the mountains of Africa behind me. It was great to have such a beautiful day in Gibraltar that we were able to see Africa so clearly.

After spending one day in Gibraltar with the monkeys, Ben and I traveled to Granada, Spain.

Easter Break: Sevilla

2008-05-13T21:56:00.002+02:00

Ben and I started our Easter break in Sevilla, Spain along with my friend Tina that came to visit us from California for a week. Sevilla, Spain is most known for their religious processions during Easter. Processions go on all of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. The processions can take up to more than 14 hours. There are many different processions each day. Each procession is done by a different brotherhood of a church in Sevilla. The way the processions work is that the brotherhood starts at their own church and walk to the main central Cathedral in the old part of the city.

After they arrive at the Cathedral, they walk around the outside of it and continue walking in the procession until they reach their church again. The processions can take any amount of time. It depends on how big the brotherhood is and how far away the church is away from the Cathedral. The biggest processions of all go on during the late hours of the night on Holy Thursday until midday the next day. Some of these processions had more than 2,500 people in it!

Ben, Tina and I decided to stay up the entire night with the millions of other people in the tiny streets of the old part the city. It is an incredible experience to be in Sevilla during Easter Break. Words cannot describe how much I enjoyed the time in Sevilla for Easter. People all have mini chairs or stand all day and night watching the slow processions go by them. There are many people lined up along the streets with just enough space to let the brotherhood walk through it. It is a very emotional and jubilant time for many. Here are some photos below of the night processions that went on during Holy Thursday and Good Friday.

First, is a photo with many candles and the Virgin Mary. These are very common in the processions. About 25 - 35 men of a brotherhood are below carrying this very heavy float throughout the streets of Sevilla. All of the men below cannot see where they are going. They are led by somebody else outside of the float. They take many breaks during the procession due to how heavy it is! The floats are used to reenact the events of Easter of each of the corresponding days.

Men walk through the streets carrying very large candles for hours in the processions. They always have their faces covered and are all in matching different colored outfits for each of the different brotherhoods. A lot of the men would even go barefoot to feel the pain that Christ had felt.

Here is a photo depicting Christ on 'Judgment Day'. This float was part of the biggest processions of all called ' La Macarena'. In Spain, 'La Macarena' is another name to refer to the Virgin Mary.
Below is a photo of men carrying crosses. Each of those crosses are very heavy and they usually walk barefoot as well! On these crosses below you can read 'Pasion' which is the same in English for 'Passion'.
During Easter break we also had time to visit many of the monuments that Sevilla has to offer. Ben and I toured the Bull Fighting ring in Sevilla. Sevilla is very known for their bullfighting. The Sunday we were in Sevilla was the opening day of the bullfighting season.

Below is the main Cathedral in Sevilla that all the processions would walk to. The Cathedral in Sevilla is the largest in Spain and also the third largest Gothic style Cathedral in the world. It was very beautiful inside. Inside the Cathedral is a tomb with the suspected remains of Christopher Colombus.

I am in the gardens at the Alcazar in Sevilla. They were very beautiful.

Tina and I are hanging out by a park. It was great having her come and visit us and getting to share the experience of Sevilla during Easter with her!

These are the customary outfits of the brotherhoods that they wear during the processions. They can range in many different colors depending on the day during Easter and the brotherhood.

After five days in Sevilla for all of the Easter celebrations Ben and I traveled on to Gibraltar to go to the top of the rock and see the monkeys of Gibraltar.

Happy Mother's Day!!

2008-05-11T11:12:00.003+02:00

As it is Mother's Day in the United States today, I want to wish my mom a Happy Mother's Day from way over here in Spain and also to all of the other mothers that read my blog. It is very interesting to learn the Spanish culture this year. Some of their holidays are not celebrated on the same day as they are in the United States. The Spanish people celebrated Mother's Day on May 4th, one week earlier than in the USA. Mom, Grandma Bernie, Grandma Joyce and everybody else reading this, I hope you have a very special Mother's Day this year! I am thinking of all of you. =)

London, England

2008-05-09T16:14:00.001+02:00

On March 8 - 11 Ben and I traveled to London, England for a long weekend. We were very excited as we got to stay with Katie Dolan, from Grafton, that has been living there for about 5 years now so we had a personal tour guide for the first day to get the feel for the city. We were let loose to tour the large city by ourselves the next couple days. We saw many different famous sights of the city. Below are some photos from the trip.

One of the famous guards in London.

Buckingham Palace

Westminster Abbey

Big Ben

View of the city

A busker grabbing a boy after he gave him some money.

Tower Bridge

Very windy on top of St. Paul's Cathedral

Front of St. Paul's Cathedral (it was very big!)

The most famous British saying...

Already April!

2008-04-02T20:12:00.002+02:00

I can't believe how time has flown here. It is already April. I can't believe that the month of March is already done with. I have been traveling so much lately that I feel I need to update you all on what I have been up to lately. I don't even know where to start. Well, let's see...last time I wrote an update I was just going to Pamplona, Spain and then to go skiing at a ski resort called Formigal. The city of Pamplona is known for the 'Running of the Bulls'. It is a city that is about 70 kilometers away from Logrono. The day that we went to Pamplona was absolutely beautiful! We had packed bocadillos (sandwiches made on amazing Spanish bread) with us to be able to eat outside and relax in the middle of the day. We chose to sit and enjoy our lunch in one of the main plazas of the city as shown in the photo below.

Here are a few more photos that I took in Pamplona, Spain.

This is the countdown to this year's 'Running of the Bulls'. It happens during the first week of July.

Here I am standing in front of the building where the 'Running of the Bulls' starts from. There are massive crowds of people in this plaza partying and celebrating during that week.

Here I am standing on the street where the 'Running of the Bulls' takes place. Boy it is a small street!

The day after we went to Pamplona we woke up at about 4:00 AM to head off with a bus load of people from Logrono to go skiing at Formigal. Formigal is a ski resort about 20 kilometers away from the border of France. It took us 4 1/2 hours by bus to travel there. It was a beautiful bus ride. We got to watch the sunrise in the mountains throughout the drive.

Here I am wearing a mismatch outfit for skiing since I didn't have any winter wear except my winter jacket here in Spain . I had a great pair of gray sweatpants that I borrowed from Ben over a pair of jeans. I also forgot my sunglasses that day so our great group leader borrowed me a pair of his!

It was a long but fun one day of skiing at Formigal. I was happy to see snow for at least one day this winter.

Planning, Planning, Planning

2008-02-22T15:55:00.001+01:00

Hello All! It has been way too long since I have last updated you about my adventures in Spain. I have been kept very busy lately. Ben and I have been on many recent travels and also planning for many future ones as well. Right now, I am in the long process of labeling all my photos so that I can put them up on the internet and then you will all know what and where they were taken. Little did I know when I started the process that it was going to take this long of time! I sometimes forget how with a digital camera you can take over 500 photos in a day and then trying to label everything gets very difficult. I hope to have some photos up for you soon! Within the next week.

Okay, I will tell you about a few of the past travels that Ben and I went on in the last month. Starting off month of February we traveled to Madrid to meet my good friend Amanda that came to visit us. We had such a great time being able to show her around Madrid and Logrono. She was here on February 1 - 8. During the time that she was here, Carnival was going on in Madrid so it was great being able to go and watch many parades and see people all dressed up in different costumes.

On February 9 - 11, Ben and I went to Lisbon, Portugal. The city was amazing! It was a very quick trip but we were able to see many sailboats on the sea, a gorgeous sunset over the water, and a tour of both the old and new parts of the city. It was a great place to visit. The temperatures couldn't have been nicer. It was about 70 degrees and perfectly sunny. Ben and I were able to eat meals outside. It felt just like summer.

On February 16 and 17 we took a short train trip to another city in northern Spain, Burgos. We walked and toured the city. Burgos is known for its large Cathedral. We ended up having a 10th floor hotel room that looked at the Cathedral! It was very beautiful to see during the day and lit up at night. We also visited a national monastery. The monastery had some kings and queens for Spain buried there.

Tomorrow, Saturday we are taking an early 7:00 AM bus ride to nearby Pamplona for a day trip. Pamplona is very famous for the 'Running of the Bulls' that happens during the Festival of San Fermin in July. We unfortunately will not be here in July for the event so we are going to go tomorrow to see what the city is like.

On Sunday we are also getting up very early. We have decided to go skiing in the Pyrenees mountains. We will be leaving Logrono at 5:00 AM to make a full day of skiing at a resort called Formigal that is about 4 hours away. I think it will be fun! The only bad thing is, is there might not be much snow. It has already started feeling like spring time here. The trees are all budding and blooming and we already have flowers in the parks! I have been checking the weather for the ski resort and it is showing high 50s and a chance of rain! I really hope the rain will move until Monday and be a beautiful day for us to go skiing.

Well, that is what we have been up to lately. We are also very excited to have many upcoming adventures. We are going to London the week of March 8 - 11. We also have our Easter break coming up from March 19 - 30 where we will tour the cities of Sevilla, Gibraltar, Granada and Cordoba. All four different cities in 10 days! After our break is over we are excited to have Ben's family coming to stay here for the start of April and Ben's sister coming here for the last week of April. We will be traveling to Barcelona at this time. Finally, we have just bought tickets to Paris! I have always dreamed of going to Paris so I am happy to finally know I will get to see the city in person.

Along with all the trip planning, we are also kept busy here with preparing for our school classes and tutor jobs on the side. I hope all of you are doing good at home. I will make a new blog to let you know when all my photos are up online. Have a great weekend everybody!

Update 2: Family in Logrono for Christmas!

2008-01-21T18:26:00.001+01:00

On December 23rd, the seven of us made it to Logrono in the afternoon to all go to the grocery store together to buy what we would need for the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day meals in Spain. My family thought it was crazy how the the people pulled around little mini carts in the grocery store. Ben and I have become accustomed to them so it was funny to see how new people laughed as we had done right away. The mini grocery carts remind me of a wash bucket that you use to clean your floors but on wheels and having holes in them. They are very small so you always have to pull a couple around in order to fit all your groceries.

For Christmas Eve, Ben and I decided to venture once again in making the turkey, mashed potatoes, sauteed mushrooms, green peppers, a fabulous salad and vegetables meal like we had once before for Thanksgiving Day here in Spain and sort of failed at it then. This time though, the meal was a success! Like on Thanksgiving Day our power went out again but this time we were prepared and everything was finished all together. Ben and I treated my family to traditional Christmas treats. In Spain they have many different Christmas goodies that are excellent at Christmas time. My family liked them so much that they all packed a few away to bring back to share with people in the US. I also was able to show my family the greatest candy that I have ever had and they all fell in love with it too. I have never liked candy so much as I do here in Spain. There are candy stores everywhere in my city and they seem to always be busy all of the time with children and even adults. We took my family out for the traditional churros and chocolate for breakfast on Christmas Eve morning. They were great!

My mom, dad and I went to midnight mass on Christmas Eve at the beautiful cathedral near our apartment and we also went again on Christmas Day with everybody. It was interesting both times because it was all in Spanish! Everybody could kind of understand at least the traditional Christmas tunes they played during the masses.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were spent relaxing with the family catching up in our apartment. It was a great time being able to have all 7 people together staying in our apartment. It was a tight squeeze but we all managed great and it was really nice to be able to spend all the time together. We also spent the days here wandering and exploring the city.

Here are some photos of the places in Logrono we visited.

Here is "a" for Abby!

Here is my mom, Rob and I at the RiojaForum. The RiojaForum is a concert hall and also used as a building for where the Congress of La Rioja meets.

Cities in Spain are known for the traditional 'tapas' or appetizers. It was exciting going out for tapas with my family during the Christmas time. Most Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights families in Spain go out to many different bars and eat small appetizer foods together with a glass of wine or beer. It is a fun time to wander the streets and visit with people. Here we are above in one of Ben and my favorite bars in Logrono to visit for tapas. It was especially exciting during the Christmas time since there were many small local bands playing Christmas tunes marching through the streets and stopping to play outside for the crowd. It really made it feel like Christmas even though there wasn't any snow or cold weather! During Christmas they also had two different little outside markets to buy handmade goods from people that came here from all over the world. We all bought a few gifts from there to remember the markets.

After Christmas Day my family took two more day trips to the cities of Bilbao and Zaragoza. They are both cities within 2 hours away from Logrono by bus. I will update you later on the excursions of both those cities. Goodbye for now!

New Update: My Family Comes to Spain!!

2008-01-20T19:33:00.001+01:00

It has been quite a long time since I have updated my blog. Time is flying by fast here! I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I can't believe it is already the 20th of January! We are very lucky here as even though it is still 'winter' it was a great 60 degrees outside today! Spanish winters are very nice.

Okay, I will now take you all the way back to December 15th to update you for what has been going on in Spain this past month. On Monday, December 15th Rob arrived in Spain for a month long adventure staying with Ben and I. He arrived at 12:00 AM on a bus from Madrid wearing only shorts, a t-shirt, and sandals! We (and also the other people on his bus) thought he was nuts. Nobody else knew he was coming here from a place that was very hot and didn't have anything else with him to wear that was warm. It was only 25 degrees outside that night. We even had to walk back to our apartment that is about 1.5 miles away from the bus station.

Ben and I took school off on Thursday, December 20 and Friday, December 21 to go with Rob to meet the rest of the family in Madrid. Here we are below 'Welcoming the Larson Family to Spain' in the airport as they walked through the exit where all the people wait for those that are getting off the airplanes. We were very excited to see my family walk through that door!
After many hugs we took all seven of us on the Madrid Metro System...each of us carrying two large suitcases. Wow, how tourists can stand out in Madrid with so many suitcases! We lugged all of our suitcases on 3 different metro lines to finally arrive in our apartment that we stayed in for 3 days near the Puerta del Sol. It was a great apartment in an excellent area of Madrid. We had a fabulous time walking around Madrid seeing the sights of the Christmas season.

On December 22nd we took a day trip south of Madrid to the city of Toledo. It is about an hour and a half away from Madrid and one of the oldest cities in Spain. Here are some photos from Toledo. Below is a photo of us so excited to be in Toledo, Spain together!

The city has very small apartments and roads. I can't believe that people drive in them!
While we were there we met a guy named Antonio and he showed us the way to his 'little artisan shop' where people were making traditional jewelry made of gold thread onto a black backing. We were lucky to be able to watch them work on the jewelry. They were all beautiful that everybody walked out of the artisan shop having something in their hand.

Here I am standing by the famous Don Quijote..."The Man of La Mancha".

Toledo has castle walls around the old part of the city. Here is part of the beautiful castle wall at night.
After a full day of walking in Toledo we headed back to Madrid on the "Ave"(Bird) high speed train for the last night in our rented apartment. Everyone in my family was a good trooper in Madrid and Toledo having done so much walking, visiting many art museums (such as the Reina Sofia and Prado) and famous sites around both of the cities with Ben and I leading the way.

The next morning we woke up to go on a 4 1/2 hour bus ride to Logrono to celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in our apartment. Come back tomorrow as I will update you then about the family Christmas in Logrono, Spain.

It's Snowing!

2007-12-17T23:22:00.001+01:00

Everybody in Logrono always says that it only snows in January or February and only about once or twice a year. It is officially snowing right now and it is only December 17th! It really feels like the Christmas season now. I didn't think we would get to see snow here this year. Enjoy the mini video that I took of the first snow. Happy Holidays!!!

Happy Holidays!

2007-12-06T22:45:00.001+01:00

Hello everybody! I hope you are all having a great start to this wonderful holiday season. Last night Ben and I went to watch the act of lighting all of the Christmas lights in our city at 7:00 in the Square that is very close to our apartment. There were lots of people in the square watching marionette shows, giant puppets running around, getting free hot chocolate and waiting anxiously for the lights to turn on. Our city looks very beautiful now with all the lights on. Tomorrow, Ben and I head to Milan, Italy with one of our friends from here that is from California. I can't wait! This will be our first time leaving Spain to another European country. I love Italian food so I am planning to eat a lot of great pastas there. We will be there until late Tuesday night. I will update you all late next week on all that has been going on here in Logrono. I am also very excited because 2 weeks from today my whole family will be here with me in Spain to celebrate the Christmas holiday. Wow, how the time here is flying by! I will leave you with a few photos from last night that I took of the great Christmas lights. Have a happy holidays!

Supper with the Primary School

2007-11-24T17:35:00.001+01:00

This past Friday night Ben and I went out for supper with my teachers from the Primary School where I teach at in Logrono. It was a great night! We started out by meeting everybody at 9:30 at a local bar for a drink before we went to our restaurant to eat. There was a total of 22 of us that got together. I didn't have a clue that it was going to be the biggest meal I had eaten so far since being in Logrono.

We sat down and they started bringing around many bottles of water and wine to everybody. After the wine, they brought out baskets and baskets of fresh bread. The appetizers we had were amazing. There was a total of 5 different kinds of appetizers! I couldn't believe it every time a new one came out of the kitchen. The first appetizer we had was 'croquetas' which are ham and cheese snacks in a breaded shell. They remind me of mozzarella sticks. The next appetizer we had were very large mushrooms with a garlic taste. Then we had typical Rioja ham and slices of cheese. After the ham and cheese we had cut up octopus pieces that we on top of sliced potatoes. Finally we had salad that had fried red pepper, sardines and tuna with it. I tried all 5 of the different appetizers.

While we were eating the different appetizers a waiter came out and read off a huge list of foods that we could choose from for our main meal. Ben and I had no clue what to choose. I had no clue even what was a meat or a fish from the list. It was hard to understand the man. He talked very fast. Finally all of the teachers started trying to tell us what we should choose to eat. The two ladies across from me helped me choose my meal and Ben's. When my meal came out it ended up being a huge steak fillet with potatoes, kind of like french fries. It was really really good! I ate the whole thing even though I was already stuffed from all of the appetizers I had eaten. I completely forgot about dessert! I am not used to eating dessert after every meal. Here in Spain it is always served with each meal. We all laughed when we saw our dessert come out. It ended up being 7 pieces of different kinds of desserts for each one of us! It was unbelievable. I was so full but I had to eat (because I really wanted to and love dessert) all of the different types of desserts. I was really full. After dessert they brought all of us either a cup of coffee or tea. I chose to drink a tea. After the tea and coffee they asked everybody want kind of shot of alcohol they wanted. That is very typical for people to do after a meal here. I declined the offer due to how full I was by that time. I couldn't possibly add anything else in me. Finally the bill was about to be given to us. I was scared! I couldn't imagine how much we would pay for this incredibly excellent meal. It ended up only being 24 euros per person. That is about $35.60. I have never paid that much for a meal before but I swear it was the most food I have ever eaten before at a restaurant. We were also at the restaurant from 10:00 until 1:30 AM!!! They eat supper very late here.

We all decided to go out to the local bars next to the cathedral to go dancing for the rest of the night. We went to two different bars and stayed out with all of my teachers until 4:00 AM! It was so much fun. We danced and danced and danced! I hope that we will be able to go out dancing with my professors again. We were able to talk Spanish all night and learn a lot more about the Spanish culture from them. The meal on Friday night was like having another Thanksgiving Day dinner. It was great!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-11-22T17:05:00.001+01:00

Happy Thanksgiving! Hope you are all having a fabulous day. Today Ben and I are going to host our first Thanksgiving meal here in Spain. We are going to have people from all over the world come over for it. There are going to be 11 people here including Ben and I. One girl from California, two boys from New Mexico, one boy from Florida, one girl from Italy, one girl from Germany, one girl from France, and one boy & girl from England. The people not from the USA are very excited because they have never had a Thanksgiving meal before.

We went shopping last night at a grocery store and found great things for our menu. We will have turkey breast fillets with sauteed mushrooms and onions, mashed potatoes with garlic, a lettuce salad with sliced almonds, orange slices, lemon juice & olive oil, corn niblets and a mixed bag of vegetables that consists of white asparagus, pepper, green beans, carrots. We are also going to have two different kind of desserts. We were unable to make a pumpkin pie but really wanted to.

It should be a great time. I am also very scared of how we are going to cook enough food for all 11 people and keep it warm at the same time. It will be served at 9 PM tonight. That is when people have supper here. It is actually kind of early. Most people eat about 9:30 or 10 at night! We have a nice kitchen but not as many pots and pans as well as serving dishes as we would like so we are just going to have to see what we can do with what we have. I hope everybody likes it! I hope that you all have a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving vacation. I will let you know tomorrow how the Thanksgiving Day meal went. Bye!

Exciting Times Ahead!

2007-11-18T17:54:00.001+01:00

As I sit here drinking some hot strawberry cream tea, eating some wonderful Spanish cookies and listening to Christmas music at 6:00 PM on Sunday evening, I figured it was a great time to tell you all about my exciting plans for the start of December and Christmas break.

First, I am going to explain a few of my previous photos in the last blog that I posted. I wanted you all to completely experience what the photos actually were of. The first photo is of the three strange faces. I saw those in Museum Wurth in a nearby city next to Logrono. There was three white round objects in this small dark room. All of a sudden these three faces were projected on to the white objects. They continuously were moving their eyes, noses and mouths. It was quite a sight to see! I had to capture the looks of them on my camera.

The second photo is of the huge man sitting with his arms wrapped around his legs. This man was very big. He would change colors every few seconds. The man also also had many embossed words of the body parts all over his body such as head, leg, arm, nose....etc. It was really cool. I took many photos of this man. I liked the blue color the best.

The third photo from the museum is the blue dress. I captured the dress with the photo in the background of it. At one time the dress in the photograph was actually worn by two sisters. The dress could fit two people and now they have it on display at the museum with the original photo of the sisters in it next to it. I thought it was pretty cool and artsy. Okay, good. I really wanted to clarify the photos that were taken from the museum so that you could capture the whole effect and experience like I did. Now, on to the fun times that lie ahead for me.

I am very excited to say that we just bought plane tickets to go travel to Milan, Italy. Ben, our friend Kara from California, and I will be going to Milan on December 7 - 11. I decided to take an extra day off of work to be able to see all Milan. According to Wikipedia, Milan is considered one of the largest cities in Italy and one of the most highly developed urban centers in Europe. The metropolitan area of Milan accounts for 7.4 million people! I can't wait to experience it. I absolutely love all types of Italian food and can't wait to try them all. We are going to be staying in a hotel that is close to the center of the city. Milan has the second largest church in Italy and the third largest in the world. We will be about a 10 - 15 minute walk from that church. Right after we purchased our plane tickets this past week we found out that December 7th is the Festival of the Patron Saint Ambrose. We will be arriving on that evening to have a ton of people celebrating. It should be a fun time while there are so many people celebrating. Also, one exciting thing I also found out is that Milan holds Leonardo Da Vinci's original "The Last Supper" in the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie. I hope we are able to view it while we are there. If you want to read more about Milan and what other cool things the city has to offer you can visit Wikipedia by clicking here.

After we get back from Milan we will just have one week before we head off to Madrid to meet up with my family on the afternoon of December 20th! We have rented a great apartment in a fabulous location, Puerta de Sol, that will fit all 7 of us to stay together. It will be good to walk to all the tourist locations that everybody wants to see when they go to Madrid. On the 22nd we are planning to head for a day trip to Toledo. A small city that is about an hour away from Madrid. Last time I was in Spain I bought a sword from Toledo.We are going to be staying in Madrid until noon on the 23rd and heading to Logrono. We will be celebrating Christmas in Logrono on the 23rd - 26th. We have a few day trips planned to such places as Bilbao and maybe Pamplona. Bilbao is known for the Guggenheim Museum and Pamplona is known for the running of the bulls in July. We will be heading back to Madrid on the 29th to spend two more days there until my family flies out on the 31st. I can not wait for all of our adventures with my family to begin. After they leave on the 31st, Ben and I are planning to stay in Madrid to celebrate the New Year and head off to take a long way back to Logrono going through cities such as Segovia, Valladolid and Burgos. They are all in northern Spain. We are lucky we have vacation from December 20th - January 8th.

Due to Spain not having Thanksgiving Day here the streets are getting covered by hanging lights ready for December 1st. Pablo, the boy I tutor, told me that they will turn all of the lights around the city on the night of December 1st. I can't wait to be walking around the city with all of the Christmas lights on. I will miss the snow but the Christmas season will still be great here without it! Another great thing for Christmas here they actually have little huts that sell chestnuts that have been roasting over an open fire! Ben and I tried 7 of them the other night. They were great. I never knew that they actually had them. I just thought it was part of the song.

Ben and I are going to plan a big holiday Thanksgiving dinner for all of our friends here for Thursday evening. We are still trying to find out if Spain has turkeys that you can bake. We don't know for sure. If not, we will be having chicken for supper. We are going to try make it as traditional as possible. There should be about 14 or 15 of us in our apartment! Luckily we have a lot of free space to share with everyone. I also will be teaching all of my classes this week with worksheets and photos the story of Thanksgiving. Well, I am very excited for all of the wonderful events that are going to be happening in the next coming month! I am off to prepare my Thanksgiving Day classes. Have a great and wonderful Thanksgiving everybody! I will be missing the great food that my Grandma Bernie prepares for us every year. :) Speaking of which, I really enjoyed having my last slice of banana bread that I brought in the plane to Spain right when we moved in to our apartment. Thanks again Grandma! Here is me back in September with my last slice of banana bread. I had to take a photo with it.

Some Excursions in Spain

2007-11-12T15:39:00.001+01:00

We have had the opportunity to do a lot of different things living here in Logrono so far and it has only been 2 months! Here are a few things that I have enjoyed doing since the middle of October.

Ben's high school invited him and I to go along to a tour of a new museum that has opened up just outside of Logrono on October 18th. It is called Museo Wurth. It is a German/Spanish museum made with many different art pieces from all over the world that one German man had collected and now put in a museum. There was a book opening the night that we went to the Museum. We were even given the book as a free gift for going to listen to the speeches. We got to explore the museum for about an hour and then were able to feast on many different types of tapas (appetizers) and wine for free before heading back to Logrono. I enjoyed the museum a lot! Here are some photos from the museum.

On October 20th Ben and I enjoyed traditional food from Spain. We indulged in churros and also another thing I can't remember the name of. It is like fried mini potato chips and then you either put spicy ketchup, guacamole or garlic mayonnaise on them. They both were very good! We bought them at a local place called "La Perla". It is a small shop set up right on a corner of the street and they open every night.

On October 27th, we went on a tour of a local winery, Franco-Espanolas, that is just across the river from our apartment. We met up with Juan, our friend, who was confused about just being able to go there on our own. We ended up talking with one of the tour guides and getting a personal tour for just the three of us! It was my favorite wine tour. We even received diplomas from the place after the tour was finished!

Here is a photo of some beautiful leaves in Logrono during the fall. It is weird. I think that since they grow a lot of grapes here for wine that the soil must make the leaves in the fall turn especially darker red colors. I have never seen such brilliant colors in the fall.

On October 28th, Ben and I received free tickets to go watch a local basketball game in Logrono. It was fun to go watch a sports event live. Our team here is called Caja Rioja. Caja Rioja is the name of a large bank company in Logrono.

On Halloween night Ben and I carved a pumpkin. We had all of our friends that are doing the same as us here over for good pizza and then went out to an Irish Pub afterwards. It was lots of fun! At the bar they had scary people dressed up with chainsaws and would turn off all the lights in the bar and run around. I was scared!

This photo of the cathedral by our apartment was taken very late on Halloween night. It is one of my favorites here so far!

One important holiday in Spain is celebrated on November 1st. It is called All Saints Day in the United States. They celebrate All Saints Day a lot more than they do Halloween. The week before All Saints Day the flower shops sell huge amounts of flowers and then people visit the cemetery on that day. They also have no school on that day. They have two types of pastries that are very popular for that day as well. They are called Huesos de Santos (Bones of the Saints) and Bunuelos. Ben and I tried one of every flavor. They were great! The bunuelos are on the left and the Huesos de Santos are in the middle next to our favorite bread here to buy!

This is just a quick tour of what we have been up to lately in Spain from October until now. There will surely be a lot more on its way. I can't wait to celebrate the Christmas holiday season here! I am also very excited that my parents, Tony, Rob and April are coming to visit us from December 20th - December 31st. If anybody wants to come visit us here just let us know! We would love to have visitors any time and have seen some great roundtrip prices for the spring months. Have a great rest of your Monday. Also, make sure you read the next blog below this one. I was so ambitious today I wrote two blog entries and don't want you to miss out on either one! Bye and until next time.

So little working hours but yet so busy

2007-11-12T14:17:00.001+01:00

Well, it has been about a month and haven't sat down to write a blog. So here it goes. I am really enjoying my time here in Logrono. Everybody here is in more of a routine and time just keeps flying by faster than ever. Each week seems to get done faster than the next.

Here is a typical week for me here. On Mondays, Ben and I don't have classes so we are either gone on vacation or taking a nice day to relax. On Tuesdays, I start class at 9:00 am at the Primary School. Each Tuesday I have different age groups each hour. I sometimes get very confused on how old all the different classes are. Also, at that school I work with the ages of 3 - 12 year olds. The three year olds love to repeat what I say even though they have no clue what I am even saying. I guess I must be kind of interesting, new and different to look at. I work from 9:00-11:00, 11:30 - 12:30 and again at 3:00 - 4:00. They take very long lunch breaks at the Primary Schools.

On Tuesday evenings I tutor two different families. I tutor a 6 year old boy and an 8 year old girl from 6:25 - 7:25 PM. I then walk across the street to go tutor two boys ages 8 and 13 years old from 7:30 - 8:30 PM. Tuesdays are my super long work day!

On Wednesdays I start my week at the Institute (or high school level kids). I work on Wednesdays from 12:10 - 2:25. It is 3 different classes but yet it feels like so long to teach. I guess being at the high school age means it is not cool to want to learn English from an American.

Every Wednesday afternoon from 4:00 - 5:00 I tutor a 13 year old boy Pablo. He is very easy to tutor and is even willing to walk to our apartment so that I don't have to walk very far twice on Wednesdays.

Thursdays I work from 8:30 - 1:30 PM at the Institute. I have two classes of 16-17 year olds and two classes of 15-16 year olds. Fridays I work from 10:45 AM until 1:30 PM.

Even though I work only 12 hours a week and tutor for 3 extra hours I seem to keep myself very occupied. I love to go shopping at the local supermarket to find good deals on food, trying the local food, taking walks around the city, watching and learning new things on Spanish television, and also meeting up with friends for coffee with milk (cafe con leche). I also have to make time to do the necessary laundry most weeks. Saturday and Sundays we try to go discover something new in the city or travel around Spain.

This past Saturday night we went out with friends and I realized that I sometimes don't match what the people are wearing here. I was told that my cute gloves I wear in North Dakota look like big oven mitts and that my 'cool' shoes from North Dakota look great for hiking in snow in the winter in North Dakota. So after hearing that, I decided to venture out this morning and find new shoes! I bought a cute new pair of shoes that I can wear. They were on sale for 12 Euros which is about 18 US dollars. They are sure not like my good old brown boots I have been wearing for the past 2 months here that I love so much! I have decided that I am going to spend a little extra money here on the clothes and shoes. Those are some things that are specialties here in Spain.

On November 2 - 5 Ben and I went to San Sebastian. It is a city on the northern coast of Spain about 2 hours away from Logrono. It has very beautiful beaches and I hear it is super crowded during the summer months. Unfortunately when we went it was too cold and cloudy to enjoy the beach. The cloudy weather though did make for great photos and we were able to explore around the city a lot. San Sebastian and the northern area of Spain is known for their political demonstrations. During a climb up a mountain to see a huge monument of Christ we were able to see one of the demonstrations from far away. You will see a photo I took of it below. It was very loud even from that far away. I have posted some more photos from San Sebastian on the blog if you click on the link to the left. Here are a few that I really like from San Sebastian... Hasta luego!

One Month!

2007-10-17T19:59:00.000+02:00

I have officially lived in Spain for one month and things are still going great. Ben and I have gotten a lot of our necessary paperwork done that we have to do to be able to live here for such an extended period of time. We have also applied for internet so we should have a WiFi connection in our apartment by next Thursday! I will be able to keep in communication easier with everybody. We also had a land line put in our apartment today if anybody wants to call or telephone...(once we go out and buy a cheap one). Also, I have switched my blog so that people are now able to leave comments without having to make a Google account.

I have been very busy teaching kids from the ages of 3 to 19 years old. My second week of teaching at the Primary School (I teach at that school only on Tuesdays) I received a note from a little girl from a class I had met and talked with my first week of classes. I thought it would be nice to share with everybody on here. She had typed it on a computer, cut it out in a small square and used different colored pens to make lines around it for a frame. It was very cute and touching. I now figure that I can make somewhat of a difference teaching the students English here in Spain....well at least the young ones. Here is the note. It is half in English with some in Spanish. I will translate the Spanish into English in ( ).

hello hello hello I am called karem
Rodriguez gutierrez I am 10 years old
I am student of sesto (sixth) B and I to liked
much cuado (when) came to my class to speak
to us in English and to mostrarno (show us)
different photos yours me pleased n
much were very pretty the truth to ber (see)
when vuelbes (comes) to come to my class I
wait for to you since to my the
English costs a little to me has to
ber situ rambien (also) me you can write a
day of theses I wants to learn as much
English as your so that he enchants
the English to me and other languages
to be able to travel to different
countries and places and to know their
languages so that always it is good
send to many kisses and abrasos (hugs)
karencita good bye that estes (you are) well
always

Hope everybody is doing great! Hasta luego...

Link for Photos

2007-10-10T11:01:00.001+02:00

Hello! I just finished putting up a link to see some of my photos from last weekend´s winery tour. You can find the link by going to the left hand side of the blog under ´Links´and clicking on ´My Photos from Spain.´ I hope to have captions for the photos within the next few days as well as more photos for you so keep checking back! I am off to school now for 2 hours. Have a great day!

Thanks for the Birthday Wishes!!!

2007-10-09T12:53:00.001+02:00

I just wanted to take some time to say thank you to all for making my 24th birthday super great! Yesterday Ben and I woke up at 7:00 AM to go hand in our paperwork to receive our International Identification Numbers. It was very very early for us. We had to sit outside for about 2 hours until the place opened but it was worth it. It was very cold outside and now, because I wore flip flops and sat outside for a long time, have a head cold. Everybody here seems to be sick also. We were more prepared than we thought with our paperwork and we were out of the place in 10 minutes. After we were finished we went out for churros and chocolate for breakfast. It was so great! The day was spent relaxing around the city. I also had to do some laundry. I haven't had very much time here at all to do laundry so I was in great need! After laundry, Ben and I went to the grocery store and bought an amazing chocolate truffle cake.

Last night at around 8:30 we invited all of our new friends we have met here to go out to eat at Pizzeria Da Marcos. There were 9 of us. 4 of us were from the United States, 1 boy from England, 1 girl from Italy and the other girl from Germany. I was really hungry for pizza so this place in Calle San Juan (San Juan Street) looked great. The pizza I had was amazing! It had spicy hamburger meat, red pepper, oregano, cheese and tomato sauce on it. I received two gifts from my friends. A book in Spanish called "The Shadow in the Wind" and also a bath set. I am very excited to read the Spanish novel soon. After we got done eating, Ben and I headed back to enjoy the cake that we had boughten earlier. It was sooooooooo good. I haven't had cake that good for a long time! I am glad we will have the cake for awhile to eat.
Today I headed back to school to CP Breton de los Herreros. I always have Mondays free which is really nice. This school is for 3 - 12 year olds. Last week I met the older kids in the school. Today, I was in classrooms with 3, 4, 5 and 6 year olds! Wow, they have a lot of energy and do not know much English. I am on my long lunch break and I only have one more class left at 3:00 - 4:00. I am starting to think I will like having this long break at the school. It lets me relax a little bit and also have time to use the internet. I had learned last week that my school had WiFi to use so I brought my own computer today. After about 15 minutes trying to ask the Secretary for a password for WiFi I got frustrated. He only wanted to use his English with me yet he did not understand what I kept trying to ask him. So I finally asked him in Spanish and he handed me a paper with the password. Now, I will be able to load a few photos on my blog today. I plan to write bigger blogs on Tuesdays when I have my really long break.

If anybody has any ideas of what I could teach here for any of the English classes I will take ideas at abbylynnelarson@gmail.com. I have been trying to think of very easy songs for the little kids to repeat and learn. I am also hoping to play a lot of games and read many stories. I received one idea about a traveling bear from my mom yesterday about what cousin Tim told her so I think I will also use that so everybody in the US that I know may receive a bear in the mail. Also if you want to know my new address, I finally know how to write it! You can also email me for that if you would like.

Finally, this past Sunday, Ben and I went on a tour of two local winery's and also an old cathedral in La Rioja. They were very impressive. I will be posting photos from that excursion and also from our walk around the city soon. I will post a link on the blog. Here is one of the photos of me that was taken near the very famous bridge in Logrono.

Hello Again!

2007-10-04T10:36:00.001+02:00

I am still doing great here in Spain! I have been way busier than I ever thought I would be. On Tuesday I started meeting with all of the students here. I am sitting in a Teachers Lounge right now waiting to go to meet my next class. I am done working at my schools until next Tuesday. This weekend I have purchased a ticket to go on a Vinobus (a tour of vineyards in La Rioja). I can´t wait to take a lot of photos there. I will write more when I have internet again. It is harder than I imagined to find a place and time to have internet. Today we are going to a local bank to get a Spanish bank account so that the school will be able to pay us there. It will be nice to finally making euros instead of always thinking in US Dollars! Hope you can all come visit here. It is so wonderful and can´t wait to share it with all. I am off to my next class. I have 3 more classes left today. It is one of my long days. Goodbye!

Ready to start school

2007-09-28T20:08:00.000+02:00

After three days of being gone in Madrid to attend an orientation and meet other people that are doing my same job here in Spain from many other countries I decided that I was ready to go ´home´ (to Logroño) and start work on Monday. I stayed in a hotel room with three other girls from England. It was great to meet so many people and exchange information with them in hoping we can visit them all around Spain during the year. It has been very busy here for my the past 2 weeks. I can´t believe I have been here this long already. It is great that I can call this place home as I feel very comfortable here.

I am supposed to start teaching on Monday morning but neither of my schools that I work for have contacted me as of yet. I am not sure of when schools start in Spain or where exactly I am supposed to go, but I guess I will find out more on Monday when I go in there hoping to find answers. We found out at the orientation that we are only supposed to work a maximum of 12 hours per week and that we usually will work Monday through Thursday. That schedule works great for traveling around. It will be very nice for the next year.

Tomorrow we are planning to sign a contract for our apartment. We will have it until June 30th. I have been living in my suitcase so far and it will be great to be able to unpack it and make the new living space our own. There is plenty of room for all to come and visit. We would love the visitors and be able to show you around our town!

Next week we have decided that we are going to find an internet company and get internet in our apartment. It is very nice to live very close to the library but we think it would be easiest for us to update blogs and write emails if we had an internet connection there. The internet is free at the library but it tends to be very slow.

I have adjusted well to the Spanish lifestyle. I am sitting here writing this blog at 8:20 PM and going to have supper afterwards. It is weird but normal now to eat so late. I will update you more on our apartment and put up some photos of it next time. We have found out that we are by about 15 different disco bars and bars so it might be loud on the weekends. We shall see. The great thing though is that around the corner from us is a 7 theater movie theater. I hope to be able to go and watch many spanish movies.

Since Ben and I have been to Logroño for a week already before going to Madrid we acted like tour guides today when 2 other people that were coming to Logroño for the school year came with us on the same bus. It was great! Little did I know I would already have so much experiences to share. We will have a lot more by the time other people come visit.

Hope everybody is having a wonderful start to the fall season. The leaves are just starting to fall here and are very beautiful! I hope to go on many walks and take a lot of photos. The leaves on the trees here are a lot bigger than back home.

¡Hasta luego!

We made it!

2007-09-22T21:04:00.000+02:00

Hello everybody! Ben and I have made it to Logroño, Spain. I have had barely any time to write due to the Fiestas of San Mateo that are going on in our city and also looking busily for an apartment to start living in. Everything here has shut down for all of the Fiesta. I will write more and post photos and video when I have time. Things are going great here! The fiestas are ending tonight so the pace here should slow down a more. We have experienced so many different things in just the little time that we have been here that I can not wait to share it with all of you in my next blog. ¡Hasta luego!

The Official Countdown to Spain!

2007-08-28T03:58:00.000+02:00

21 days....Wow, the official countdown has begun. 21 days! Wow, not very much time left at all. The craziness that I will be living in Spain very soon has started to hit. I am starting to get very excited now. As of August 31st, I will no longer have a job in the US. I have been doing much packing of my apartment lately and I am taking a short break to update you all on the adventure of Spain. We have bought our plane tickets and we are leaving at noon on Monday, September 17th out of Minneapolis. After we arrive in Spain, Ben and I plan to take a bus or train, haven't decided what we would rather ride in, straight to Logroño. It will be a very long 2 days but very much worth it. We will head to Madrid after a few days of apartment searching to go through orientation with many different people from all over the world. It will be exciting!We received emails to say that we are both going to be teaching two different schools each. The 12-18 hours of teaching might grow to be even longer!

First of all, I want to tell you a little bit about the city that I am going to be living in. I have been doing a lot of research on the city itself as well as Spain for quite awhile now. Logroño is the capital of the province La Rioja. According to Wikipedia the population of Logroño was 147,036 in 2006. It is a very nice sized city. To read more about the city on Wikipedia you can go here.
Logroño is in the north eastern part of Spain. It is very close to Pamplona, for all of you that know of the Running of the Bulls. We plan to visit that city often.

Logroño is in the wine country of Spain. It is known for its great wine all around the world. The winery's close for the year on November 4th. I hope we get the chance to go tour some before the end of the season!

Most things I have been reading on the internet for Logroño have all been in Spanish. I have found one really great website in English that I thought I would share with you. It is the tourism website for Logroño. On that website you will find many different PDF's that will show the highlights of the city. Maybe after you read over some of them you will get the bug to come visit us. We are always welcoming all friends and family to come stay and visit! We would love to have guests. I am hoping to catch on to the Spanish culture and learn how to cook so when people come visit they can try some of our home cooking.

Since Logroño is in the valleys of Spain, we have a large river going through our city known as the Ebro River with a very pretty bridge that goes over it. Along the edges are beautiful mountains. I am very excited as there is a ski resort not too far away called Valdezcaray and I am hoping we may even get to go skiing some time!

Some of the links that I frequent to learn more about La Rioja and Logroño are located below. I will continue to write more about the city and culture. As for right now, I must keep packing my apartment as quoting my mom who I talked to earlier this evening said, I am in the final countdown. Only 21 more days. Hope you enjoy the links!

La Rioja Tourism

Spain Information

La Rioja

Valdezcaray Ski Resort

Rioja Sports

Logroño Tourism in English

Logrono Tourism in Spanish

Logrono - Wikipedia

Spanish Living

Ideal Spain

http://www.vcarious.com/Travel-Guide/Spain/LaRioja/Logrono.html

http://www.euroresidentes.com/euroresiuk/guides-spain/guide-to-rioja.htm

http://www.totallyspain.com/spain_travel_information.asp?id=12

http://www.davidandjuliecurran.me.uk/

http://www.wineintro.com/regions/spain/links.html

Logroño here we come!

2007-06-30T20:55:00.000+02:00

We have found out that we are going to be going to the city of Logroño. It is the province of La Rioja. We start training in Madrid on the 26th of September and officially start in the schools in Logroño the 1st of October.

Accepted!

2007-06-04T20:54:00.000+02:00

Today is Monday, June 4, 2007. Last Wednesday, Ben and I found out that we got accepted to go to Spain to teach English part time in a school. We will be leaving around the end of September. We have yet to find out where we are going to be located at.