Space Station Mir

6. El Caso de las Chuches Misteriosos I promised to read a Spanish book outside of class, so I did! Okay, it's a book for second-graders, but you know what? It was great for my Spanish reading level. I wouldn't have picked it up, but my "intercambio" (language exchange) partner got it for me from the library. I'm glad I read it, because it made me realize I need to practice reading Spanish like I practiced reading English. I can't start with the great literature overnight. I may be an adult, but my Spanish level is probably below that of a Spanish-speaking six-year-old. So, I must read accordingly, however uninteresting, I could feel my Spanish reading skills improving. This was about a little girl who decides to leave sweets in her neighbors' mailboxes anonymously and when someone else starts leaving anonymous poems, she investigates. You may see more of these, please don't laugh! I don't know if I should really count them or not, but this was the...

5. The Alhambra by Washington Irving Though I began before my own trip to Granada, I just now finished reading Irving's collection of observations and legends associated with the Alhambra. I found much of it amusing, though I think I find it more difficult to read online . It strains my eyes and obliges me to stop earlier than I otherwise would and wait longer periods between readings. There is no help for it though. It's too convenient and travel wise. Irving describes his journey to Granada, his miraculous invitation to stay there in, his wanderings, the lowly inhabitants of the palace and the town, and records the tales related to him of legends, mysteries and magical happenings that occurred in the Alhambra. Irving brings the place into a dreamy life and manages to make his stay there sound almost as romantic as the lives of its more famous inhabitants, the Moorish royalty. When I went to the Alhambra, I searched for the places of which Irving had spoken, and saw some of th...

On my way to the bus bound for Granada, I realized that I had forgotten to change my camera's batteries, and it had been running low for quite a while. With regret, I decided to save it for the most important sightseeing only: the Alhambra. Unfortunately, this meant the camera was acting up, and converging with the facts that I am not the best photographer even in the most conducive circumstances, and that our tour guide was rushing us, I did not get the kind of pictures I wanted. However, my memory serves me well, and these will just serve as a shadow of a reminder. I also visited the Catedral in Granada, commissioned by Holy Roman Emperor Carlos V in 1521, and the tombs of Los Reyes Catolicos, Isabella and Fernando, in the Capillo Real (Royal Chapel), the first thing they built after the conquest of the city. In my opinion, Granada has probably the most interesting and significant history in all of Spain. It was the last stronghold of the Moors in Spain, under Moorish rule from 7...

4. Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card I spent the past couple days visiting Granada and my friend kindly offered this to me to read on the bus! I read Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead a couple years ago, and while I'd heard great things about the Bean split-series, I never got around to reading it. It was so satisfying! I wouldn't go so far as to say it's better than Ender's Game , but it's definitely on the same level. I never imagined that Bean's upbringing was so different from Ender's, or really anything that I learned about Bean from this novel. In this book, we get to see the imagined Europe of Card's futuristic world. It is immeasurably bleak and brutal, but the scary part is how realistic it feels. This nightmare is where I think Card does what he does best; evoke all the evil impulses of humanity and represent them in a childish society. No matter that these kids are impossibly young, survival is survival. Survive or die, in the w...

I walked back up to Castillo Santa Barbara by myself on the past lovely Saturday morning, and these better pictures are the result!