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!

The Castillo de Santa Barbara looms over the small modern city Alicante. The castle is a fortress dating from 900 AD. The original occupants were Muslim kings. However, the castle has hosted Romans, Iberians, notably Felipe II in the sixteenth century, and was occupied when Alicante was captured by Napoleon and also by Franco's army in the Spanish Civil War. The legend of the castle, which we learned after our long walk up (during which we learned the above historical facts), is where the name "Alicante" derives from. The Muslim king had a beautiful daughter, Cantara, who was of age to marry. Two noble Muslim brothers each wanted to marry her. The king told them to go and bring him back something so precious he could not find it anywhere else. Whoever brought him the precious gift could marry Cantara. Ali, the first brother, wrote love letters to Cantara while he was away. The other brother did not, but he was the first to return with a precious gift, spices from India. T...

2. A Tangled Web by L.M. Montgomery A Tangled Web is one of my favorite books, certainly one of my most frequently read. Since I didn't bring my copy with me to Spain, I was happy to find it for free online, at Project Gutenberg Australia. The Darks and Penhallows are an idiosyncratic clan living on Prince Edward Island. Aunt Becky, or Mrs. Theodore Dark, nee Rebecca Penhallow, the "not particularly beloved" head of the clan is the owner of the old Dark jug, a hundred year old artifact with sentimental value, though some want it for prestige within the clan or because they feel they deserve it through descent. Aunt Becky decides to have her last fun "this side of the grave" and leave the jug with a trustee for a year, along with an envelope containing a name, or instructing him to choose according to certain criteria. The book covers Aunt Becky's announcement, and then the year after her death and the extraordinary happenings among the clan because of the j...

Views from the mountain village of Guadalest The Casa Orduna is built into the mountain, it belonged to a noble family in the sixteenth century. The beach is in the fishing village of Villajoyosa. The hot chocolate and churros were magnificent, we ate them in Campanillo, another village. There's a premiere chocolatier shop there. The hot chocolate was the thickest I've ever had in my life, it was almost fondue.