Frosty the snowman....in Valladolid!

Just a little note: It snowed today for about 2 hours in Valladolid!!!

I was with some of my 1ESO students, who were practicing their plays in the auditorium, when we walked outside into the school's courtyard and it was snowing!!! I couldn't believe it. I mean only once in a blue moon does it snow in Valldolid; it normally doesn't get cold enough to snow. Apparently, today being at -4C, it was cold enough to snow! If you couldn't tell by all my exclamation marks, this little bit of winter made my day. It snowed more in La Victoria, the neighborhood where my school is in, than in the city center and the snow stuck to the ground for a little while.

When we walked into the snow, the students were so excited (as was I, of course) that they started twirling around and trying to catch snowflakes on their tongues. I had my camera with me, so I ended up taking pictures of them. They turned out pretty great. I won't be putting pictures up of the students, since they are so young, but I'll share them with everyone when I see you, if you're interested.

Here are some pictures I took of the area around the school.
Snow covering the leaves.
More snow!
Me by the school. You can see some snowflakes on the top of my hair!

Yeah for snow!
Celeste

Palenica....Valladolid's competition

Hi Everyone!

My countdown to going home is now at 7 days!!! I'm ecstatic to be home and see so many of you! And thank you to everyone (Grandma, Grandpa, Mom, Dad, Lizzy, etc) for all your comments. I always read them and love to see what you think. Love to all of you!

So last Sat. Dec. 12th, Miriam, one of the history teachers, invited Amy and I to go to Palencia with her for part of the day. She had a class to teach there from 12-2, so we left Valladolid around 10.30am and then arrived there an hour later. Amy and I walked around the center of the town during Miriam's class. It was really cold, but the city itself is very beautiful, so it was nice. There isn't anything to do in Palencia, but we decided just to look around and we saw several churches and the main cathedral. All which were beautiful. They are Gothic architecture, which I love.

It was nice just to see another city in Castilla-Leon. Of all of Spain, I really love the region of Castilla-Leon the most because it is where Spanish and Spanish culture was born. Also, you see every bit of the culture all around you; the art, architecture, music, etc. It's so lovely.

In plaza mayor there was a giant manger scene, which everyone was crowded around. It was actually really nice looking and of course, baby Jesus wasn't there yet. Before we met up with Miriam again, we had a little coffee and shared ideas for Christmas lessons we are going to do with our students.

Around 2.30pm Miriam met up with us in Plaza Mayor and we went to a "meson" which is like a restaurant from medieval times (but it's just the style and layout of the restaurant). We ate some very typical castilian food, which I have forgotten the names, but one was toasted bread with tomato and garlic rubbed on top and then a slice of jamon serrano placed on top, another was beef, but a rare cut of beef with fries, salad and the other plate was a large slice of toasted bread with tomato, onion, chicken and pine nuts on top. It was a very good meal. We were there for about an hour and a half.
I found this building to be very beautiful. Notice the Spanish flag.
Amy, Miriam and me in the restaurant in Palencia.
Christmas tree! It got me itching to be home.
Amy on a very cool and modern bridge that goes over la Pisuerga river.
La iglesia de Soledad, the simplicity and smallness of this church just took my breath away.
La iglesia de San Pablo, another beautiful Gothic church.
Statues that are to represent university students-interesting.
Iglesia de San Miguel, the bell tower was incredible!!!

Around 4pm we headed back to Valladolid and Amy and I went shoe shopping. It was a very nice day. Hope you enjoy the pictures! I quite like them myself.

With love, Celeste <3

Dec. 8-The Immaculate Conception: Spanish Style

The Immaculate Conception is a day celebrated by Spaniards almost the same way they celebrate Christmas. They visit their family, have a large dinner and EVERYTHING is shut down. Julio, Edita and Pacho (in Pacho's car) were planning to visit two villages up in the mountains of Burgos, about 2 hours away, for the day and they invited me to go with them.

We drove the two hours north passing through various small Castellano villages along the way that were so adorable looking. We even passed a convent that used to make one of the most famous chocolates in Spain. The weather was sunny, yet very cold.

The first village we visited was Santo Domingo de Silos. It was a very small village, situated on the lower part of the mountains near Burgos, that had a very large medieval influence. There we had a coffee and attended mass. As you all know, I am not Catholic, but I still enjoy seeing other religious services and finding the similarities and differences between protestant religions and those of other religions. Unfortunately, mass lasted a lot longer than any of us anticipated, but it was still nice to see.
Santo Domingo de Silos and some medieval homes.
The Plaza Mayor en Silos.
The bell tower of the beautiful cathedral in Silos.
Old medieval architecture.

After mass, we walked around the streets for maybe 15 minutes and then headed to another village for lunch. We ended up stopping in Pineda. This is a village that Edita, Julio and their children used to visit when they were kids. They showed me the home they used to rent, where they played, etc. This town was even SMALLER than the last and if you walk around for 5 minutes, you have seen the entire town. It is beautiful because it is on the top of the mountain and you can see another part of the mountain, which on this day had some snow on the top. It was very beautiful. Some of the homes were decorated for Christmas, there were children playing football (soccer) outside in a courtyard, and a few friendly dogs were wandering around. We ended up eating at a very old fashioned restaurant that was heated by a very early 1900's fireplace. The food was great and it was fun doing something different with the family.
Me with Julio and Edita in Pineda. Typical for them to not be paying attention to Pacho taking our picture.
Snow on top of the mountains in front of Pineda.
Some of the fun xmas decorations. This one amused me; Santa Clause (Papa Noel) climbing up one side and the Three Kings (they are who bring the gifts to the children) on the other side.
Pacho, Julio and Edita in front of a beautiful holly bush.

After lunch, we walked around a little and then got another cup of coffee because it was so cold. Then, we headed back to Valladolid. All in all it was a nice relaxing day. Even better, I was able to see more of Castilla-Leon, which is my goal by the end of my stay here in Spain this year.

Love, Celeste

Turkey Day and Madrid

Okay, this is long overdue. I'm sorry for the delay, but I guess I just got caught up with working and just being here in Spain. I know you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner and just to share with you a little, I did too.

Alicia, one of my coworkers and the one that I enjoy talking to the most, decided we should all get together and have a Turkey Day dinner. So each teacher/assistant made a dish to bring to dinner. We ended up having a ton of food, but it was delicious. Our dinner was a fusion of Irish/American/Spanish food. Because we had so much to eat, we decided to have a part 2 Thanksgiving dinner the next night. It was really fun and enjoyable to be with all the other teachers outside of the school.
Everyone enjoying their meal.
Most of the teachers around the dinner table: Me, Miriam, Teresa, Cristina, Amy, and Alicia.
Alicia preparing one of the dishes.

The weekend before, I went to Madrid with Amy for the day to enjoy some "American" niceties. We first looked around the main plazas because Amy had never been to Madrid before. As we did this, we passed a Starbucks and we HAD to stop and get a drink. It was so nice to have something from home (although I do kick myself for supporting such a large corporation). After we got a drink there, we passed through Plaza Espana (my favorite place in Madrid) and there we found a great flea market where I purchased a few earrings. It was nice to see all the handmade crafts. Anyway, for lunch we went to TGI Fridays, which was wonderful. Lastly, we went to see New Moon in English, which was a priority for us. :) It was a great day!
Me and my Toffee Nut Latte!
TGIF!!!
The flea market in Pza Espana.
Amy and I enjoying Pza Espana.
After we had seen New Moon. These are happy faces!

I ended up staying the whole weekend with Mayuka in the pueblo of Mostoles. We traveled to Madrid (a short 10 minute bus ride) to shop, walk around the different plazas and just enjoy the environment.

Hope you enjoyed this little snippet.

Besos, Celeste

Goedemorgen!!! (Good Morning)

My new adventure was to the beautiful land of Holland. So my dear friend Amanda (who lives in Oregon) works for a Dutch company that has their base in Nuhmens, Holland. Well, her work sent her to Holland for 2 weeks and so I decided to meet up with her in Amsterdam since I had never been there and it had been some time since I had seen her. So last weekend Oct.30 -Nov. 2 I went to see her because it was a long break.

So I arrived in Amsterdam on Friday. We ended up staying in a hostel boat, which was really cool. The room was extremely small but served its purpose well. It's hard to get the full sense of how small it is from this picture, but it was small! Hehe. Then we had a small window that looked out onto the canal with a small plastic raft nearby. I felt it was perfect to be on a boat on a canal because it is the true essence of Amsterdam AND Holland; there are canals everywhere!

The hostel boat
Our Room!

The first afternoon/night we were there, we walked around the city center which was a short 10-15 minute walk from our hostel and we just ventured off. We ended up eating at a small Italian restaurant which was so cute and the waitress was extremely nice. The Dutch are incredibly nice. Anyway, I had one of the best breads and butter spread I have ever tasted. The bread was a dutch bread and the butter was white, very creamy with a wonderful garlic and chive taste. It was absolutely delicious. Our meal was really good as well. We then turned in early for the night because we planned to go to some small villages outside Amsterdam the following day to see the countryside of Holland.

On Saturday the weather was cloudy, but there wasn't any rain. We hopped onto a bus and headed toward Monnikendam, which we were told was a good town to visit. We got off at what we thought was that city and it turned out we got off at Marken, but we decided to see the town anyway. I was so happy we stopped there because it ended up being my favorite. The village was extremely small and very quiet. Since it was autumn, it made the village look that much more picturesque, as if it came out of a Thomas Kinkade painting. We walked around taking pictures of the small homes and old fashioned cars (Amanda has some pictures that I would like so maybe later I can put them up). All the leaves on the trees were different shades of orange, brown and red and some even covered the ground, which made the village look so beautiful. There were also small creeks that flowed through the city and we saw various ducks and swans going down the stream. Simply incredible. We walked into a couple of small touristy shops and saw a lot of clogs. There was even an older man, who walked by us pushing a wheel barrow, and he was wearing wooden clogs. We ended up finding the port (Marken is basically an island) and noticed there was a boat that went between Marken and Volendam, our next stop. We decided it would be fun to take the boat over. It was very enjoyable; we were the only ones on the top deck for most of the ride (which was short) and then some Spaniards came up to take pictures.
Beautiful Marken
Marken
This city is absolutely gorgeous.

When we arrived into Volendam, the town looked like a old western town. We walked around for a little bit and saw that there were some shops where you could dress up in a traditional Dutch outfit and get your picture taken.....yes, we did indeed do this since it was really cheap; how could we let this opportunity pass us by? Then, we had lunch at a fun Dutch bar and we both ordered Dutch plates, which were fantastic! I actually really enjoyed the Dutch food we ate. We then walked deeper into town and passed a small food and clothing market, where we bought some of the best tasting macadamia nuts I have ever tasted. After seeing the town, we decided to go to our last stop, Edam.
Amanda and I on the boat to Volendam.
Here's the nut station at the market. :)
The port side of the city of Volendam

Edam was our last city and the one that we spent the least amount of time in because there was basically nothing to see and everything was closed. The town was absolutely closed down, but it was still beautiful. There were canals and bridges everywhere. It was so beautiful.
Beautiful willow tree along a canal in Edam.
Edam, such beauty.
We passed by a clog maker...very cool.
I am on one of the several bridges we walked across.

That night we headed to Chinatown, which was somewhat near us. It is a big deal in Amsterdam, so we went to check it out and it was pretty good.

On Sunday, we toured Amsterdam and saw the sites that interested us the most. We first went to Anne Frank's House; the place where she and her family (along with 4 other people) went into hiding. It was wonderful learning about the history of her family in that house and their experience during the hiding. The museum was very interactive and just so moving. It was really insightful.
Anne Frank's hiding place.

Then we went to the Van Gogh museum, which was incredible. I love his artwork; it is incredible. Even better, as you walk around the museum, looking at his art, they tell you about his life which was really interesting. Then we headed over to the Heineken Brewery, which ended up being so much fun!!! It was cool because they showed you how the beer was created and then it was interactive. We could make videos, take pictures and then there was an interactive video. We had a free taster and then 2 free beers after that. Surprisingly I enjoyed Heineken. It was fun.
The only watermill we ever saw, leaving Edam. We were on the bus, that's why it is blurry.
I was shocked to see the millions of bikes we walked by everyday. This type was typical for adults with kids, the carriage/carrier is in the front of the bike.
Beautiful clock towers, I loved their chime.
Just gorgeous.
Posing with a Heineken beer ad. There were 4 different ones. Yes, we took pictures with all of them...
Yay!
This was cool, so when we got our first taste tester, we were told how to take a sip and taste the different flavors (for lack of a better word) of the beer. First it is bubbly, then sweet and then bitter as you swallow it. Well after we drank it all, we were told that the foam leaves lines on the glass and you can count them to see how many sips you took.
My dear friend Dumbo.
Giant clog....yes, we definitely looked like tourists....oh well!
The main square in Amsterdam, Dam square. (We think dam means city)

Our last day was dear Amanda's 25th bday! Sadly we only had the morning, but we took a canal tour cruise around and through Amsterdam which was a lot of fun. Hope you all enjoy the pictures!!!
On our canal boat tour-Happy Bday Amanda!!!

Love, Celeste

P.S. I'm hoping I have something exciting to share with you next week; we'll see if it actually works out. Peace!