Thursday, May 27, 2010

Burgos...and its many monasteries

On Friday May 21st, Manolo (whose two sons I tutor and is the religion teacher at Ferrari) invited me to go on a field trip with some of my 1ESO and some 2ESO students to Burgos. 50 students went, 35 being from my English classes, along with Manolo, Dori, who is an English teacher but teaches outside of the Bilingual program, and myself.

We left at 8.30am and returned at 8.30pm. We had a full day of activities and things to see. We visited 3 monasteries, 1 church and the cathedral of Burgos. It was extremely warm, but really fun to see new sights.

I took more pictures of what we saw and some of my students. For anyone who is interested, I can share those ones with you once I return to the states. :)

Enjoy!

Monasterio de Las Huelgas: This is the first monastery we visited. Inside there was a beautiful cloister. We learned the history of this particular monastery, unfortunately I don't remember anything. The nuns that live here aren't allowed to live in the monastery, but they do a lot of charitable work from inside.
Inside the halls of the Burgos cathedral. I loved the way the light shone through the windows.
The inside of the Burgos cathedral's dome.
The choir chairs in one of the smaller churches we visited. I love the carvings within the wood. Especially the spirals in the center.

La Cartuja: It is a monastery where the monks never speak or sing. They are always quiet and in prayer. They also never leave the monastery; food and other necessities are brought in for them. My students didn't understand why this is such a great feat, but I find it incredible for people to dedicate themselves this way. More power to them!
Snails for sale!!! Yum...(she says in a sarcastic tone)
The golden stairs inside the Burgos cathedral. The pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Burgos leads you into the cathedral from outside with these stairs.
Decoration of saints at the top of the Burgos cathedral.
The Burgos cathedral.

<3 Celeste

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Puggles...what a fun word to say!

For the past few months I have been looking at various dog adoption websites. I decided that once I finally return home (permanently) I will get myself a dog, preferably one that I can adopt.

Along the way, Mario shared with me a new dog breed. I don't know how new it is, but for me it is new since I had never heard of this breed before. It is a combination of a beagle and a pug. At first I couldn't even imagine the two mixed together...it wouldn't be a pretty sight. I decided to google "puggle" and see what images came up. This is what I saw:

They are just too adorable! When they get full size they aren't as cute as when they were puppies, but there is something so genuine in their faces. :D

Apparently they have very low health risks because of the two breeds that were used. If you're interested in more information about puggles, visit: www.puggle.org

Celeste