Silken Juan De Austria Valladolid

... works to prevent gay marriage, not allow profanity or nudity on public television, and disallow scary things like sex education that isn’t abstinence only. Yet here in Spain, all of those things exist and the family unit is still usually stronger than it is back home. It makes you wonder how much of our “family values” image is politically or religiously driven, instead of being an actual concept based on common sense and logic.

After our snow adventure we still needed 1 and a half day to cycle to Valladolid. Luckily we found another cute abandoned house next to the road where we did manage to built a fireplace, a chimney and mount our tent in the smallest room (1,5 x 2 mt!!). I am a bit afraid of the cold and know that it has a big influence on my mood, but we are doing well and I get more convinced that we can travel further by ...

... or transportation though :D

This is my itinerary, on the off chance that I'm kidnapped by some variety of pirates or ninjas somewhere along the way.

Thursday, December 3:
7:00am: LEAVE Valladolid via Train
9:45am: ARRIVE in Madrid via Train..take the metro to the airport
12:20pm: LEAVE Madrid
3:25pm: ARRIVE in Berlin Germany. Get picked up by Rabea and head to her place

Friday ...

We reached our campsite in Valladolid after driving through some of the freakiest weather ever. I mean I live in Montreal so I'm used to weather changed pretty quickly but this was weird. In our 5 hour drive we went through pouring rain and cold weather into sunshine. Then magically we were in 30 minutes of a winter wonderland. In the middle of Spain there was a forest covered in 3 inches of ...

Today I came home from school to quite the dramatic scene in the kitchen. My host mom was standing in the kitchen, with two girls who had just came in from Holland to study here for two weeks. The two girls looked like deer trapped in the headlights of a car, and my host mom was talking to them as loudly as she possibly could in hopes that a volume adjustment would improve their lack of Spanish understanding.

The whole thing ...

... she wants us to learn. The rest of the class has similar sentiments. After we were done for the day, I got all my tickets and plans ready for Ireland. The itinerary was MUCH simpler than the last weekend. It's going to be a relaxation vacation instead of a touring vacation.
Itinerary, for the record:

Sunday, Oct. 18
3pm: Leave Valladolid, via Renfe train
6:30pm: Arrive in Madrid, Chamartin station
6:30-7:30ish: Take the metro to ...

... el Sol de Shanghai nos deslumbraba mostrandonos un cielo sorprendentemente limpio y claro. Los fértiles huertos y terrazas de arroz del estuario del rio Yang tze, la zona ocupada por Shanghai asomaban por nuestras ventanillas de forma nítida y soleada. De pronto un pequeño rugido en la parte inferior del avión nos anunciaba que el tren de aterrizaje habia sido desplegado, y poco despues el chirrido típico de las ruedas nos dejaba claro que nuestra aventura china no habia echo más ...

... mayor. The whole city is still packed with people. They had traditional music and dance, which was cool to see. The arabic history of the country really came out.

The night ended with this Partydance parade thing. Basically it's a huge float that goes through the plaza, blasting techno music and with strobe lights and stuff. Everyone dances in the streets...and there is a ton of pyrotechnics and fireworks. It was pretty cool to see.

... enough to get the students so nervous that I needed earplugs. One student jumped in my lap and started hugging me. Finally we came to the big drop off. The families formed a semi-circle and ogled the door of the bus, wondering which child would emerge. It was great. I got it all on video. The families were nervous, the students were nervous...but we do everything as quickly as ...

... pretty badly, right into the thigh. Soccor is also a pretty big thing right now. On Sunday there was a big celebration because Barcelona-España won an important game, so that was exciting. Mi familia is wonderful. They are really nice people and they cook pretty good food. Although, I´m afraid I may have created a sore spot with them, I don´t know for sure yet though. We were only given one key to share, my roommate ...