Plans, Plans, Plans

I figured I'd make a little "plans" update since I have not posted for awhile.

First and most importantly I have been working on my application to teach in Seoul South Korea next August.  I will be turning in the application on April 1st.  After the application there will be an interview and eventually (in July) all the visa papers will need to be turned in.  Sounds like I will be going to Korea alone but thanks to the wonderful world of Facebook I found out that someone I knew from Chapman is in Seoul teaching now so hopefully she can help me out when I first get there.  Also, like Spain, a few people have said they will be visiting me at some point.

My time here in Spain is quickly coming to an end with just two more months of classes.  I will bring my camera to class and take photos before my last day.

On the weekend of the 7th of April I am off to Madrid yet again.  This time to meet up with Caity Thompson and Andy Nichols.  It should be a fun weekend.

Two weeks after my dad will be meeting me in Logrono.  We will be visiting a few wineries or bodegas, as well as the famous Dinastia Vivanco wine museum.  I'll have to find a nice restaurant to celebrate my dad's birthday on April 20th; which I am sure he is excited that he will be in Spain for.  Then we will be driving to Zaragoza for a quick day-trip on the way to Barcelona.  Once in Barcelona we will be ditching the car and taking a train through France where we will be stopping in Montepiliar and Nice.  After France we will be taking a train to Venice.  It's going to be a great trip and I cannot wait to see Italy for the first time and show my dad Spain.

This last week I purchased the ticket that will eventually get me home.  The ticket I bought was a one-way from Copenhagen Denmark to New York City.  And this will be the last leg of a month long vacation where I will do a little tour.

My vacation plans are as follow:

Granada Spain (2 nights)
Morocco (1 week) 4 Days in Fez and 2 in Tangier
Vienna Austria (2 nights)
Budapest Hungry (2 Nights)
Hannover Germany (4 Nights staying with Jacob Anderson)
Copenhagen Denmark (2 Nights)

I will be back in Portland on June 21st or 22nd, and I will be staying for about 1 month.  

I'm thinking after spending a week in Morocco I will be more prepared for the culture shock in Korea.  Also, anyone who has been to any of these places and wants to share some insight I would love some tips.

Side Trip To Toledo On The Way to The US Embassy / Scientific Police Station Appointments in Madrid

I had been to Toledo when I was here nearly 10 years ago, and I remember it being steep, and having a lot of stores that sold knives. Well it was still really steep, and there were still a lot of stores that sold knives, but this time I think I will remember a few more things. The city is extremely old and has a medieval feel to it with castles, palaces and cobble stone roads. Somehow they manage to get city buses up and down these really steep cobble stone roads, it sure makes for a bumpy ride.

Anyway, I just spent the day walking around the center of the city taking pictures of the old churches, cathedrals and synagogues. There are only a few synagogues left in all of Spain after they chased out the jews and burned down all the synagogues, but there are 2 of them in Toledo. It is really interesting all the Jewish culture that still remains in Toledo, considering the rest of Spain has never met a jewish person or seen a synagogue. Personally every time I tell someone that I am jewish they either do not understand, they are shocked or they think I'm lying.

After walking around the center of the city for a few hours I decided to go check out the old castle wall that still surrounds the entire city. There was an old bridge, where people had locked padlocks (a tradition I have noticed all over europe to show ever lasting love). From the bridge I noticed a castle up on the hill and I still had an hour before my Train was scheduled to leave. I went up the hill and there seemed to be no entrance to the castle gate and it didn't seem like a tourist friendly place so I just walked up the hill a bit more, where I found a hospital (strange place for a hospital). On my way back down the hill a big tour bus had stopped and the driver asked me for directions. I told him I had no idea, and as he drove away I noticed someone come out of the gate from the castle so I checked it and it was open. I went in and walked around, there were cats and I didn't see any people. I think it was a public place but I really do not know because no one was there. There were a couple cats lounging in the yard. I took some pictures that overlook the city and I headed back down toward the train. I still had time so I stopped at a bar across the the train station and order a caña. Sometimes I forget that in many parts of Spain when you order a drink you get a free tapas. It really is a crap shoot because sometimes you get something along the lines of a bowl filled with garbanzo beans and tripe (cow stomach) like I did at this bar. I ate most of it but tripe is kinda difficult for me to eat even though it doesn't taste bad.

After my train arrived in Madrid I just walked the streets for awhile before finding my hostel. It was by far the worst hostel experience I have ever had (also the cheapest). Someone had taken an apartment and put tons of beds in it. There were no lockers, no privacy and the place was just gross (smelled of smoke and had brown pillows). I had to sleep with my stuff since there were no lockers and it was difficult enough sleeping in the smelly crappy place, but then a few hours after I went to bed the girl who had the bunk above mine came home. Very squeaky metal bunk bed woke me up when she climbed up there. I then noticed a second person (another girl) climbed up there too, without getting into much detail these girls were drunk and they kept me up. Overall a terrible night. The next morning I woke up and headed to the Embassy. Interesting experience but things went pretty smoothly, they gave me the letter and directions to the scientific police station where I could get my finger prints. The police woman man handled my fingers handed me a napkin and sent me on my way with my FBI fingerprint card. I now have finished the most difficult part of my visa for going to Korea this coming Fall. Here are some pictures of crazy Madrid and beautiful Toledo.

Another Day, Another Adventure: Haro La Rioja, Spain

Yesterday Jared and I took a 30 minute bus from Logrono to a town called Haro.  Haro is easily 1000 years old and there are plenty of buildings that are older than the entire United States.  Once again the way people live in these villages never ceases to amaze me.  The reason we went to Haro was for the bodegas (vineyards), this is what Haro is known for.  Haro is possibly one of the most famous wine cities in the world considering it has the best known Rioja winery's.

We walked around the town taking photos and had a pintxo before realizing we might need help finding Muga.  Muga is the bodega that we had scheduled a tour with.  We walked into the local police station where a nice police man was happy to show us the way.  The basically opened the door to give us our tour (along with a group of 4 Spanish people).  Everything was beautiful and the tour was in Spanish.  Apparently Muga is one of the most traditional bodegas.  They have been making wine the same way for a very long time.  Don't let traditional fool you though, this place pumps out a ton of wine.  You can see in my pictures how long the corridors of wine barrels are.  There were multiple rooms and the biggest room had about 50 of these long corridors.  Along with the aging wine in barrels they have 3 million bottles of wine ready to go.  One of the more interesting things to me was that they make their own barrels from raw materials (trees and iron).  I'm not sure if that is normal for wineries elsewhere or even here but I found it to be really interesting.  Another thing I did not know was that they put egg-whites into the wine.  The picture of the funny metal thing, and a trash can in front of a huge Muga wine barrel, shows you the egg-white separation station.  At the end of the 90 minute tour the tour guide opened up a bottle of white wine and a bottle of Crianza (6 month barrel aged red rioja).  We enjoyed a glass of each with the tour guide and the two elderly Spanish couples.  The white wine was especially good because I usually do not like white wines but this was delicious.  The Crianza was great as well but I am quite used to these wines after living here for 6 months.  Sadly the Muga pictures are a bit dark but hopefully you can get a good idea what it was like.



There are a few things I am looking forward to in the next couple of weeks that you will probably see pop-up on my blog.  First I will be writing an article for wineandfoodtravel.com about the Muga Bodega and the town of Haro (my pictures will be used too if they arent too dark).  I also will be having an interview that I did with a rapper called Dominique Young Unique on the music site that I have been working for.  I'm pretty excited about it because Dominique is really on the up-and-up being named artist of the day by SXSW, "hot new artist" by Beyonce in Vogue, etc..  I will post a link to the interview once it is up on the site.

As for the fun stuff, tonight Jared and I going to a see food festival at the Plaza De Toro's.  They have fresh seafood from Galicia, a region in northern Spain known for it's seafood.  This weekend is carnival and apparently most places in the world celebrate this by dressing up and partying, Logrono is no exception.  I will try to take some pictures and post about it if it's fun.  And finally, I will be going to Madrid in 2 weeks to take care of some paperwork for my South Korea visa, maybe I will get someone to meet me there (like Jacob or Caity).