CuppaTea

We returned from Las Médulas for a late lunch, and thoroughly enjoyed the food prepared for us in our absence! Then a second trip was brought up. The only problem seemed to be that we couldn’t fit all 6 of us in the car. As the father of one of the students had stayed behind in the morning, we decided that one of the other three of us students would stay behind. And yet, when I drew the piece of paper to stay behind, no one seemed happy to leave it at that. I was a bit embarrassed to be the cause of so much hassle, as I was actually happy to stay home, but in the end we had three cars and fourteen people (including four children) heading out for the next trip. We headed for Aturias, a neighbouring autonomous community. An autonomous community is a little bit more independent than a state in Australia, as far as I understand it, but I’m not entirely sure of all the differences. And even though Spain is about the same size as South Australia, there are 17 autonomous communities...

I have had a few opportunities to travel while I've been here. I've written a bit about my trip to and time in Bilbao - both the food and the scenery . The other weekend I had the chance to do two trips in one day, to two different parts of Spain. First, Las Médulas in the morning. A World Heritage Site. With good reason!

The world is an amazing place. There are so many different ways to think about it. I've been looking at a bunch of maps, and I thought I'd share a few I personally find very interesting. For the full set, see this site.

So much has been going on over the last few weeks, but considering this is the last week of the semester I thought I should post something about what I've been learning before I am distracted by all the wonderful things involved in a four week break!

I am pretty excited today about some things which may sound a bit odd, but that I thought I might share with those of you who are kind enough to read this blog. I have had page views from three new countries this week - two today! So if you have visited for the first time in the last few days, or have visited while in a different country, thank you! I enjoy seeing new countries coloured in on my audience statistics.

Oh, the anticipation has been exquisite! So, do you know what happened in 1492? Isabella of Castille and Ferdinand of Aragon (Spain) finally defeated the Moors, with the long war ended by the surrender of Granada. (This war is known as the Reconquista , and was endorsed by the popes as a crusade.) The Jews were ordered out of Spain (unless they converted to Christianity), so over 100,000 left for Portugal or the Ottoman Empire. And Columbus, financed by Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain, sailed for India and discovered the New World instead. ( See here .) Travelling to this site reveals some of the other events of the year: Jan 16th - The first grammar of a modern language, in the Spanish language, presented to Queen Isabella . Mar 4th - King James IV of Scotland concluded an alliance with France against England. Aug 11th - Rodrigo de Borja became Pope Alexander VI. (And yes, that means a Spanish pope.) Oct 2nd - King Henry VII of England invaded France. Oct 12th - Fle...

I noticed today that in the audience statistics there were four countries whose names started with the letter 'U'. Can you name four countries that start with the letter 'U'? Did you know that there are more than you might think, because we often use an abbreviation of the full name of a country when referring to that country? For example, did you know that Mexico actually starts with a 'U' (in its English form)? That the USA has as one of its neighbours the USM? The United States of Mexico? (By the way, Mexico was not one of the four countries! Although, I'd love to have someone in Mexico read my blog, and maybe even leave a nice comment in Spanish!) I believe that the letter 'U' is under-utilised. Too often it is neglected unless someone is deliberately using their creativity to uncover opportunities to urge it into prominence! If you are one of the wonderful people reading this blog from a country beginning with the letter 'U', I wou...

Jumping nearly half a century forward, what will have changed? Ooh! More than just significant deaths! First up we have "Sweden's Erik VIII Bjornsson defeats a Viking army at Fyrisvallarn near Uppsala and will be remembered as Erik "Seirsal" ("Victorious")." Although, technically I suppose a military victory would involve significant numbers of deaths... Hmmm... Next we have "the Danish king Harald II (Bluetooth) dies after a 35-year reign and is succeeded by his son Sweyn (Forkbeard), who will defeat the Norwegians, Swedes, and Wends; conquer England; and reign until 1014." That means that the son reigned for 29 years - quite the longevity in the family! And some more church history: "The antipope Boniface VII dies suddenly at Rome in July and is succeeded in August by the Crescentii family's candidate for the papal throne; he will reign until 996 as John XV." (All three are sourced from this website , which was also cite...

I had a wonderful time yesterday catching up with a dear friend. I had forgotten how easily we can pass time together, talking about all sorts of things, to the extent that we looked up at one point to realise we had been talking for more than three hours on the strength of one cup of tea! Considering we started at 10am, this meant that we hadn't even noticed that it was time to have lunch! An hour later I left, and yet we felt that we hadn't had enough time to catch up!