Hey everyone!

I’ll start by apologizing for waiting so long to make this post about my AMAZING spring break trip! I know everyone was waiting patiently, but eagerly. SO, thanks for being so patient with me.

SO. 

The trip was honestly the best trip of my life. Reflecting back and looking at the pictures, every time, I realize more and more how incredible this experience really was. 

We started out in Athens, and I’ll just post the photos right…..

JUST KIDDING. 

You all know how much I love to keep you on your toes, interested, and in suspense. And really, so much happened on my trip, and there are SO many photos that I have decided to do something unprecedented and NOT post you the photos. I won’t even tell stories or explain. 

Then what?!

Well, I have a cord that will connect my camera to a tv! SO, my executive decision is that, rather than posting the photos here without much explanation, I will wait until I am home and (Probably at grandma and grandpa’s house) hook the camera up to the TV and go through the photos with everybody, so I can better tell the stories and share the experiences and actually explain the photos and what is in them! 

So, I am sorry to say that you will all have to wait a little bit longer for that. I’ll post the pictures on here after that for “online scrapbooking purposes” but until then.. just a little bit longer!

I WILL however, post THESE photos from yesterday. Last week, some friends and I learned from a magazine that there is an Egyptian temple in Madrid! Apparently, back in the day, Spain was very supportive of Egypt during a period of difficulty. In the 1970’s Egypt constructed a great dam, but the dam put this temple (The temple of Debod) in danger of being damaged. SO the temple had to be relocated. When Egypt was deciding where to relocate it, they decided to repay Spain’s kindness by shipping the temple piece-by-piece over to Madrid to stay! It’s from the 4th century. Yesterday some friends and I decided to go find the temple, it was pretty cool!

Here are the pictures from that!

http://s1161.photobucket.com/albums/q517/Nicolas_Spain/Facebook/Egyptian%20Temple%20Hunting%20in%20Madrid/

ALSO…

On Friday night, I went with my friends Evelia and Paul into Madrid to a theater to see a Spanish play adaptation of “Of Mice and Men.” It was really good, and apparently has been receiving really good reviews! I was mostly happy about the fact that I understood all of the Spanish. My host family told me that in all their 20 years of hosting students they have never had one that has gone to see a theater production, and especially not one in Spanish! It was definitely worth it. 

That’s about it for this post! I’m getting even more busy with homework/studying as finals rapidly approach! 

I miss everyone! I’ll see you soon! :)

Love, 

Nico

EMAIL: ndoyle@falcon.bgsu.edu

Hey everyone!

Well, it’s finally here. SPRING BREAK. 

I leave tonight at 4pm (Spain time) for Athens! Then on Monday, we head to Rome, and Saturday, to Venice. 

I don’t even know what to say, it’s crazy to believe that this semester is already almost over. At the same time, it feels like I’ve been here for as long as I can remember. I’m definitely ready to come home. This is the last trip I’m taking from Spain, and quite a good ending trip for Spain, I believe. 

Can’t wait to see everybody and hear everything that’s been going on in the past 4 months!

Well… I should go start packing! I’m so ready for this!

I’ll see you soon!

LOVE, NIC

PS. Like I told my mother, I’ll take more than enough photos for you (and myself over the summer) to live vicariously through. :)

Hey everybody! I’m sorry my posts have become increasingly less frequent. The semester has picked up since midterms in February and I think my final 6 weeks will start to fly by.

Just to put into perspective what my semester looks like from here on out:

-TONIGHT, I’m very excited to say that I’m taking an overnight bus to BARCELONA with some friends for the weekend. All I have to say is: Beaches. Architecture, and beaches.

-THEN, next weekend, we’re taking a trip to Cantabria, Spain. In the top north!

-AND OF COURSE, in 2 weekends, I leave for my 11-day semana santa (Spring Break) trip to Greece and Italy.

-FROM THERE, I’ll only have 2 more weeks of class, then 3 days of finals. And then I COME HOME.

SO, I only have 3 more class periods of teaching English, and am starting to put together the portfolio for that, which I will share when it’s done!

I’ve been getting lots of schoolwork, as well, but nothing major.

I’m very excited for the rest of the time here, Spring is officially settled in. It’s been 70s for the past week, and most of the trees now have semblances of leaves, and flowers have bloomed!

I miss everybody IMMENSELY, and it was good to talk (very briefly) to some of you on the phone the other day!

Now…I have to finish packing, or maybe…start. So I will talk to everyone soon!

Miss and love you all!

Love,

Nic!

EMAIL: ndoyle@falcon.bgsu.edu

PARIS.

SO…it may be two weeks late, but I am pleased to present my blog post from my weekend trip to Paris!

I’ll skip all the boring details, but one of my biggest triumphs was successfully figuring out the Paris metro system. The number one piece of advice I was given pre-Paris was to allow time to get lost because the metro system is allegedly confusing. Yet somehow my friend Anna and I, with our combined directional skills equal to that of a broken compass) mastered the metro very easily.

The first day there (before figuring out the metro) we decided to cross off number 1 on our list: La Tour Eiffel. So we grabbed a map and got a basic overview of how to get to the tower from our hostel, about a 1.5 hour walk, which was appealing because we would get to see the streets of Paris! Well…we did get a little lost, about 3 hours lost. But if I repeated the trip, I wouldn’t change it, because my new favorite place to be lost in for 3 hours is Paris. The streets alone are beautiful and they really do carry an overwhelming air of charm and elegance. 

I can never explain the moment we finally arrived at the Eiffel Tower. This, above all else, was the most monumental… monument, of the entire trip. Of my entire life. We arrived to the tower at about 3:30 pm and just sat on a bench in front of it in a strange sort of awe and shock for almost 2 hours. (Also a little rest from the walk there, but mostly awe.) It was really in that moment that it sunk in how far I’ve come from Western Ny to actually being in Paris, FRANCE. Not to mention, the tower is really such a sight to take in. It’s so much bigger than I had ever realized, massively taller than the Statue of Liberty.

Eventually, we made our way to the tower and found that for only 3.70 €, we could actually go up the tower! We took the stairs, and after clutching the railing in mortal fear and about 15 minutes straight of climbing, we reached the observation deck. It was an incredible view of Paris and the tower is right on the river. It was breathtaking to say the least. We decided it was more than worth it to stay on the tower to see the sun set from such an incredible, monumental view. We did. And though the camera could never do justice, you’ll see in my pictures that it really was worth it. An amazing first day.

Day 2, we went out to the palace at Versailles. Again, it was so incredibly lavish and luxurious, and well worth the visit. You’ll see the pictures of that as well! Be watching for the palace covered in gold and 17th century artwork by the top artists in the world. On the way back, we had figured out the metro and realized that we could arrive to the Eiffel Tower in 15 minutes from the hostel for only 1.70, so we went back again to see the Tower lit up at night! Every hour, for 5 minutes, the tower sparkles and glitters. Again, an amazing night.

The final day, we visited the artsy, full of character village of Montmarte. There we visited the Sacre Coeur Basilica, and the Moulin Rouge! We visited about a million little shops! Although not insanely monumental, that was still a highlight of the entire trip.

Enjoy the photos as much as I did taking and experiencing them! As this trip was the number one thing I most looked forward to about coming to Europe, there are about 400 photos! I couldn’t stop. 

Click here for the album! : http://s1161.photobucket.com/albums/q517/Nicolas_Spain/Paris/?albumview=slideshow

I’m going to stop here because I could go on forever about Paris! Enjoy.

I miss everyone and can’t wait to see you all next month! It’s going to be here so soon.

Love, Nic.

Comments/questions: ndoyle@falcon.bgsu.edu

I have fallen in love. 

We took a 3 day weekend trip (all expenses paid by the school) to Granada in the autonomous region of Andalucia, Spain! Basically, the southern coast of Spain on the Mediterranean. 

It was honestly my favorite city I have ever visited… ever. 

I took about 300 pictures, so I’m not going upload those one by one onto here, buut I’m putting them into an album which you can find at this link! :

http://s1161.photobucket.com/albums/q517/Nicolas_Spain/Granada%20Spain%20%202012/

The first night there we toured the Catedral Real which was huge and beautiful, as are all of the catedrales I’ve encountered here. Connected to that was the Capilla Real de Granada. An ornate building containing the actual tombs of los Reyes Católicos, the Catholic Kings. The Capilla was built in 1504 and houses the tombs of Isabel I de Castilla y Fernando II de Aragón, just to name a few. (Isabel was the queen of Spain who granted Christopher Columbus permission and supplied him with ships on his expedition when he discovered America!) There was some incredible Baroque and Renaissance artwork throughout!

On day 2, we drove about an hour to an incredibly beautiful town called Salobreña. I will live there one day. You’ll see it in the photos, a labyrinth-like town on the top of a cliff, where every house is white. The streets were VERY steep, which was very pleasing for the eyes, but not so much on my legs and feet. There were some sort palm tree and the weather was perfect. At least 58-60 degrees Fahrenheit. We saw an old castle literally on the edge of the cliff there, with incredible views overlooking the Mediterranean. I mean really breathtaking! From there we slowly scaled down the cliff to the beach and had free time for lunch and beach-going. 

Later that night, we went to a low-key bar to see a flamenco performance! I will post the videos of that!

The final and third day, we went to visit one of the most important monuments of Spain/Europe: La Alhambra. La Alhambra is a palace and fortress complex located in Granada. It was constructed during the mid 14th century by the Moorish rulers of the Emirate of Granada in al-Andalus, occupying the top of the hill of the Assabica on the southeastern border of the city of Granada. I remember back at Sarah’s Bat Mitzvah, cousin Rachel mentioning that visiting La Alhambra was absolutely a must in Spain! I would say you were right! I don’t even know what else to say about it, it was one of the highlights of my whole trip so far. 

The weekend as a whole was an unforgettable trip and definitely an experience that will stand out when I look back on my time in Spain. Everybody, prepare yourselves for this album! It’s the best set of pictures so far. I’m very excited to share it with you!

Also, midterms are coming up this week/next week, but on the bright side I am leaving THIS Thursday night for a weekend in PARIS with my friend Anna. I can’t tell you all how excited I am for THAT. Expect probably more than 300 pictures. 

I miss and love everybody mucho!

Talk soon!

Comments/Questions: ndoyle@falcon.bgsu.edu

Everybody, it’s finally HERE! The weekend trip to Granada, Spain in the autonomous community of Andalucia. (Southern Spain!) 

Forecast: upper 50’s and sunny clear skies all weekend long. 

Now, I don’t honestly know a whole lot about Granada yet, other than the Alhambra. So I’m going to try to take notice of what the tour guide says so I’ll actually have things to write about all the pretty photos of stunning architecture. No promises though. 

BORING ALERT! If tired, don’t read the rest of this post! 

I would also like to take this time to say a little more about the English classes I’ve been giving so far. Basically, as I’ve said, every Monday I head down to the Comisiones Obreras (A labor union for unemployed Spaniards) to meet with my students! As of this past Monday, I combined my small class with the small class of my friend Alesia so we now teach as a team. It’s been a little bit of a struggle, with no background or experience in education, to decide what to teach or even HOW to teach it! The other obstacle we confront is the short time period with a  limited number of classes. In total I have only 13 class sessions to attempt to teach non-English speakers enough of some sort of functional English, with zero background in this area. SO, what I’m trying to do is just that. To teach practical, situational English. Rather than go through grammar rules step by step or countless repetitive memorizations, AKA the notional-functional approach, we’re trying to rely more on the communicative approach. With the communicative approach, the focus isn’t as much on the grammatical structure or rules of English. Rather, it relies on oral communication as the means and the goal of the teaching process. In short, roleplaying, dialogues, skits, and role-reversal (asking my students to explain the situation to ME) are essentially what we do. We’re trying to teach them exactly how to handle important situations in English, situations that are more pertinent to the students themselves. 

Does that make sense? It’s late, so it may very well not even be English..

It is getting easier as we start to get the hang of it, I think. 

Another awesome benefit of the class is that I often end up explaining concepts and such in Spanish to clarify directly with the students. It’s also been great to be really meeting the real people of Spain. as a generalization, the Spanish people are very knowledgeable about the politics and economics of their country/the world. My host family and all of my students have LOTS to say on the subjects, much more than I think I have encountered in the U.S., where politics and social issues seem to scare people more often than not. 

Well, anyway, that was kind of a superficial summary of the teaching experience so far. Since we are pioneers of the service learning field here in Spain, I’m putting together an in depth portfolio that I will share at the end of the semester when we’re done!

Now… I should be getting to sleep about… 2 hours ago. 

So, until Monday! When you will hear all about Granada!

Buenas noches. 

I miss and love everybody! 

Comments/Questions: ndoyle@falcon.bgsu.edu

Hola buenas.

Okay, so here is the (late) post about the day trip to Segovia, Spain from last Friday!

Segovia, Spain is about 2.5 hours north of Madrid in the autonomous region of Castilla y León. If I haven’t mentioned before, or if you don’t already know, Spain is divided into 17 autonomous regions, Madrid being directly in the center with an autonomous region of the same name. Segovia has an immense history (of which I don’t recall most), dating back to the Romans and was even a battlefield in 75 BC. The city was initially settled by Romans, but eventually abandoned for centuries until the conquest of Toledo by Alfonso IV of Castilla y León.

Therefore one of my favorite sights was a relic from the Roman days; the Aqueduct of Segovia. This is an actual Roman aqueduct that is 2,000 years old! It is Segovia’s foremost symbol. Built in the 1^st Century, it’s one of Spain’s oldest standing monuments. It carried water from a river to Segovia’s city center. It was built entirely without cement or any type of glue/paste.

We also saw the Alcazar of Segovia, which is the castle there. An interesting fact: the Alcazar of Segovia is the very castle Walt Disney used when drawing the famous Disney Logo that you see in the opening credits of every Disney movie! The castle comes complete with a deep moat and a real drawbridge and is built on top of the remains of a Roman fortress.

And of course since Segovia was further north and at a higher elevation, it was SIGNIFICANTLY colder than here in Madrid. So, against my will, I saw some snow there! Not a lot, certainly nothing comparable to a usual Rochester/Buffalo winter, but enough to make me glad that it won’t be snowing here in Madrid and [hopefully] won’t be snowing in April when I get home. 

You will also the Cathedral of Segovia, a vastly large and beautifully detailed cathedral. It was the last Gothic cathedral to be built in Spain (1520) and is known as the “Lady of Cathedrals.” I snuck a few pictures of the inside!

I haven’t posted any of the pictures here because it takes suuuuch a long time, so everybody go ahead and click this link right here to get to the album of all the photos! http://s1161.photobucket.com/albums/q517/Nicolas_Spain/Segovia%20Spain%202012/

I hope you all enjoy as much as I did, although the pictures really cannot do justice to how beautiful it was in Segovia. I havent even mentioned the snow capped mountains surrounding the city. I’ll let the pictures do the talking there. Enough said.

Love, Nic.

Comments/Questions E-Mail: ndoyle@falcon.bgsu.edu

_____________________________________________________________________________

Hola hola.

Pues bueno, aquí está el post (con retraso) sobre el viaje a Segovia, España del viernes pasado!

Segovia, España se ubica 2,5 horas al norte de Madrid, en la comunidad autónoma de Castilla y León. Si no he mencionado antes, o si no ya sabeis, España está dividida en 17 comunidades autónomas. Madrid se situa en el centro con una región autónoma del mismo nombre. Segovia tiene una inmensa historia (de la que ya no recuerdo), que se remonta a los romanos. La ciudad fue fundada inicialmente por los romanos, pero fue abandonado durante siglos, hasta la conquista de Toledo por Alfonso IV de Castilla y León.

Por lo tanto uno de mis sitios favoritos era una reliquia de  los romanos, un acueducto romano que es de 2.000 años de antigüedad! Probablemente fue construido alrededor del siglo primero y está construida enteramente de piedra y se la hizo sin ningún tipo de cemento o pasta. Lo veráis en el álbum de fotos, es muy reconocible como un típico acueducto romano.

También vimos el Alcázar de Segovia, que es el castillo. Algo interesante: el Alcázar de Segovia es el mismo castillo que utilizó  Walt Disney en la elaboración del famoso logotipo de Disney que se ve en los créditos de apertura de todas las películas de Disney! Está construido sobre los restos de una fortaleza romana.

Con tal que Segovia era más hacia el norte y de una elevación más alta, hacía significativamente más frío que aquí en Madrid. Asique, en contra de mis deseos, he visto un poco de nieve! No mucho, claro que era nada comparable a lo de Rochester / Buffalo, pero  suficiente que me alegro de que no va a nevar aquí en Madrid y esperadamente no nevará en abril cuando  regreso a los EEUU.

Al fin, vi la Catedral de Segovia, una catedral muy grande y muy bien detallada. Fue la última catedral gótica que se construyó en España (en 1520) y se conoce como la “Dama de las Catedrales”. 

 
A ver que no he publicado ninguna de las fotos aquí porque requiere tanto tiempo, que vos seguid adelante y haced clic en este enlace aquí para llegar al álbum de fotos! % http://s1161.photobucket.com/albums/q517/Nicolas_Spain/Segovia 20Spain% 202012 /

Espero que disfrutéis tanto como yo, aunque las fotos realmente no hacen justicia a lo hermoso que era Segovia. Incluso no he mencionado las montañas cubiertas de nieve que rodean la ciudad. Voy a dejar que las imágenes hablen por allí. No digo más.

Amor, Nico.

Alright, so it’s been about.. 6 days since I last posted. That’s not terrible, right?! ….Everybody calm down! I’m alive! 

Let’s see here! 

I’ll be making my post soon about our day trip Segovia on Friday. I still have to upload and sort through all of my photos, which takes a bit of time, so I’m still getting there. But I can say that it was a beautiful city! Segovia is about 2.5 hours north of Madrid and since Madrid doesn’t really get snow, it was nice to see SOME snow. Although after one short day, I had really had enough. So I’m definitely not missing that. But Segovia was wonderful, although very cold, and has a Roman aqueduct 2,000 years old! Insaane! So the official post for that trip will be…. soon. In the near future, I promise.

Hopefully this will suffice until I have more time to sit down and make a better statement about life here. 

I miss and love everyone! XO