Category: notes

Rod finishes a great series on information and ideas for studying at Spanish language schools.

Ryan and Gabriella gather a selection of the blogosphere’s favourite reasonably priced Spanish wines.

When everything goes wrong in Pamplona: photos not for the faint hearted…

Lots of you are moving to Spain. Inspiring people – good luck! And all announced on July 11th!

“I just didn’t realise at the time how neanderthal the Spanish right is compared to much of Europe…” – more excellent political commentary from South of Watford, who remembers Miguel íngel Blanco, whose assassination by ETA sparked national outrage 10 years ago.

“Earlier this week, up near Ourense, a truck carrying 48 fighting bulls overturned […] 4 escaped. These were last seen running eastwards in the direction of Pamplona…” From the excellent Thoughts from Galicia.

Notes in Spanish TV has a new episode from Thailand.

See anything good on the web this week?

Many many thanks to all of the guest bloggers who provided such a wonderful selection of posts this month. Marina and I are now back from distant shores and once the jet lag wears off, we’ll be back up to full steam, blogging, podcasting and videocasting away as per usual. We have lots of exciting plans for the summer and the rest of the year ahead, and look forward to sharing them here.

By the way, for ten points, does anyone know the Spanish for jet lag and overbooking? 😉

Just a quick note to say that we have a new beginners level Spanish podcast at Notesinspanish.com. The podcast is called (and aimed at!) Inspired Beginners, and aims to bring you real Spanish language and conversations to help you race ahead in your Spanish studies. More details over at Notes in Spanish.com!

And you don’t have to be a blogger….

What’s this all about? There is a general idea floating around some of the comments that I am just far too nice about Spain all the time, and that a more balanced view is required. So, I’d like to enlist your help for a month to see if Spain and the Spanish still end up on top ! If you have something to say about either, we would love to post your words here this June.

You can select from one of the following topics:

• An experience that highlights how wonderful Spain is / the Spanish are
• An experience that highlights why Spain and / or the Spanish are far from perfect
• An good or bad experience from my wonderful / nightmare move to Spain

What can we offer in return? A chance to have your say on this eminent on-line publication 😉 Plus plenty of readers for your post, hopefully lots of comments, and a link to your blog or web page (if you have one!)

Important stuff: no racist, rude, or overtly inflammatory posts will be published. The choice of which posts are published will be at the discretion of Ben and Marina. Please ensure that your article is between 200 and a maximum of 750 words long. Please email your article/post to ben [at] notesfromspain -dot- com by the end of Monday June 4th (please do not post it here in the comments!)

Get involved and have your say here at Notes from Spain!

Counting the Costa – Buy to let Brits in trouble on the coast (thanks Omeyas for the link)

Guirilandia reflects on Catalans and Jews

BBC: Expats a political force in Spain (comment in the forum. More at The Big Chorizo and The Bad Rash).

Loads of Spanish video blogging going on in the forum, keep them coming, the competition is still running!

I received a message from our forum asking if I would post a request for help finding Madeleine McCann, abducted in the Algarve recently. This is obviously genuine and who knows, perhaps somehow this can help. Full information and numbers to call are available via this article here at sky news.

South of Watford has filled an important gap in Wikipedia, providing an interesting history lesson.

Rod wonders why he feels more at home in Spain than at home in the UK.

The Guardian takes us from Ajo to Zamora.

Our sponsors, holidaysinspain.com are running a photo competition via Flickr with big hotel discounts for entrants and winners.

Dan needs help planning the perfect 30 day trip to Spain in the forums.

Amy reminds me of the terrible nervous tension one feels when on the verge of leaving everything behind for a new life in Spain. Pop over and wish her luck!

Question: do you find the weekly link round-up interesting/useful?

OOh, NFS has made it onto the Guardian Abroad lists, so if anyone has a minute to click on the box below (or follow this link) and and say something about NFS over there (“Review this blog”), that would be great!

http://www.guardianabroad.co.uk/blog_button.js?id=194

This post is dedicated to my mother, Lou, who died on April 11th 2007 aged 63, and is pictured above in Codoba’s Mezquita, a place in Spain she dearly loved. My mother spent most or our childhood telling my sisters and I things like ‘How could you be bored on a day like this?’, ‘Get outside and enjoy all the beautiful things in the garden!’, and ‘stop moping, life’s too short!’ Every time a beautiful landscape was lit by a warm evening glow she would exclaim ‘Look at that wonderful light!’, so that now I can’t go anywhere at the beginning or end of the day without looking at how the changing angle of the sun causes everything it falls upon to change for the better. I know some people feel uncomfortable with posts like this, but it is simply to pass on these messages – never be bored on beautiful days, always look at the light, and, if in doubt, ‘just get out and do something!’ – a favourite piece of advice that worked pretty well for me, and, in case you’re wondering, has everything to do with Notes from Spain.

Luckily she is survived by a Ducati-driving inspiration of a father who rode a motorbike 2000 km across India with me last year and doubtless has many more such journeys ahead. Where next, Dad?

I just wanted to say a big front-page thank you to everyone who made it to Madrid last weekend for the Great Madrid Escape. 30 adventurous individuals from all over the world (as far afield as Sydney and L.A.!) were in town and, despite never having met, got on tremendously well.

Marina and I have never organised anything like this before and we were nervous all weekend that people might not enjoy the places we took them to. But of course everyone was in a buoyant holiday mood, the food and wine was up to scratch, and energy reserves were summoned by those who made it through to daily post 3 a.m. finishes.

Many people remarked that this would never have happened 5, even 10 years ago… the idea of 30 strangers who met ‘on-line’ getting together and meeting in person would, until recently, have just appeared plain wierd. But that is perhaps testament to how the net is changing the world. Geographically disparate people with shared interests get to know each other well enough on line to know that getting together in reality is going to be absolutely fine.

So, saludos to all of those brave enough to follow Marina and I around the restaurants, bars, and Metro stops of Madrid for the weekend. Thank goodness none of us had anything of value picked from our pockets, and hurray for the sunny weather. There will definitely be more of the same in the future, thanks again to everyone, and watch this space!

• GME in the forum
• GME Photos