“Un americano en Galicia”

Oscar and I recently began collaborating on a project that we hope will serve many purposes.  The name of our project (using the same high level of creativity I demonstrated in naming this blog) is “Un americano en Galicia.”  The general premise is that we will go around Galicia recording various sites that possess natural beauty and touristic significance.  We are hoping that this will able to serve as a resource for both the students learning English in our school, as well as any English-speaking tourists seeking to learn more about the region.

We’ve been thinking about ways we can further develop the project as we move forward.  For example, create a blog specifically for the series of videos, open it up for other native English speakers in the region to add their own videos, or even try to find a sponsor.  This will all depend on the reception it gets and the success we have.  For now we will be uploading the videos onto our respective blogs – here on this page, the blog for our school’s library, and the blog for Oscar’s audiovisual group.  Feel free to check out the library and AV group’s blogs below (both maintained by Oscar).  Yes, they are in a language that is only spoken in this corner of Spain, but maybe you can still learn something from them.

http://rodaxe.wordpress.com/ (Rodaxe Audiovisual Group)

bibliotecaleliadoura.wordpress.com (IES Leliadoura Library)

And I present to you… “Un americano en Galicia”

Un americano en Galicia – An American in Galicia

The first stop on our trek across Galicia is a local lookout point called Miradoiro Pedra da Rá.  It’s located about a mile or two away from my apartment, but it is an uphill climb the whole way, so we went in Oscar’s car.  As you can see, it was a really beautiful day.

Here is the long past due chapter 2 of “Un americano en Galicia.”  I’ve got some a pretty good amount of material up to this point in terms of pictures and videos so I hope to get some more of these out there in the coming days.  This past weekend Óscar, Hayes, and I took a road trip down to Madrid from Ribeira.  It was about a six and a half hour drive, but was worthwhile because it gave me a chance to see the vast changes in scenery as we went first from the coast through the waves of green hills so typical of Galicia.  After leaving Galicia, we entered Castilla y León, cruising over its flat, dry plains before finally arriving to the sprawling urban landscape of Madrid.  On the way back home we stopped in Monterrei, a small rural Galician town on the border of Galicia and Castilla.  The sun was setting and it was really a sight to see in such surroundings.  The town features a castle, El Castillo de Monterrei, which dates back to the Middle Ages when Galicia was a separate kingdom from those of which today comprise the parts of modern-day Spain (at the time, I didn’t realize it was this old).  Anyways… hope you enjoy.  Hasta luego.

Chapter 3 of “Un americano en Galicia” takes us to the Dolmen de Axeitos.  This prehistoric structure located here in Ribeira dates back to between 4,000 and 3,600 BC (Like how I say it is “prehistoric” and then I proceed to give you its history?).  I guess theses structures were commonly used as a sort of group tomb or mass grave.  Creepy… but hey… it was 6,000 years ago… so whatever.