Spain – markmagpusao.com

Valencia, Spain

A week at Taronja…

La Ciudad de Artes y Ciencias designed by architect Santiago Calatrava. I first wanted to visit because of this building. It is also portrayed in the Disney movie Tomorrowland.

I spent a week in Valencia. I enrolled in the Intensive and conversation classes at Taronja this week. I never been to an immersion language school. I met people from all over the world. I will most likely come back.

My week in Valencia consisted of class Monday through Friday. The class schedule alternated from the afternoon and mornings. Every day I had conversation class as well. That class consisted of speaking on topics extemporaneously. ( Spoken or done without preparation. I’m trying to use this new word I learned in public speaking class.) The entire experience was great. It felt like I had 5 hour long italki lessons that didn’t stop. For the most part I enjoyed every bit of it. I think my level is at stage where I can live without too much effort. Could I work efficiently in this language equally to my mother tongue? No. Hopefully some day. I enjoyed the consistent curriculum at the school as well. The class I jumped in was covering imperfect, indefindo preterito, imperatives-positves/negatives, preterito perfecto and pluscuamperfecto. I have heard, read, and spoken these tenses before. It was a review but I needed it. There is so much nuance to using these grammar tenses than the English past tense.

Left to Right. Me. Guy. Andrea, our teacher Alberto.

I felt bad for some of the students who had to digest the language faster. For the most part my classmates did very well. I think the advantage I had was my time in the language because I have been learning it so long, 5 years. This year as well I started to use italki consistently. The trick with italki is…. you can’t stop using it. Maybe when you get competent enough and achieve your goal. If you the time, money and freedom I would have done this course a long time ago. I didn’t have all those resources. I also have a philosophy that one can learn a foreign language on your own. That is another blog post.

I will most likely come back to the school because I had so much fun. I had fun during the class, with the social activities after class, and the city of Valencia. The last time I was here I only saw the arts and science museum. I didn’t even go in the city center. This time my apartment was right across the street from Mercat Central. I will probably come back May of 2020 or winter of 2020 and spend the whole month in Valencia. The class sizes at the school were smaller and very intimate. I was able to ask all the questions I wanted, at times we had friendly debates.

I met some cool people as well. All the professors were very friendly. I felt they were generally interested in me. Even though I was just passing through the school a week. As a traveler, you can get incredibly jaded from meeting new people. There were times I felt it. The professors really cared about teaching and helping their students. As an aspiring teacher I saw that quality. I met and had some interesting conversations with the becarios(interns) at the school. Stefano, the head becario, spoke 5 languages and hailed from Switzerland. There were also a handful of Italians which made the vibe quite warm and fun. (I don’t know why I feel Italians do that). Andrea,(Italian male name), who was in my class this week, always came in late. Although that was a stereotype characteristic, he always brought something to the table when we were learning. Guy, Australian, was in my class as well, he has living in Valencia for some months now and has about 10 more. Though we are not compatriots, we both speak English as our mother tongue. In that sense I felt bonded more with him than the other students. I wonder if that is the way how most people feel when they speak to people from other countries, the common mother tongue.

I’m going to try to blog when I leave a location.

Sidenote: Urgh.. I got my grades for the Fall Semester. All A’s except a C in Introductory Algebra. I went to the stages of grief fairly quickly. Denial. I don’t believe I got a C. I went to every class, asked questions, and I did fairly well on most tests. Anger. I thought my professor took a shine to me as well. I’m never going to be nice to teachers. Bargaining. Maybe I can email her and ask how she tallied the score up. Depression. I’m so stupid. (sigh) Acceptance. C’est la vie. I guess I just have to double down on my weaknesses. So I can crush college algebra next semester.

Truth be told. I’m still on Bargaining,

Camino de Santiago IV

My last post about the Camino. I’m currently in Lima, Peru. I had to finish this subject before I continue my travels.

As I write this I’m in Lima, Peru. Traveling around from place to place is different from walking the Camino. I don’t have to pick up and leave every morning which is a good feeling, but there’s a sense of urgency when you have a goal while you’re traveling. A sense of mission is common with all the other pilgrims. To continue walking whether your goal is Santiago or not. In a normal hostel, it is a motley crew of backpackers, travelers, and tourists with different motives. Lima is no exception. It makes me miss the Camino and Spain. It will be something I will wrestle with but I digress.

I walked with Thomas and Maria for more than half of the way. Thomas is from North Germany, near Bremen. He is studying wood engineering. He is a good person to walk with. I appreciated his honesty and company when we conversed. He has very good travel stories and dreams to travel more. I will see him again in Dresden.

They were a few days where it rained constantly. We just went with the flow. Eventually we got past the rain and the weather was beautiful. Seeing the coast is an amazing feeling when you have been walking inland for many kilometers. Through rain, mud and drinking Sidra. It was some of the best parts of the Camino.

These two German ladies had stopped us and gave us all beers to celebrate the last 100 kilometers of Camino Norte. It was a good feeling to celebrate with beers at 830am. The last few days were just too fast to remember. Before I knew it we were one day until Santiago. It’s an amazing feeling to get to the end.

Mark(Me), Parti, Thomas, Soren, and Maria in front of the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.

By the last 4 days or so, I walked with a core group of people. Parti, who was from Switzerland, Thomas, from Germany, Soren, from Denmark, and Maria, from South Korea. We had dinner in Santiago then Maria took a bus to Finisterre. Parti took a bus a few days later with his girl friend to Muxia. Thomas took a bus to Bilbao for a flight back to Bremen. Soren, Thomas and I had a few going away beers his last night.

Soren and I walked to Finisterre in two days from Santiago. It was a beautiful walk with spectacular views. It was exhausting though. Why did I walk it in two days? Off a bet and because I wanted to push myself. It was a hell of a last day. Soren walked with me the entire way even though he won the bet. He said he would stop at the town before Finestera. I’ll always remember that. The fact he kept going even though he didn’t have to. That’s a friend. We parted ways the next day. The next morning I walked to the end of the world and had some long thoughts.

14449942_10154388132240325_7256753656123031074_n — It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting – The Alchemist

Originally when I finished my obligation with the Navy I was going to move to Spain. After finishing the Camino, I changed my mind. I want to travel to more countries before I want to settle on one place again. I really haven’t seen the world on the terms I wish to see it. So I decided afterwards I will take a year and travel the world. I will see all the countries of most of the people I’ve met on the Camino. So far its going well. In fact most of the contacts around the world are either through the Camino or Jiu Jitsu.

El Fin. A part of me wants to walk it again. For the friendship and camaraderie in walking. Maybe a piece of the Basque country, that was my favorite.

Camino De Santiago II

Camino De Santiago Part II

I set my goal. I left for Spain in July 2015. I arrived in Rota, Spain. Then I went to Seville. Then to Madrid. I spent three days there if I remember correctly. It was an interesting experience with tours and wondering around. It’s difficult to remember when I look back. I lot has happened in those memories.

I was able to speak with a beautiful Madrileña on the train to Irún, the starting point of Camino del Norte. I was so proud of myself for having short conversations with her in Spanish. She was very patient with my Spanish.

I remember I arrived in Irún late and I didn’t have lodging. I spent an hour walking around looking for a place to sleep. I finally settled on a pension. I thought to myself. “Tomorrow I will begin my journey.” I remember that I was very timid with my Spanish. Now when I think about it. I feel more comfortable to be in a situation where I need Spanish to help me.

It’s unfortunate that I’m writing this part of the journey more than a year ago. Many of the details are lost in my mind. It was an amazing experience because the journey was so new and refreshing. The views were so beautiful.

I met some wonderful people on that Camino. I met French, Swiss, Spanish, Catalan, Danish, Belgian, Austrian, Italian, and of course, German. Everybody had their own reasons for walking the Camino. Some were newly graduated college students, established adults with a career who saw the Camino as a convenient holiday, or other people who were looking for answer to a life decision. The last reason was my own.

My first impression of French people came when I visited Paris as a 21 year old. It was not a great experience. It was a strange unwelcoming feeling for an American. I saw the landmarks but the language barrier and the inherent unfriendliness towards tourists left a dent with me. That impression was shattered when I met a very friendly French man on the Camino. His name was Olivier, from a city north of Paris. I stopped for a break and he joined me for his break. I shared some of my orange with him. We decided to walk to the next town together. Olivier had a wonderful idea of eating sashimi for lunch. We went to the grocery store and bought our picnic food. We ate on top of green cow pasture above Zumaia looking at the Atlantic Ocean. We communicated in English, which he spoke very well, and he told me his story. He was mid 40’s, divorced, two kids. It seemed he was on the camino like most, searching for an answer through meditative walking. I don’t remember much else from the encounter except that he has upgraded my impression of French people. There are unpleasant people everywhere from every country, but there are good people everywhere as well.

Isabel, una madrileña(izquierda) , yo (medio) y Charlie, una Americana (derecha).

I left 13 days into it. I stopped in Santander. It was a one of the best days on the Camino. We left Güemes and there was a light rain. I remember the day being rainy and miserable but I didn’t care because I knew that was my last day. So I just enjoyed every second of it. Especially the misery. My favorite memory of that day was when we stopped around 11am at a beach bar before Santander. I changed my socks and we ate some food. I bought some “chupitos” for my group. Then we walked to Santander with a nice buzz. We took a small commuter boat to Santander. We had Regma ice cream, Santander ice cream, right after the boat ride. We parted ways soon after. It was the best day of Camino because of company I was with. The most important part about the Camino for me was meeting wonderful people.

It was said that this was the best Albergue on the Camino, Güemes.

I returned home when I got to Santander. I finally continued my journey in September 4, 2016. See Part III

Camino De Santiago

My family visited my in SFO airport during a layover before I go to the East Coast.

Camino de Santiago Part I

I recently completed the Camino de Santiago in the north of Spain. It’s a religious pilgrimage in Spain that has starting points from all over Europe. All of the routes end in the city of Santiago de Compostela, Spain. The English translation is “The way of St. James.” James was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ, his tomb is underneath the cathedral in Santiago. People come from all over the world to walk the Camino. Pilgrims, anyone who walks the camino, come from all over the world to walk the camino. The reasons why one walks the Camino are as many as people in the world. This is my story.

There two popular routes of the Camino de Santiago, Camino Frances and Camino Del Norte, the latter being physically harder and less pilgrims because of the numerous elevation changes but more scenic. I choose the road less traveled for several reasons. The scenic views of the coast, my affinity to water, and the cities of the Basque Country, Bilbao and San Sebastian. The challenge of choosing a path the majority do not attempt enticed me.

The origin of the idea of walking the Camino was when I watched “The Way” with Martin sheen. Without spoiling it, is about a man who walks the Camino with his son. The story was so powerful, it affected me with the goal as soon as I finished the movie. I messaged my close friends to see if they would be interested. Nobody showed interest in the endeavor. At the time I started to teach myself Spanish and I visited Spain once already. It was a good goal for myself.

So I set my goal. See Part II.