by cwells | 2013-07-11 | Air, Culture, Employment, Expat, Graduate School, Residency, Spain, Travel
The world is strange. Bureaucracy is even stranger. While I am willing to throw caution to the wind in some carefully considered situations, I know that I must carefully managed other events in my life, or they will manage me. Consider, gentle reader, the concept of a...
by cwells | 2013-02-01 | Culture, Expat, Spain, Spanish, Travel, Walking
The last time I was in Spain, I made a comment about having a “panhandle me” kind of faces and/or demeanor. This time in Valencia, I was the apparent source of directional goodwill for other visitors to the city. I was asked for directions six times, with...
by cwells | 2013-02-01 | Culture, Pix, Spain, Spanish, Valencia, Walking
Also in the Plaza de la Virgen, there is something called the Tribunal de las Aguas, or “Water Court” that occurs every Thursday at noon. This is the oldest judicial body in Europe. There are some deep traditions associated with the Water Court, which was...
by cwells | 2013-02-01 | Culture, Pix, Spain, Spanish, Valencia
The relative ages of things here fascinates me. A building that was created a thousand years before our country was founded sits next to a building constructed in the last 20 years. A characteristic of most of Europe, the heterogeneity of constructions, time periods,...
by cwells | 2013-01-30 | Culture, Pix, Spain, Valencia, Walking
On January 22, the procession of Saint Vincent the Martyr, or San Vicente de Martir, occurs between the Valencia Cathedral and the Plaza of the Virgen. I would be able to walk it in about 3-5 minutes, but the procession takes much longer with an indirect path strewn...
by cwells | 2013-01-29 | Culture, Spain, Valencia, Walking
It was a lovely day outside, albeit quite breezy, but that made the perfect decision to see the Museum of Modern Art in Valencia (or Institut Valencià d’Art Modern, more commonly known as IVAM). Considered a major modern art museum in Europe, I was actually surprised...
