mylifeinspain

foto friday

Here's the last bunch of fotos from our little trip out a couple weeks ago:

Have a great weekend, everyone! :-)

hasta pronto,
mylifeinspain

friday fotos

 

 
Have a great weekend, everybody!

hasta pronto,
mylifeinspain

fotos fotos fotos

And more coming tomorrow!

hasta pronto,
mylifeinspain

foto monday

Some of our purchases from our trip to Sevilla and our favorite shop, Hiper Oriente (I). Wow, how we love that place! And this visit we finished our shopping just in time to have lunch at the restaurant next door. :-) We arrived minutes before the crowds descended (and the place was packed!). The shrimp dumplings, the sauteed broccoli, yum. Here are the specifics in case 1) you live in the area(ish) and need to stock up on Asian food supplies (they have large selection of Chinese, Korean, Thai, Japanese, and Indian necessities and at great prices) and 2) you are visiting Sevilla and need a break from tapas and more traditional fare, the restaurant is a great alterative (plus lots of vegetarian options, which can sometimes be difficult to find in Andalucia!):

Hiper Oriente I
Calle Aponte 8
(by Plaza del Duque)
Phone: 34-954-915-943

There is also a second branch in the city, which we haven't visited yet, but all the reviews I have read are equally enthusiastic:

Hiper Oriente II
Avda. Kansas City 1-3

Hiper Oriente I also has a good selection of rice cookers and other Asian kitchen equipment, books, newspapers; plus, there is takeout sushi, BUT you must order in advance (a change from our previous visit). The question now is what to make first for dinner---udon noodles or some of that okra? :-)

hasta pronto,

mylifeinspain

secrets of the alhambra

Interesting article here about the current project to decipher the more than 10,000 inscriptions found on the walls and ceilings of the Alhambra palace. They are currently being translated into Spanish, but will also then be done in English and French.

hasta pronto,
mylifeinspain

semana santa

From Sevilla.....

hasta pronto,

mylifeinspain

news from up north

After more thank 120 years, plans are finally being made to hold services in Spain's most famous catedral. Read the compete story here.

hasta pronto,
mylifeinspain

prado + google = :-D

From the AP:

MADRID, Spain - Spain's Prado Museum has teamed up with Google Earth for a project that allows people to zoom in on the gallery's main works — even on details not immediately discernible to the human eye.

The initiative, announced Tuesday, is the first of its kind involving an art museum. It involves 14 of the Prado's choicest paintings, including Diego Velazquez's "Las Meninas," Francisco de Goya's "Third of May" and Peter Paul Rubens' "The Three Graces."

"There is no better way to pay tribute to the great masters of the history of art than to universalize knowledge of their works using optimum conditions," Prado director Miguel Zugaza said.

Google Spain director Javier Rodriguez Zapatero said the images now available on the Internet were 1,400 times clearer than what would be rendered with a 10-megapixel camera.

"With Google Earth technology it is possible to enjoy these magnificent works in a way never previously possible, obtaining details impossible to appreciate through firsthand observation," he said at a news conference at the museum.

Google Earth is a free service provided by the Internet search engine company Google that uses satellite technology to reproduce maps and finely detailed images of places throughout the world, from people's houses in American cities to beaches or forests in Africa.

The Prado idea was the brainchild of Google worker Clara Rivera.

"There is nothing comparable to standing before any of these paintings, but this offers a complementary view," Rivera said.

"Normally you have to stand a good distance away from these works, but this offers you the chance to see details that you could only see from a big ladder placed right beside them."

With the click of a mouse, she showed examples including that of a minuscule wasp on the petal of a flower just above the head of the women in the Rubens work. Another gave a microscopic glance of a teardrop in Roger van der Weyden's "Descent from the Cross."

The project involved 8,200 photographs taken between May and July last year which were then combined with Google Earth's zoom-in technology.

"With the digital image we're seeing the body of the paintings with almost scientific detail," Zugaza said. "What we don't see is the soul. The soul will always only be seen by contemplating original."

Rodriguez Zapatero said there were no immediate plans to extend the initiative to more of the Prado's paintings or to other museums. He said Google had footed the entire bill, but he declined to give any details of costs.

The images can be seen by going to Google, downloading the Google Earth software, then typing in Prado Museum in the search engine. Once the museum zooms into focus, click on the square with the name of the museum.

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Check it out here. If you don't already have Google Earth installed on your computer (and why NOT?!!! :-), there are instructions included on how to do so. Also, here is the link to the Prado web site, for more information (although be patient....they seem to have done no capacity planning for the inevitable increased site traffic after the announcement, and the site has been down most of the day).

hasta pronto,
mylifeinspain

4 years ago: Happy Friday
3 years ago: No entry.
2 years ago: No entry.
1 year ago: No entry.

bienvenido 2009!

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope that everyone chose wisely and did not overindulge last night, thusly awaking enthusiastically ready to embrace a new day, a new year---after a nice, long lie-in, of course. :-)

But before we place 2008 into the annals of "a year that I really don't care to remember", mylifeinspain looks back at, indeed, the many happy days that blessed us during a rather difficult year.

• January kicked off rather festively with the Mummers, visits with good friends in Philadelphia, and a quick trip to New York. I also stopped eating meat, which means today I celebrate my vegetarian birthday. :-) However, I did have one last final AMAZING steak December 31, 2007:

 

• In February, the local schoolchildren celebrated Carnaval.
• March came in like a lion (kidney infection, yuck), and my doctor discovered I had high blood pressure. Six months after restricting my already-meager salt intake and adding a 40-minute morning hike to my daily routine four days a week (not to mention stressing about having hypertension), I bought a home BP monitor and found out my blood pressure is perfectly fine---I just have white coat syndrome. However, I have kept up the walking because I found I have tons more energy after the morning exercise. :-)
• I turned 40 in April and was treated to a fabulous vacation in a country I had always wanted to visit, Italy. You can read about our trip to Venice here, here, here, here, HERE, and here.  

• Our attention in May turned to our roof-top garden, and soaring produce prices forced us to rethink the types of plants we were to grow this year.
• June---SPAIN WON THE EURO CUP!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
• Oh, and there might have been a little trip to Paris (here, here, here, AND, here) 

• July in the village is ALWAYS a party.
• A promising start to August ends on a down note. 
• So in September we tried to laugh it off.
• We traveled to the US in October for my baby brother's wedding. 

 

• November---OBAMA BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
• And then a very sad Thanksgiving. 
• Which resulted in an unplanned trip to the US in December. And although difficult and very sad, my days there also allowed me to spend some extra time with my family. 
• In the end, Big Jim and I relaxed, enjoyed the holidays and our time together.  

Which brings us to January 1 and a new set of 365 days for living, loving, and learning. Feliz ano nuevo!

hasta pronto,

mylifeinspain

4 years ago: No entry.

3 years ago: No entry.

2 years ago: No entry.

1 year ago: 2007 in review.

foto monday

More fotos from Big Jim's trip to Switzerland a couple weeks ago.....

 

Pretty, eh? And very Christmasy looking to boot!

hasta pronto,

mylifeinspain

4 years ago: Culture shock

3 years ago: No entry.

2 years ago: No entry.

1 year ago: No entry.