four eyes are better than two

Not only does fall bring about visions of university learning and apple pie and falling leaves it also means school shopping and in my case new glasses! As a kid the insurance covered a new pair once a year-mostly because my perscription always changed a bit-and around fall my mom and I and sometimes my bestest would head to the optical center and start the hunt for the perfect pair. Usually this was at least an hour of taking them on, taking them off, changing the color, changing the shape, or as is the case of my 16 year old glasses, going through the sunglasses in order to find the perfect pair of heavy plastic frames to make regular prescrition glasses. Much to my enjoyment, these heavy plastic frames are now the epitomy of fashion and chic...and since the leaves are starting to fall, apples are being baked, and Sunday meals have transitions from paella to cocido...it's time to have a look at the possibilities. I'm loving the idea of tortoise shell, slightly rayban wayfarer/1980's cool/sexy librarian shapes inspired by these pretty ladies I found on the sartorialist, female creature and trendycrew. What do you think?

or, what about a pair of clear frames by Prada?

Higher learning

Diego's been coming home from work every night super excited about literature lectures he's been listening to in English while he's working. He showed me the link this weekend and I have to say I'm pretty excited to have the chance to listen in on a Yale literature course on American Literature. I may not be able to afford with time or money taking a course at Yale, but now I can listen in whilst busy doing something else around the house and get inspired.


I've also enrolled in a distance translation course. I'm excited to get started...waiting for the reading material to arrive.


One year without academics was too much time away. Time to get back into it.


Check out the Yale YouTube page here and check out the literature or other lecture topics you might be interested in.

Black and white.

Time to really finish getting the wedding prints done. This is my favorite shot of us now. mmmm....I love it.

Sleepy

I love the feel of this. A little sloppy, but so sleepable. And I love the purples and textured white on white.

Muxia, Galicia

We spent one of the last weekends of the summer being tourists in a little town called Muxia in the heart of the Costa da Morta in Galicia. After a drive of about 45 minutes from Santiago, through green hills and past stone houses with orange tiled techos, we arrived the rocky windy coast lined one side with energy creating windmills and on the other with famous rocks and a tiny little church (one of my favorite things about Spain is their acceptance and use of alternative energy sources, and while some might say the giant windmills you can see off the coast distracts from the natural beauty, it makes me feel a little better about the future when I see them.) It was a beautiful day, no clouds, just quite a bit of wind-normal on the this coast of Spain. While our plan to spend the afternoon was foiled with the strong winds (not affecting the beach day of the people who live in the area) we were able to explore the rocks and chuch, and see a tpical Galician wedding as the novios were welcomed out of the church with seriuosly pounds of beans and rice being thrown at them. Here's a little peek at a stop you should make if you ever come to the Costa da Morte.

Inside the little church, replicas of important ships that have left from this port on the Atlantic coast. The chuch in the back ground, and some lovely bits of the coast. Muxia has a long history, and this site in particular has spritual significance since the pagan cultures that inhabited these lands before Christianity arrived. In the Christian world the church is the home of the legend that after seeing a vision of the virgin, St. James was released from his mission and from here set sail back home. Rocky coast. This rock is supposed to be a test of your innocence. If it balances you are innocent. If it doesn't stay balanced...well...Another important pagan rock, this one supposedly cures illnesses if you pass under it nine times. It's a tight squeeze. The novios and thier photo crew, post beans and rice toss.

Yeeeeer out!

I just caught the news about Republican congressman Wilson yelling out during president Obama's speech on Wednesday. I showed the video to Diego and he started laughing, saying that happens all the time here in Spain. It's not hard to believe seeing that debating, arguing, challenging, tertulias are the national pasttime here. But there was one case in particular that stands out in the Spanish governments recent past beween a diputado of the socialist PSOE(US-equivalent-Democratic) party and another of the Partido Popular PP (US equivalent-Republican). While in session deciding details of a certain bill, the PP representative started calling out negative comments toward the Socialist representative who was at the microphone-and was the 3rd most inportant man in the power raking of Spain at the time following only the king and president. As you'll see in the video, there is a three strikes your out rule in these situations in the Spanish parliament. The PP rep is given three warnings, and refuses to leave, the whole place is up in arms, the PSOE rep gets the book of rules out and starts reading the rules, people protest even going to the stand to try to ask him to stop, but in the end the PP rep has to abandon the room for his misbehavior. He is accompanied by applause from his classmates on the way out.