Today I was on a special shopping mission in Valencia. During my search for a particular item, I made a brief detour through Valencia’s massive, covered Central Market.
We had been to it several times about 15 years ago, but then massive renovations began. I am not sure exactly when the work finished, but this was the first time I had been inside the building since its rebirth.
Oh my goodness!
Amazing: Such a beautiful building! And what a wide assortment of fruits, seafood, meats, and any other type of food you can imagine. There is a sign that says something to the effect of “If you can’t find something here, it is quite possible it is not available anywhere.” They could be right!
My “SlackerBit” (the anti-FitBit) started nagging me that being a slacker is one thing, but that I had become almost immobile. It gave me a kick in the posterior and told me I had better walk, or else start looking for pants with a yet-larger waist size. So… I ambled up to the handy nearby castle and back.
My SlackerBit said “OK, fine. Now what are you going to do tomorrow?”
It also means “nose to the grindstone” as I work on a variety of projects.
Before leaving Denver, I uploaded an updated version of my “Learning Chinese Provinces: Part One”. Lots of nice improvements included the requested “hint” box that now includes full pinyin with tone marks. If the word “pinyin” leaves you scratching your head, don’t worry. People studying Chinese will understand, and the rest of us will not even notice that item!
Unfortunately, for the moment the new video seems to be somewhat “invisible” because it shares the same name as the older version that I released about a year ago. That version is quickly approaching 6,000 views. OK, I know that number is not very impressive in the overall context of Youtube, especially when measured against “hate videos” which garner hundreds of thousands of views…
Oh well… an educational video is no match…
(Update February 2024: Well, several updates later, there is a new version of this “Part One” which now has over 40 thousand views. (Still a tiny fraction of even the stupidest posts available on YouTube, and a tiny fraction of the number of views for offensive racist/hate-speech videos! oh well!)
Parts Two and Three have completed the provinces series. There are now Spanish and French versions of that series and an Italian version of just the first part. I have expanded the videos to include a series on the provincial capitals as well as a couple of miscellaneous ones related to China! More coming in the future! If you want to see, skip the dreaded YouTube copies, and instead take a look at my “Pere-X” site. (Click HERE for the Pere-X site.)
On that site you can choose to navigate in English, Spanish, French, Italian, or Chinese!
Even the most pleasant visits eventually come to an end. Today I return to Denver. I am excited to be heading back home to Rhonda. But of course I am sad to have to leave family and friends in Spain.
Sagrada Familia in Barcelona
This time, my exit city is Barcelona. What better way to bid farewell to that city than with a night visit to the Sagrada Familia. The ongoing construction of this beautiful and unique cathedral designed by Gaudi never ceases to interest me. For decades I have watched it’s slow, but steady, progress. And now that several of the larger towers have begun their stretch skyward, it feels like a whole new phase.
Today I was on a special shopping mission in Valencia. During my search for a particular item, I made a brief detour through Valencia’s massive, covered Central Market.
That means great food!
