Summer started off with the absolutely fabulous task of moving out of my home! Now normally when you move you (1) pack up all your belongings and (2) take it to your new home. Unfortunately for me, I did not have this two-step luxury; I still do not know exactly where my new home is. What I did was (1) sell everything I could, (2) gave away a lot to Goodwill, (3) threw away a lot of junk, (4) put everything that I still had into my 2-door Honda Civic, and (5) 
left the rest for my roommate Zach and his broken leg to deal with (sorry buddy). Civic loaded to the brim, I did the most logical thing and left it in Harrisburg, NC (thanks Bert) as I took a plane to Michigan.I have to personally thank Dave Morway for allowing me to cross two new states off my list. In May I attended his bachelor party along with 15 of his best guy friends from Cleveland at Salt Fork State Park in Ohio (there’s one state), and one June 23rd I was in Saginaw, Michigan (there’s number two) to witness his marriage to Rachal. The wedding was incredibly well organized and was a true three-day affair filled with activities ranging from an
afternoon tour of Saginaw to an evening game of cornhole to a late night dance party to an amazing newlywed brunch. After the wedding festivities I then embarked on a 70 hour journey to the village of Llanes in northern Spain via Flint, Chicago, Charlotte (baggage claims make great bedding…), JFK International Airport, Times Square, Brooklyn, JFK, Paris, Madrid, and Oviedo. Oh yeah, and our flight to Paris was cancelled in which case we were rebooked on another flight four hours later that only had seats for four of the 18 of us. That was awkward…Fortunately we all made it to Spain safe and sound to begin our five week long Spanish language learning and cultural exploration expedition. Lizzy Chapman, a Spanish and Art History graduate of UC Berkeley, and I led a this trip for 16 high school junior and seniors through Putney Student Travel. Lizzy and I were lucky enough to have an amazing group of young men and women, though they could have spoken a little bit more Spanish. I do, however, believe that we all were able to benefit from our time together. The activities we engaged in are too numerous to mention here, but I would like to describe a couple of the highlights. For a more detailed description and more pictures, please check out the blog that I maintained directly from Spain available here.
One definite highlight was our visit to the Alhambra in Granada. The Alhambra was built by the Moors (Muslims) during their 700+ year control of Spain and not only served as the seat of 
their kingdom, but was also so admired by the Catholic monarchs that it served as the Spanish capital for quite sometime after the Reconquest in 1492. From afar, as can be seen in the photo, the Alhambra is an amazing structure sitting atop a mountain overlooking the beautiful city of
Granada; however, its true majesty is only seen from the inside. The palaces are constructed with such beauty and such attention to detail that neither words nor photographs can truly approximate what it is like to be inside. The use or reflecting pools and the placement of windows to allow light at certain angles only adds to the inherent beauty of the intricately engraved walls, ceilings, doors, and archways. I could go on and on about the Alhambra, as it is the most beautiful building in the world that I have seen, but I will bear you the ramblings and continue with another story from Spain.
One moment that I am, and I believe of the kids would agree, most proud of is reaching the summit of the highest mountain in the Iberian Peninsula. Mulhacén in the Sierra Nevada, not far from Granada, stands at 3,479 meters (11,413 feet) above sea level, and yet lies at a mere 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Mediterranean Sea. Due to this close proximity on a clear day, such as the one we picked to hike to the summit, one has a clear view of the north coast of Algeria on the continent of Africa. I have to say that I am very proud of my group of kids as this was not an easy hike; at 14 kilometers and with nearly 1000 meters of elevation gain this was no walk in the park. As a token of our pride, my co-leader Lizzie and I gave each of the kids an old Spanish peseta as a memento of our expedition together. I still proudly wear mine around my neck. More pictures from Spain are available here (album 1, album 2).
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