{"id":1,"date":"2013-09-07T11:49:16","date_gmt":"2013-09-07T11:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnkwhite.ie\/caracolas\/?p=1"},"modified":"2014-03-28T10:21:44","modified_gmt":"2014-03-28T08:21:44","slug":"hello-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/johnkwhite.ie\/caracolas\/?p=1","title":{"rendered":"\u00a1Hola, mundo!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I recently moved to Gij\u00f3n, Asturias, in northern Spain with my Asturian partner Bel\u00e9n after a few decades living in Ireland and Canada. As a native English speaker\u00a0with a B1 level* of Spanish from the <i>Instituto Cervantes<\/i>, there will no doubt be a few <i>aventuras<\/i> along the way, so I thought I would share them with other interested native English speakers, Spanish students learning English, or tourists just visiting. We all graft our pasts to other\u2019s when attempting to understand the new. Hopefully, one can learn from my mistakes or be amused by my own quirky concerns.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/johnkwhite.ie\/caracolas\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/800px-Shells01.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11 alignleft\" alt=\"Caracolas\" src=\"http:\/\/johnkwhite.ie\/caracolas\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/800px-Shells01-300x225.jpg\" width=\"317\" height=\"238\" srcset=\"http:\/\/johnkwhite.ie\/caracolas\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/800px-Shells01-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/johnkwhite.ie\/caracolas\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/800px-Shells01.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 317px) 100vw, 317px\" \/><\/a>The blog is called <i>caracolas<\/i>, which Google translates as \u2018conches\u2019 and is far more poetic than \u2018seashells,\u2019 which is how I would have translated <i>caracolas<\/i>. For me, a seashell conjures up thoughts of adventure in its eerie oceanic echo, and seems particularly apt as language and culture reverberate everywhere here. Spain is many things: sun, food, wine, football, passionate European culture with seasoned stories in its weathered boots, but to me it has always been about the sea, and its great sea-faring people who set out to expand the old to meet the new, not to mention seafood in abundance.<\/p>\n<p>In my semi-irregular <i>caracolas<\/i>, I will try to cite the new, seeking adventure and refuge in the old, here in Gij\u00f3n, on the shores of the Cantabrican coast (Bay of Biscay), and throughout Spain. I bring my own preconceptions, of course, some of which will be redressed along the way, but all my tales \u2013 both new and old \u2013 reverberate through the beauty that is Spain. <i>Espero que disfruten<\/i><i> <\/i><i>el viaje<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>John<\/p>\n<h5>* B1 level <a href=\"http:\/\/diplomas.cervantes.es\/en\/information\/levels\/level_b1.html\">http:\/\/diplomas.cervantes.es\/en\/information\/levels\/level_b1.html<\/a><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>Understand the gist of clear texts, in standard language, if they involve well-known topics related to work, studies or leisure.<\/li>\n<li>Deal with most of the situations that may arise during a trip to where the language is used.<\/li>\n<li>Produce simple, coherent texts about well-known topics or issues of personal interest.<\/li>\n<li>Describe experiences, events, wishes and hopes, as well as briefly justify opinions or explain plans.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I recently moved to Gij\u00f3n, Asturias, in northern Spain with my Asturian partner Bel\u00e9n after a few decades living in Ireland and Canada. As a native English speaker\u00a0with a B1 level* of Spanish from the Instituto Cervantes, there will no &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/johnkwhite.ie\/caracolas\/?p=1\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[4,13],"class_list":["post-1","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spain","tag-language","tag-northern-spain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/johnkwhite.ie\/caracolas\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/johnkwhite.ie\/caracolas\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/johnkwhite.ie\/caracolas\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnkwhite.ie\/caracolas\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnkwhite.ie\/caracolas\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/johnkwhite.ie\/caracolas\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57,"href":"http:\/\/johnkwhite.ie\/caracolas\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions\/57"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/johnkwhite.ie\/caracolas\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnkwhite.ie\/caracolas\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnkwhite.ie\/caracolas\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}