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Top 10 Things to Do in Tempe, Arizona

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What draws people to Tempe, Arizona? You might not have ever heard of this city east of Phoenix, but it’s no mere Phoenix suburb. Downtown Tempe skyline reflected on Tempe Town Lake Tempe (pronounced “tem-PEE”) is home to the main campus of Arizona State University—one of the country’s largest public research universities—so you’ll often see people coming to this college town to drop off their kids at college or to attend academic conferences. Businesses like operating in a community with an educated workforce, so regional headquarters and office towers dot the city from north to south. Plus, Tempe’s location in the middle of the Phoenix metro area makes it an ideal home base for tourists exploring the region. Folks visiting Tempe and looking for things to do will often be told to check out places technically in Phoenix or Scottsdale, like the Desert Botanical Garden, Old Town Scottsdale, or even county parks and national forests. These are all great places to go to, but… Wh
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5 Ways to Speak Spanish Like a Spaniard

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If you’re like me, you’ve probably learned Spanish as it’s spoken throughout Latin America. Now, I know there is no one single standard Latin American accent, but  there are a few things I’ve noticed when listening to Spaniards speak that distinguish them from Spanish speakers in, for example, Nicaragua or Argentina. Since living here for the greater part of a year, I’ve both consciously resisted and unconsciously picked up on many features of the typical Spanish accent. After thinking about it for a while, I’ve decided there are around five characteristics that most distinguish the Spanish of Spain from the Spanish of the Americas. These five sounds, when spoken in the Castilian way, will bring you much closer to sounding native. Streets of the village of Cazorla 1) Pronounce C before E & I and Z like TH In the Americas you’ll hear the words ciudad  (“city”), cereza  (“cherry”), and zorro  (“fox”) pronounced as “see-oo-DAHD” [sjuˈðað], “say-RAY-sah” [seˈɾe.sa], and “SOE-r
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22 Fun Facts About the Galician Language

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Read my Galician crash course here to get up to speed in the language. Galician  is a Romance language (i.e., from Latin) spoken by about 3 million people in Spain’s northwestern region of Galicia. Although it’s most closely related to Portuguese—which is spoken south of the border—it shares many similarities with Castilian Spanish, including sounds and spelling. A Coruña If you’re planning on spending any time traveling or living in this unique corner of Spain, or walking the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route that ends here, even a tiny knowledge of Galician will help you get around and navigate menus, maps, etc. If you happen to speak Spanish, you’re already 80% of the way to understanding Galician, and I’m serious! Getting a grasp on the grammatical and phonological differences will turbo boost you up to 90%. To whet your appetite (both literally and linguistically), here’s a little selection from the Galician Wikipedia’s article on empanada , or meat pie: Unha em
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