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April 2008- Puerta de Alcalá - Madrid
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 Congratulations to Richard Detwiler who correctly identified the Puerta de Alcalá in Madrid. He used to walk by it many times a day when he lived on Calle Alcalá in 1975. This impressive gate, located in the middle of the busy Plaza de la Independencia, marks the city’s eastern boundary. It was commissioned by King Carlos III in 1764 and built by the Italian architect Sabatini. It has three large archways and two smaller passageways.
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February Photo Contest - Cathedral of Orvieto
Risa Sodi and Joanne Polner were the first to correctly identify the beautiful cathedral in the charming Italian hill town of Orvieto. To read an informative review by Rick Steves of this stunning building, go to http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/destinations/italy/01orvieto.htm.
Risa Sodi, Senior Lector II in Italian at Yale University and Director of Undergraduate Study and Language Program Director, was also the winner of our November 07 Where in the World? Mystery Photo Contest. Joanne Polner, an early childhood educator and a strong Francophile, was the winner of two previous contests, February and March 2007.
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DECEMBER Photo Contest - Swarovski Crystal Museum in Wattens
Sarah Christopher and Patricia Meloy correctly identified the Swarovski Crystal Museum in Wattens near Innsbruck in Austria. The museum highlights crystals in many shapes and forms. It has the largest known crystal (64 kilograms) and works of art by Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol, and others. It is half underground and half above. The eyes in the face are crystals. Of course, there is a shop in the museum where one can find a wide array of the luxury-brand crystals to purchase.
Many thanks to Norb Kurtz, German teacher, for sending this intriguing photo.
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Mole Antonelliana in Torino, 11/07
  Risa Sodi is the winner of the November Photo Contest. She correctly identified the Mole Antonelliana in Torino, Italy. This landmark building now houses the very impressive Museo Nazionale del Cinema, the National Film Museum. It is the symbol of the city of Turin, it appears on the two-cent Italian Euro coin, and was the official emblem of the 2006 Winter Olympics. Construction on the building, which was originally supposed to be a Jewish synagogue, began in 1863. It was named after its architect, Alessandro Antonelli.
Risa Sodi is Senior Lector II in Italian at Yale University and Director of Undergraduate Study and Language Program Director. She received her M.Phil. and Ph.D. in Italian language and literature from Yale University and an M.A. in French and Italian from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She is the author of Narrative and Imperative: The First Fifty Years of Italian Holocaust Writing, 1944-1994 (Peter Lang, 2007) and A Dante of Our Time: Primo Levi and Auschwitz (Peter Lang, 1990). She has published interviews with Primo Levi and articles on Italian Jewish writers, Italian Holocaust writing, and teaching Italian.
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The Mountains of Monserrat, 10/07
Brittany Werner is the winner of the September/October Where in the World? Photo Contest!! Here is her response:
Those are the mountains of Monserrat about an hour outside of Barcelona. There is a monastery built there along with some hermitages that have been abandoned over time. There are still monks that live and practice in the monastery. There are also several hiking trails throughout the mountains.
Brittany teaches Spanish at Wilsonville High School in Wilsonville, Oregon. She traveled to Spain this summer. She studied for two weeks in Barcelona and for two weeks in Granada. Then she and her mother traveled to various cities in Spain, including Monserrat. They actually hiked up to the highest point above the monastery. They found the odd rock formations on the mountains very memorable!
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 Asparragus Sushi
Harriet Guerrero correctly identified this asparagas tapa. Harriet has a degree in Anthropology from UCLA. She is a founding member of the Cemanahuac Educational Community in Cuernavaca, Mexico, where they offer year-round intensive Spanish language classes. They also have professional development programs for professionals who need to learn more about Mexico as the Hispanic populations grow in their communities. Harriet also won the February 2006 Where in the World? Mystery Photo Contest.
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Jill's findings in Spain
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Valle de Angeles, Honduras, 08/07
Richard Detwiler, a Spanish teacher in Jenkintown Middle/High School in Jenkintown, PA, correctly identified the cathedral in Valle de Angeles, Honduras. He had never actually seen the church but he accepted the contest challenge. After looking at hundreds of Latin American church images on-line, he found it. He certainly deserves an award for his ingenuity and perseverance!
Many thanks to Oscar Garcia Sobalbarro for sending us the photo of this beautiful church for our contest.
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| Norwegian stave church |
Shell that marks the route for the pilgrimage on the road of Saint James |
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 Ekaterina Ites is the winner of the June contest. Congratulations, Ekaterina!
She correctly identified the Norwegian stave church. It was built in Gol, Hallingdal, Norway, in the 13th century and then moved to the Norsk Folkemuseum in Oslo in the 20th century. You can find two replicas of this church in the US, one in Minot, ND, and the other at Epcot Center in Florida.
Ekaterina has a wide range of experience as a Russian language researcher,
instructor, academic translator, college tests developer, community activist, and
bilingual entertainer. She is currently an international student in a doctoral program at the Umass School of Education in Amherst, MA. She recently started teaching an elementary Russian class at Westfield State College. It is enlightening to hear how she identified the mystery photo. She writes:
"It was primarily an educational guess that was empowered and refined by the
wonderful tool of Google. My first thinking was that the church resembled churches that
one can see in Northwest Russia, but was still different. I began searching for pictures by entering the phrase "Russian North Wooden Church" and then tried "Scandinavian Wooden Church". This helped me find two pictures of Norway stave churches that looked very much like the one in the contest photo. One was originally from Gol and the other from Hopperstad. Then I expanded my search with the phrase "Norway Stave Church Replica in US." Interestingly, both of these churches have replicas in the US. Then I checked with Wikipedia and identified the church from Gol."
Editor’s Note: This church is near and dear to my heart because some of my Norwegian ancestors lived in Gol and attended this church. |
We have two winners for this contest.
Congratulations to Susana Pérez-Castillejo and Ofelia Oronoz.
They were the first visitors to correctly identify one of the shells that marks the route for the pilgrimage on the road of Saint James which ends in the city of Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain.
Many thanks again to Sheila Cockey for this intriguing photo. The correct responses to this photo were overwhelming, and we would like to thank everyone who participated.
Susana Perez teaches Spanish at the St Paul Academy and Summit School in St. Paul, Minnesota. She is a native of Seville, Spain, and has been in the US for seven years. She says that she was able to recognize the photo in the June photo contest because she has read a lot about the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.
Ofelia Oronoz teaches Spanish in Grades 3 through 8 at Browne Academy in Alexandria, Virginia. She guessed the What in the World? Mystery Photo based on her personal experience. After taking a three-week course on Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language at the Universidad de Santiago de Compostela in the summer of 2005, she herself followed the Saint James pilgrimage from O' Cebreiro to Santigo. |
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| Meersburg Castle on Lake Constance in Germany |
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 We finally have a winner for the April contest. Congratulations Cecil!
Cecil Williams correctly identified Meersburg Castle on Lake Constance in Germany.
Cecil calls himself "one of the computer guys" for the Departments of Foreign Languages and Sociology at Washington State University in Pullman, WA. He runs the computer networks, helps take care of the computer labs, and helps faculty, staff and students with any computing and other technology questions and problems they may have.
How did he guess the April 07 Where in the World Photo? Here is his answer:
"I'm an amateur photographer and love to travel, and while I have been to Germany a couple of times I've not been to Meersburg, nor did I recognize the setting of the photo. But, using your clue to "think Germany," I conferred with some of my fellow photographers, and one of them thought he recognized it. A bit of research on Google confirmed that he was correct."
The photo was submitted by Norb Kurtz, a teacher of German. He has visited the castle many times with his students. He explains:
"The photo depicts the castle at Meersburg, Germany, overlooking Lake Constance, the huge lake which is surrounded by Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. It is said to be the oldest inhabited castle in Germany, with parts of it dating back to the 9th century.
Our German hosts from Stuttgart usually take our Lansing Community College students there on a day trip each time we visit, usually every year in mid-May which is a pretty time of year to visit. It's a pleasant hike up the hill through the town to get to the castle, and it's definitely worth the effort once you see the views and tour the historic castle itself, which boasts a medieval armory, a lovely little garden, and a torture pit as well. There are also several good places to eat along the way up or coming back down." |
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| Cibeles Fountain in Madrid, Spain |
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We had an overwhelming response to this photo contest. We had 25 correct responses within hours of launching the contest. Again many thanks to Aldo Vellenich for providing this stunning photo.
And the winner is:
Janet Starmer (picture on left) was the first person to correctly identify the Cibeles Fountain in Madrid, Spain, and she will receive a set of notecards from Artfully Yours. Janet teaches French at Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina, and spent a week-end in Madrid 14 years ago. Congratulations! |
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Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia
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Congratulations to Joanne Polner for correctly identifying the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia. Yes, Joanne is the same person who correctly identified the four photos in the Ancient Rome Photo Contest in February.
Joanne was the only person to identify the Hermitage. How did she do it? Her method is very interesting indeed. Here is her explanation:
I did not recognize the building at all. My order of research was to go to google.com and type in "roof statues." I came across a visual reference to 18th century design, and I then typed in "roof statues 18th century." Sure enough, the Hermitage came up, but until I could find a close up photo of it, I wasn't sure; I was lucky to find a view from the water, and thus confirmed the wall, the trees, and the color. It is a beautiful place.
While involved in her research on the Hermitage, Joanne found a fascinating website which offers a virtual tour of the Hermitage collections. It can be found at:
http://hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/08/hm88_0.html
Joanne writes:
My first contact with the site came about in my search for Impressionist art in the Hermitage. I looked at about five rooms before the racing video disturbed me. I decided I ought to look at the Help place identified under the moving pictures: Need Help with Hot Media. Go there. You will learn how to slow down the video!
As in any good museum, one should not try to see everything in one day! |
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Ancient Rome Photo Contest 02/07
Congratulations to Joanne Polner. She correctly identified the four buildings.
They are:
(1) Castel Sant’Angelo
Emperor Hadrian had this tomb built for his remains and those of his successors. It was completed in 139 AD but Hadrian had died in 138 A.D. and he was buried elsewhere, in Pozzuoli.
(2) Piramide di Caio Cestio
Caio Cestio had this monument built as his final resting place between 18 and 12
BC.
(3) Teatro di Marcello
This theater was dedicated to Marcellus, the nephew and heir apparent of
Emperor Augustus, who died before his 20th birthday.
(4) Tempio di Ercole (Temple of Hercules, previously known as Tempio di Vesta)
This temple was erroneously called the Temple of Vesta until very recently. It was built around 120 BC, commissioned by the rich Roman merchant Marco Ottavio Erennio who hoped to gain the protection of Hercules.
Joanne shares with us her passion for languages and her delight in participating in the photo contest. Here are excerpts from her message:
"Hi, My second language is French, and I am a strong Francophile.
I am a certified Early Childhood educator and my principal direction in teaching is to stay with the child in his real world, creating and insuring hands-on activities and (voice-on) common communication situations.
I traveled in Rome in 1967, but I could not identify one ancient "monument" in the contest by sight. Never visited them, or walked around them, or studied about them. I remember the fountains, and seeing Aida at the Baths of Caracalla, and eating in trattorias, and seeing a grand view of St Peter's piazza from our pensione's terrazza, and having my hand bag almost snatched off my chair in Trastevere, and trudging around Hadrian's Villa outside of Rome in unbearable heat, and going to the black-sand Lido beach south of Rome. I remember all that!
If I had easily known the photo identities by sight, I would never have learned what I did this week. This past week I traveled faster and farther on my computer than ever a walk in the city would have afforded me. I read well and looked at a lot of wonderful sites, I was exposed to molti Italian words, I got a sense of place and a sense of culture (what was important in the lives of the Romans) in a way I have never experienced before--and also because I was highly motivated "to know" and thrilled at sleuthing and utilizing my more mature and creative brain."
Joanne’s prize is a DVD for teachers of Italian, generously supplied by Judi of Ritornello.
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| Where in the World? 02/07 |
What in the World? 02/07 |
| Unfortunately, we had no winning entries for this contest. The correct response is Mar del Plata, Argentina. |
The winner was Lindsay Baker, a French student at Elmira College in Elmira, New York.
Here is her winning entry:
The photo is from the chirriuchu festival in Cusco, Peru. It is a roasted guinea pig head atop a roasted hen, dressed up in a traditional costume.
Lindsay’s prize is a pack of notecards, generously supplied by Sandi of Artfully Yours. |
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Pelhourinho - Brazil 12/06 |
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Surprisingly, we did not receive any answer as for the location of this picture. So there is no winner this time. However, for those of you who were curious about where this picture was taken, here it is: The picture was taken by Susana Echeverría, in Pelhourinho, a district of the city of Salvador da Bahia, in Brazil.
Salvador is one of the most colorful and exotic of Brazil’s cities with flavors of Africa in its food, music and culture.
The eighteenth century Pelhourinho district has some of the best-preserved colonial architecture in the world, it contains the largest collection of Baroque colonial architecture in Latin America, and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It has the 2nd-largest Carnaval in Brazil, and is considered much more participatory than the Rio's Carnaval, which is mostly a spectator event.
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Roman Holiday Photo Contest 11/06 |
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Jan McGlennon was the first person to correctly identify the three buildings in the Roman Holiday Photo Contest: (1) the Pantheon, (2) Palazzo Farnese (currently the French Embassy), and (3) Il Quirinale (the residence of the Italian president).
Jan is a Latin teacher who came to Latin through her studies of Medieval
Europe. She says that she quickly learned that Latin literature was much more interesting to her than reading 11th century legal documents. While she studied Latin in
graduate school, she learned Latin from Father Reginald Foster in his Aestiva
Romae Latinitatis experience. After one summer in Rome, returning there as
often as possible became a primary goal.
She currently teaches Latin at the beginning through AP levels at Maret School in Washington, DC. She is also pursuing a Master's Degree in the Teaching of ESL and Latin at George Washington University.
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Costa Rican Ox Cart - 05/06 |
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Patti Marinelli was the winner of our April-May 2006 Where in the World? Mystery Photo Contest. She was the first person to correctly identify the Ox cart from Costa Rica.
Patti teaches Spanish at the University of South Carolina, where she also coordinates one of their first-year Spanish courses and serves as an academic advisor. She is co-author of Puentes, Spanish for Intensive and High-Beginner Courses, 4/e (Thomson Heinle, 2007). She enjoys traveling abroad every so often to keep her Spanish skills current, and on one trip she had the great fortune to study Costa Rica, where she saw the ox carts. She enjoys getting the NCLRC newsletters. She thinks it is a great way to keep up - via Internet - with new ideas and trends.
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New Town Hall in the Marienplatz - 02/06 contest |
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Many readers correctly identified the New Town Hall in the Marienplatz in Munich, Germany. The first correct response to reach us was sent by Harriet Guerrero.
Harriet has a degree in Anthropology from UCLA. She is a founding member of the Cemanahuac Educational Community in Cuernavaca, Mexico, where they offer year-round intensive Spanish language classes. They also have professional development programs for professionals who need to learn more about Mexico as the Hispanic populations grow in their communities.
To find out more about this language program, go to http://www.cemanahuac.com/.
She visited Munich in 1987 on a trip with the Mexican Tourism Board. She was in the square in front of the 'rathaus' at noon one day, waiting for the famous carillon to chime. It all came back to her when she saw the photo - the red flowers on the balconies, the impressive structure, and the round balcony in the middle where the figures appear when the music plays.
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| Siberian Tomb |
Sami Tent |
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The photo above was taken near the city of Yakutsk in Eastern Siberia. It shows a typical tomb. Because of the severe winters in this area, the people do not bury their dead but place them in structures such as this above ground.
This was truly a mystery photo. We had no winner! |
The photo above shows a typical Sami tent. The Samis are the nomadic reindeer herders who live in the northernmost parts of Norway, Sweden, and Finland. This tent was on display at Union Station in Washington, DC. for the annual Christmas in Norway exhibit in 2004. |
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Reed Boat |
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This traditional reed boat is floating on Lake Titicaca in Bolivia.
Many contestants correctly identified this photo. The winner was Susan Benson. |
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