Our visit to Spain began with a welcome to the University Jaume I in Castellon de la Plana. After arriving in Madrid on Tuesday morning, we left on the AVE high-speed train for Valencia and then on to Castellon, about a half hour north along the coast toward Barcelona. Those who had not been here previously, were impressed when the train quickly accelerated out of Madrid to nearly 200 mph (301 km/hr) . Once into Castellion, our first evening was to recover from jet-lag. However, before getting sleep, most wondered down to the old heart of the city, enjoying the Mediterranean breezes that cooled the heat (about 85 degrees at our hotel, to upper 60s in the old plazas.
On Wednesday we had sometime to return downtown for lunch before going to the weekly International Seminar held by the university's Peace, Conflict and Sustainability program. At first most, if not all of us, were disappointed to learn we had missed the previous week's seminar on Libya. Ours was to be on the need for 'inner peace.' However, all of us warmed to the presentations by Gloria Maria Abarca Obregon of Mexico and Marisol Suarez Sieve of Colombia. They soon had us doing a variety of exercises to reduce anxiety. By the end of the seminar, all had come to see at least the potential for this approach to preparing people to seek peace and reconciliation.
The program at the university, with students from around the world, also made an impression as a needed approach to dealing with conflicts in a “globalized world.” Especially for those of us from the U.S. Where globalization often means a few non-Americans are able to attend our event, being in a program that seeks a global student population, provided an important model. The university even has two tracks for its global students: Spanish and English.
The visit to Castellon provided a thought provoking launch to our visits. On Thursday morning early we left for Valladolid and sent Chelsea Clark off by plane from Valencia to Oxford for the International Criminal Court (ICC) meeting, which Chelsea will describe. Chelsea was scheduled to rejoin us in Saturday in Bilbao.
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