Reflexions on the time in Madrid

Bit says: Hola de España!
Spain is absolutely beautiful. On Sunday after we left the hostal in Madrid we went with the Spanish students to a flea market, that was bigger and more crowded than anything in VERMONT. I don´t think that I´ve had to be so aggressive in a market before. We then took the subway to the Parque del Retiro, the most beautiful park ever. There we rented row boats. Everyone made it look so easy but I believe that Ricky and I went in circles for about 7 minutes. We decided to have a little race but that didn´t work very well with all the other boats and not knowing where the finish line was. We then took the Madrid subway and then the bus to go to the area on the outskirts of Madrid where our families live. We went to Heron City, a huge food court.After that we got picked up to go to our new family for the next week. Let the adventure begin.

Brit comments: Irene´s family is very nice. On Monday there was no school so we went to the zoo/aquarium. There was just about every kind of animal there. My favorite was the elephant.

Ricardo says: Their school here is really nice. It´s a number of different buildings, most of them connected but with different age grouops from 4 months old to high school. They have a lot of soccer courts for street style soccer. They also double as basketball courts. Everyday the students have an hour for lunch so they can play sports then too, usually soccer.

Annie has this to say: The students here are very nice. The presentation that we did for the students in the school went pretty well. Even though we made some mistakes the students still understood our Spanish and we understood them asking questions in English. The presentations were actually pretty chill.

Hannah comments: I like spending time with the Spanish families very much. They are all very nice and happy. The first day I went for a walk with Victor´s father who does not speak any English. We walked and talked for an hour. Although it was difficult to understand at times, I enjoyed talking to him very much. I have met both of Victor´s grandmothers. Last night his dad´s mother made us tortilla española (a very popular Spanish dish of eggs and potatoes).

El Camino

Although we are all smiling for the photo above, there were a lot of tears when we said good-bye to our families at the airport. We had a spectacular time with our Spanish brothers and sisters while in Madrid an at Colegio Logos.
We hiked a lot of different types of terrain and roads. Here Dylan made friends with a local pooch.

The yellow arrow that we saw on the road or on the side of buildings indicate the direction to follow in order to continue along the Camino de Santiago.
We usually got up and started walking at about 8:00. We stopped to have breakfast after an hour or two. Shannon, Ricardo and Bit are ready for their Cola-cao.

Colegio Logos

We started off our four days of school at Colegio Logos by presenting a powerpoint about life in Vermont to the students who are sophmores. We presented in Spanish and then we had a question and answer session in English. Afterwards we had school lunch which was very good and attended some classes. In Colegio Logos students are required to wear uniforms or mandatory gym clothes, which many are wearing in this photo.

In the above photo we are standing in front of the school with the principal.
On two days we went with other classes on field trips to Segovia and Toledo. Here we are pictured with the eighth grade class in front of the acqueduct of Segovia. It was built by the Romans about 2000 years ago.
On the last day in school we spent some time with the third graders. Here are Bit (below) and Annie (above) listening to some stories that the children haad written in Spanish.

4/22-23 Madrid

La Plaza de España is near the major shopping area of Madrid. It is dedicated to Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, the most important Spanish author. He is the figure in white stone and the characters from his most important novel are located down front - Don Quijote and Sancho Panza.
On this side we were interested to see a scene from the short novel that we read in class this year - La Gitanilla.

We have been taking turns trying to find our way using the map and the street signs. Here Dylan is giving it a go.Small charming streets are everywhere. This one was near the Plaza Mayor.

We had bocadillos de calamares for dinner in the Plaza Mayor and afterwards we found this lovely illuminated building.

We want something like El Estadio de Santiago Bernabeu for our soccer fans. Real Madrid plays here and it never floods. There is enough seating for all of Southern Vermont.

The players seat´s are pretty nice too, as you can see by these guys´ faces.

4/22 Madrid

Madrid is a wonderful place to visit even when raining and dreary. We visited the Palacio Real today and managed to snap this picture of the front when there was a random ray of sunshine. The palace is not used as the home of King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia now. They live in a smaller palace, but it is used for important government events.
Here Bit is just amazed at the sights.

We had to ask special permission in order to take this photo in the guardhouse of the palace.

We stopped in the Plaza Mayor (Main Square) for this shot of the group.

The restaurant under the archways had wonderful churros y chocolate. We also had some traditional torrijas which Hannah says taste like French toast but better.

Here we are at Boston´s Logan airport anxious to get on our Iberia flight.

What a surprise to find Spanish students and their families waiting for us at the airport. Do you recognize these faces?