A video from last night!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJR1Acn6Pig

A host father (Charles') posted this!!

Final week

Saturday the students went on the canoe trip!  I have attached some pictures and there are more on Robert's site!

We had a packed week this week as you can probably tell from my lack of posts!  We wrapped up classes and the students took the same test they took at the beginning of the summer so they can measure how much they have learned.  We rehearsed the farewell show for hours and hours this week, too!

Thursday night was an optional excursion to the organic farm and house of one of the host families.  I am sure Robert will post pictures at some point!  Tonight was the farewell show.  The students did a great job and there were lots of tears!  The students will be with their host families all day tomorrow and we leave early morning on Sunday.

We will drive to Madrid and then go the Prado museum and see a bit of the city.  The next day we will spend in Salamanca seeing the university (founded in 1124) and some other sites.  If I can't find an internet cafe in Madrid, this might be my last post!

Rebajas!

On July 1, the Rebajas started (sales in all the stores)!  We have been having fashion shows each day this week to show off what students have purchased.  Other than that, we have had a regular schedule with classes and rehearsals for the farewell show for the families.  I can't publish the secrets of what we will be doing because I am sure there are some host families reading this!  Saturday is the canoe trip.  The weather has improved a bit today.  We even saw the outline of the sun through the clouds.  On Saturday, it looks like we will have decent weather for the canoe trip!  Below are some photos of the fashion models.  Robert has many more on his blog.

Giselle is showing us how American models always pout because when we speak English, we talk with our mouths closed.  We try to teach the students to speak with a lot of movement of the jaw and mouth to have better pronunciation in Spanish!

Normal Monday

Friday afternoon, Robert and Giselle took the students on an optional excursion to see Spiderman!  Then they did a bit of shopping.  The students were able to show off their purchases during a fashion show today.  After that, we had a normal day of classes.  Tomorrow, we have evaluations again and then more 'normalness'.   Here are a couple photos of us being normal :)

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July!

We celebrated the 4th of July today by decorating the main classroom and playing the national anthem and with fireworks on the overhead projector as the students walked in.  We said the pledge of allegiance in Spanish and then played a few games in the classroom.  First, in groups, the students had to fill the map with states and capitals as fast as possible. Then, the students translated the national anthem into Spanish and had to sing it with their groups. We went outside to play a game called Caterpillar.  You can see Valeria all dressed up as a caterpillar in one of the pictures below.  We played a few water balloon  games and then did a group-building activity.  Finally (my favorite), Nicole suggested a game she had played before in which the kids are each assigned one of four possible animals.  They have to get on all fours and close their eyes and make their animal's sound to find other animals of their kind.  We laughed and laughed with this game.  Robert shot some video of it!

The lunch we had was amazing! The people that run the kitchen in the school went all out.  We had hamburgers (literally made of ham), hotdogs, tuna salad sandwiches, french fries, AND pizza!  Finally, we had a chocolate cake decorated like the American flag.

In the afternoon, we had about an hour of sports and then we celebrated the birthday of one of the host family´s sons (Jesus, son of Fernanda, brother of Rebecca and Emma).

Below are some photos.  Robert´s site has some, also.  Don´t forget about the Eurocup folder and the Santiago folder, there should be some new photos in there!

P.S.  Remember how I told you about the Pimientos de Padron:  some are spicy and others are not??  I saw a t-shirt today with the phrase translated from Spanish into English.  It said:  "Ones are spicy and others don't".

And I can't resist showing you this picture.............

Campeones! Campeones!

Yesterday some students wore their colors to show support for La Roja!  Many jumped in the fountains after Spain won the triple crown - Eurocup, World, Eurocup.  Unfortunately we weren't with them so we don't have pictures.  They will have to show you when they get home.  Tomorrow we will celebrate 4th of July with them at school.  The people who feed us lunch each day have something special in store for us!  Can't wait to see what it could be.  Here we are in the 'comedor' at lunch on Monday....
Click here for a link to student photos of the big day!

Luck follows us to Santiago de Compostela

Thursday and Friday we took our longest excursion (except the one to Madrid) to Santiago de Compostela.  We left on time and an hour later ran into a stop on the interstate.  The miners are protesting and were burning tires on the highway.  The police told us we would be stopped for an hour, but it took a little longer than that.  Nonetheless, we had fun dancing on the side of the highway!  

We got to Santiago and checked into our hotel.  We walked straight to the older part of town to see the cathedral.  Marivi explained the history of the camino and the cathedral to the students then she led us into the cathedral to see the remains of St. James and the statue that the pilgrims hug after their pilgrimage.  The students had some free time to try Galician food.  Robert gave them a challenge. 20 had to try the ´vieira´ (type of shellfish) and 2 had to try the orella (pig´s ear).  The students went above and beyond the requirements!  According to Robert, 

The number of people that actually ate the Vieira (10 required): 22
The number of people that ate orella (2 required): 13

Proof of having tried the ´vieira´

Trying the ´pimientos de Padrón´   

Emma Vreeke gets a hot one!

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We then went to eat dinner where the students were able to try the ´pimientos de Padrón´ which are small, green peppers.  Some of them are spicy and some aren´t.  Of the two plates we ordered, we had about 7 spicy peppers.  Robert has some great photos of students (Emma V. and Nathan especially) reacting to the surprise of eating a spicy one.  There is no way to tell if a pepper is spicy.  You just have to eat it.  They also tried ´Tarta de Santiago´which is an almond cake that is a specialty in Santiago.

After dinner, we took the students to karaoke!  

The following day, we went to a museum about the Galician people and then to the Pilgrim´s mass.  Everyday at noon a mass is held for the pilgrims that have completed the trek.  And here is where our luck came in.  The largest incensory is in the cathedral in Santiago.  The church only uses it 2-3 times per year.  Otherwise, someone has to pay for it to be used.  The day we were there, a group of Japanese pilgrims paid for it to be used!  Robert has a video of it on his site.  What you can´t see in his video are the eight men swinging the botafumeiro and the power that it takes.  Here is another video that shows that.  We took more time to eat and shop and then we headed home.

Robert has posted some photos and videos already on his site.  He will create folder and collect photos from this trip that the students took since he was sick and spent most of the first day in the hotel.  That link is here.