Segovia

La Huelga - The Strike

Yesterday March 29th, the entire country went on strike in protest of a labor law that is being past Congress. Mrs. Graham and I went out to the streets and walked next to the people that were protesting to experience and better understand the political and social situation around this issue. It´s a complex one and explaining it here would only create more confusion amongst my readers.

The most important message that I want parents to know is that we witnessed a safe, nonviolent, and passionate strike in the city of Valladolid. We know that there were no cases of violence in the city and as a result all our kids are safe. I even spotted some of them in the plaza with their host families experiencing this event. 

There will be pictures and videos to come stay tuned.....

Family Stay

It was yesterday, after a great day spent in Segovia, that we finally made it to our main destination, Valladolid. As our bus was pulling to the meeting point, the students from the bus could see the families lined up on the sidewalk with big sings that read "Welcome (followed by the name of the student". The bus parked and they all got out and were immediately embraced by two kisses from each family member followed by hugs.  In a matter of minutes, they all were on their way to live out this new adventure. Good luck guys, Mrs. Graham and I had a blast with you these past few days. 

El Flamenco

On our way to the Flamenco we stopped infront of the Post Office. Yes, this magnificent building is the Post Office in Madrid. 

Great guitarist, and flamenco singers performed for a packed place from 10:30 till 1:00a.m. Their talented voices made us enjoy and be in ahhhh of this great Spanish tradition. 

A number of different dancers performed through out the night.  Men and women both put up a powerful performance that provoked emotions from the crowd. 

Enjoy a short video of this amazing Flamenco. 

Museo de arte Reina Sofía

       After enjoying our time at Parque del Retiro we walked back to our hotel and had a 20min break before heading to the Reina Sofia Art Museum.  The great thing about going to the Reina Sofia is that it was directly adjacent to our hotel. The difference between the Prado and the Reina Sofia is that the art at el Prado is from the 19th century and before. In contrast, at the Reina Sofia the art was from the 20th century (Cubism, Dada, Postmodern etc.). There we enjoyed El Guernica, one of Picasso´s master pieces that depicts some of the effect of the Spanish Civil War together with a lot of his other work. At the same time we saw some of Dali´s work amongst other great artists.

We were trying to blend in but....
 our big map gave it away. 

Paulina and the rest of the group getting ready
to enter the museum of Art
Reina Sofia. 

Picasso and Cubism 

More of Picasso´s cubism 

Dalí 

Lindsey, Mikaela, Katie, Kelly, Courtney, and Hannah at the Reina Sofia.  

   

Parque del Retiro

After El Prado we went to the parque El Retiro (park el Retiro). There the students had two hours to go explore, maybe rent a boat go rowing, grab a bocadillo, walk around the El Retiro, people watch or.... play frisbee. 

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Dan, Tim, Nate, Kelvin and I decided to play throw the frisbee around for one hour. 

Museo El Prado

 Our day started with some café con leche and cuernitos for breakfast at the hotel. Then we all gathered at the hotel lobby for a quick meeting where Mrs. Graham and I explained to them the days itinerary. We then left early in the morning and walked the streets of Madrid towards the great museum of El Prado.

There was a super long line at the entrance of El Prado upon our arrival but thanks to Mrs. Graham and her convincing skills we only waited for 45 minutes. Once inside, we were in a time machine that took us centuries back into worlds of Art. Paintings from the Goya, Velazquez, and el Greco, which we have been studying were finally infront of us. It´s hard to explain the feeling but trust me, it was surreal to be infront of these painting that mean so much. 

The great Spanish painter Goy.

Museo El Prado

Outside El Prado the students sat infront of a gothic style church enjoying the sun. 

The Feast

Restaurante La Catedral was the place were we enjoyed amazing Spanish dishes. We had a six course meal with an amazing assortment of delicious ingredients prepared to perfection. What was perfect was the opportunity that everybody took to share stories, laugh, and just enjoy each others company with some amazing food.

  

Classic Spanish dish: Tortilla Española. Don't think about the typical Mexican tortilla no. This is an egg based dish with potatoes and onions. 

This dish was one of my favorite. We were served ostrich with potatoes and a cumin based sauce that complemented the tender meat perfectly.  I was very pleased to see that the students were not shying away from it and were instead enjoying it.

 Grilled asparagus with a white creamy sauce which were a hit amongst our vegetarian crowd 

Croquetas con jamón y queso. This dish is a basically a ball of jam and creamy cheese breaded. Its accompanied with some berry like sauce. The clash of the salty and the sweet flavors complemented the dish becoming also a popular dish. 

Jamones Ibéricos y queso Manchego. The typical assortment of Spanish meats and manchego cheese. In this dish we had two types of chorizo (sausage like meets cut in circles) and the famous jamos serrano or serrano jam. On the other plate we ate well aged manchego cheese wich became on of Evans favorite (specially if the triangles were cut perfectly).  

The calamari was Jaque´s favorite dish. This commonly found dish in the United States was also a hit amongst us. 

We also had dessert but I was so excited about it that ate before taking a picture of it. Basically it was flan (a custard based dessert) accompanied with a banana and coconut sauce with chocolate sauce next to it. Boom!!! Deliciousness all around.

After that amazing meal we got on the metro and made it back to our hotel tired but with an empty stomac

The Royal Palace and the Spain Plaza

The hotel has free wifi and I’m very happy about it. 

Well, where to start. After a full day of traveling, we got to Madrid today around 7 am. We went straight to the hotel, put our bags in a room and got going. 

We got to the metro, which was an adventure, but we handled it very well. We made it to the Palacio Real but before entering it we went to a Café and had some tostadas, churros, café con leche and zumo (orange juice). Our waiter was awesome and super fast with our food. After that we went to the gardens of the Palacio Real and following that we took a tour of the Palacio Real, which was amazing. After the Palacio Real we hung out at the Plaza de España where the students had the opportunity to walk around for 30 min. During that time, they bought souvenirs, chorizo, waffles, gomitonadas (gummy bears essentially) and other things. We then got back in the Metro and made it to our hotel, the kids are exhausted.

Philadelphia

We made it to Philadelphia on time and super excited for the next part of our journey. Before continuing on to Madrid, first we had to spend four more hours in Philadelphia. These four hours here where great for the group to find some food (amazing Philly steak sandwiches), walk around the Philly airport, read some books (The Help, The Hunger games, etc.) and play some competitive rounds of UNO.
Next stop, Madrid.

P.S. Thanks Philly airport for the free Wifi.