Final Show

06.22.11 - Robledo de Chavela, Spain - We finished the school year at CEIP Nuestra Señora de la Navahonda with a morning of performances from each of the grade levels. The pre-schoolers of course stole the show with a version of Beauty and the Beast.

-Will

Lunch

06.17.11 - San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain - For the second year, Eunice and I's last two weeks of work were filled with great lunches to say goodbye. We passed countless hours at the table swapping stories, laughing and eating great food.

We're fortunate to have made great friends and even more so, fortunate to have friends who like to eat as much as we do. The highlight was Maribel's melon salmorejo.

-Will

Carmen and Ana.
Melon salmorejo.
Carlos and Maribel.

Carol, Paco and Marivi.

Cultural Week

06.03.11 - Robledo de Chavela, Spain - We spent our Cultural Week at CEIP Nuestra Señora de la Navahonda studying film. It culminated in a version of "Bienvenidos, Mr. Marshall" or as they called it "Bienvenidos, Mr. Will." It is a famous Spanish film from the 50s about a small town in central Spain that converts itself to look like a whitewashed Andalucian town to impress the U.S. Government officials coming to give out money. At any rate, we converted our school in a similar fashion, all the girls wearing sevillanas dress and the boys in torero outfits waving American flags. I wore my best "American" tourist outfit -- a Hawaiian shirt, camera, baseball cap and cargo shorts.

Each class also performed a film (mine did Mary Poppins) and we recorded scenes to be shown on the last day of school. Below are some photos.

-Will

Faunia

05.19.11 - Madrid, Spain - We took the kids to Faunia, a nature park/zoo southeast of Madrid, on Thursday and got to see some cool stuff. The highlight was the venomous creatures pavilion (think vipers, black widows and giant tarantulas), but the best part for photos was the butterfly exhibit. Good light and pretty insect tend to be that way. We also saw some penguins, pelicans, manatees (I had never seen one before) and aardvarks (tampoco). It was a lot of fun and the seeing the kids' faces light up made it even better.

-Will

P.S. - Field trips never get old.

You can just make out the monarch butterfly in the top left corner.
Manatee attack!
Looking at insects.
Entering the venomous creature pavilion.

Carnaval (Fat Tuesday)

03.08.11 - Robledo de Chavela, Spain - We celebrated Carnaval (Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras and Carnival) at school today. The theme was the Middle Ages, so everyone dressed up as knights, kings, queens, etc. I dressed up as the Burger King, fitting, I thought, given it was probably America's only contribution to that time period (hehe), not counting Robin Hood Men in Tights or the Kennedy's "Camelot."

We were forced into the town's sports center because of rainshowers. Alas, one day, the winter will end.

-Will

Christmas Vacation

12.22.10 - Robledo de Chavela, Spain - We had a small get together after the last before vacation at the hotel in town. The tapas were good. After two weeks of mystery and anticipation the Secret Santas were revealed and the gifts were aplenty.

-Will

Javi and Ana hug.
Ana (x2).
Paco, paco, paco.

Christmas is for the kidz

12.22.10 - Robledo de Chavela, Spain - The final days before Christmas break were a blitz to finish Christmas projects. The first graders made gold ornaments to take home. We also got a visit by the three wisemen (los Reyes Magos, in Spanish tradition, they deliver the presents, not jolly ol' what's his name), who gave every kid a small present. The kids had a good time and we (the teachers) were happy because we could leverage the visit in the weeks leading up to Christmas, which made for slightly easier lessons.

Ho, ho, ho,

Will

Patricia gets a gift from on of the wisemen. (Yes, that's blackface. It's not frowned upon here. In general, the Spanish aren't politically correct about anything and certainly don't think twice about painting their faces black because, well, Balthazar is black in the paintings, so you know, you've got to get these things right. Take the good with the bad sometimes.)

A letter to our Reyes.
Pensive looks.
Christmas balls (hehe).
Everything's a process in first grade.

Halloween

10.31.10 - Robledo de Chavela, Spain - We celebrated Halloween at CEIP Nuestra Señora de La Navahonda today and had a great time playing pin the legs on Frankenstein's monster, making candy spiders and mummies. I don't think the children descended to far into witchcraft. And yes, I did scare a few of them.

-Will

Mateo the Mummy.
Eloisa instructing the first graders on the pumpkin dance.
Jose eating.
Pin the head on Frankenstein's monster.

Fifth graders doing a mash-up of Thriller and the Monster Mash with zombie make-up. A classic.

Food Fair

10.20.10 - Madrid, Spain - My first week of school I got to go on a field trip. We went to the "5 al Dia" (five fruits and veggies a day) fruit festival at the Madrid Food Fair. The kids had good time and met the stars of Lazytown and got to make fruit and vegetable kebabs.

Exciting,

Will

Sara
Joel and Antonio make kebabs.
Unai skeptically tries a kebab.
I think Luna (middle) was tired of all the fruit. Or perhaps overwhelmed.
Kevin.