Family Camp Gredos Video

09.02.11 - El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain - This is the Family Camp Gredos video I produced for TECS. The camp runs a similar program to Family Camp in El Puerto, but in the center of the country, specifically the Sierra de Gredos about an hour and a half west of Madrid. It's a beautiful area and I focused on projecting that and the wide range of activities the campers can do in that environment. If you ever get a chance to get over that way, I recommend it. It is truly spectacular.

Let me know what you think.

-Will

Luis and Ali sharing a laugh.
Golf.

By far one of my favorite images from the summer. Just says it all.

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

15-M in Madrid

06.19.11 - Madrid, Spain - On the way back from Toledo, we caught the end a big 15-M organized march on the city. People entered from four or five directions and converged on the Plaza Neptuno, right across from the Prado. People were strewn all over the Paseo del Prado and the area around the parliament building eating packed lunches and napping with their signs and dogs (there are always dogs) in the shade. Per usual everything seemed incredibly peaceful and well organized.

-Will

Indeed.

The scene in Puerta del Sol.

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.

San Isidro

05.15.11 - Madrid, Spain - Eunice and I went into Madrid on Sunday to check out the goings on for the San Isidro Festival. It was the last day of a weeklong celebration of the capital city's patron saint. Among the variety of cultural events, we went down to Lavapíes in the afternoon to see some circus-type street performances, then to the Plaza de España for a free concert and hopped over to the Manzanares River to see a fire display as the sun set.

People were out and about everywhere in traditional outfits (long colorful dresses for women and gray caps and vests for men) and it was a good time.

-Will

Along the Manzanares River.
Eunice.
Fire!
People watching the fire display be lit. It was a collection of floating metal sculptures, with hundreds of attached "citronella" candles that the company lit. Not a huge display, but cool nonetheless.
Two guys and a giant wheel in Lavapíes

Semana Santa Redux

04.15.11 - San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain - We were able to catch one of the first processions of Semana Santa (Holy Week) on Friday night. The ones early in the week are pretty low key, but I did get some shots of cute kids with trumpets.

If this is your first look at photos from Spain's celebration don't be alarmed at the "klansmen." They invented the outfits before the KKK, so to be fair, they don't think anything of it.

-Will

I call this "Attention Span" or perhaps "Attention Spa[i]n".
"This hood wouldn't be so bad, if they just made these darn holes bigger."
Jesus making rounds.
The monastery on a clear night.
Trumpeter.

Madrid

04.11.11 - Madrid, Spain - Eunice's parents came to visit and we spent Saturday and Sunday tooling around Madrid. We went to el Rastro (Madrid's flea market) Sunday morning and had tapas along the way. The weather was perfect and the crowds were out.

-Will

El Retiro in the spring.
Mr. and Mrs. Woods having some padrons (green peppers) and calamares in La Latina.
The view from Plaza Mayor early Saturday morning.
El Rastro.

Shoes for sale.
Eunice in the Retiro.
Tapas during El Rastro.
Photographer meets English teacher. See if you can spot the slight grammatical error.

A bar in La Latina. Snails for sale.

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

Snow in March

03.05.11 - San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain - It snowed again. In March. And it snowed so much this time it actually stuck around for more than 5 hours. Per usual it did make for some pretty pictures.

-Will

Ominous clouds behind the monastery.
Passing along the monastery square in the snow.
Smile!
This was the next morning (Saturday) where a poor groomsman had to make a dash through the snow to get to his car to pick up his waiting partner (girlfriend? bride?) outside the Miranda-Suizo Hotel.
Snowmen!

Peace Day

02.04.11 - Robledo de Chavela, Spain - We celebrated Peace Day at school today. Every class spent the week making posters and collecting money to donate to Save the Children in Haiti. On Friday we marched around the town square and officially gave the money to the officials at the town hall. It was a fun march and most all of the kids had a relative or two who came out to watch. Such is life in the pueblo.

-Will

Marching back to school.

The five year-olds doing their part.
Maria (girl with the hood) and Eva (teacher, pink) give the first grade donation to the town hall.
Rusland gets a participation sticker.

Pablo trying to dry the poster before we left.