I´m a little behind

I´ve gotten a little behind in posting - our weekend and following week was so busy that I didn´t have time to post. However, I´ll try to catch you up a bit.

Our Saturday excursion was to Alcalá de Henares the locale of the University which ultimately became the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Cervantes attended here as well as Ignatius Loyola. We got a lenghty explanation of the ornately decorated facade and then our tour included a visit to the room where students took their comprehensive exams - and passed or failed. In the large room is a place where the student sits with two professors - one on his right to help him out and one on his left to try to trip him up. Above in the galleries are all his friends, cheering their encouragement during his ordeal. At the table on the floor sit the professors asking the questions - and they are challenging each other to come up with the most complex and detailed questions! If the student passes his exam successfully, he leaves through the "Puerta de la gloria", the door of glory, where he exits to the square, amid the peals of joy of all the bells of the city and the cheers of the townspeople who, upon hearing the bells know that the student has passed and they will now be treated to a 3 day fiesta of food and celebration. On the other hand, if the student fails his exams (as Ignatius Loyola did) he leaves through the door of fools where he is tied to a cart and hauled through the streets in disgrace where they pelt him with rotten fruits and spit upon him. Ultimately he is doused with excrement as the townspeople are disgusted that they will not be able to have a celebration. What an incentive to study!

We then went to see the house of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, author of Don Quijote de la Mancha, had some lunch, took a walking tour of the city and returned to the train station to be back in Madrid for the evenings festivities.

On Sunday morning, we met early for one last quick visit to the Rastro, and then to the Museo Taurino - the Bullfighting Museum to learn a little about bullfighting before attending it that evening. Six bulls are fought by three torreros. I explained a little about the history, pagentry and culture of this unique cultural phenomenon. While it is not something that I can say that I like, it is culturally significant and an important part of Spanish life and a spectacle that should be seen. Another busy weekend and two more late nights....

A little flamenco music.....

As our third week winds down, I was going to wait to post until Monday, but today´s activity is too funny to wait. They boys have a flamenco teacher today who came to teach them a few flamenco steps. Well.... there are no words to say how funny they are! Needless to say, American teenage boys are not exactly "light on their feet" on a good day... but watching them with their gigantic sneakers try to copy the petite little instructor with her tiny little steps is just TOO funnny!

They are ALL into it - every one of them has gotten up to dance - to give them all credit! When we go to see a flamenco show in Granada, they will have some idea of the intricacies of the dance, music and movements and a far greater appreciation of what is involved.

Strike continues.....

It is Thursday and the Metro strike continues. Tuesday and Wednesday were a complete shutdown of the subway system. Today there is approximately 50% service. Full service will be restored for the weekend (when no one is working!) and the 50% slowdown will resume Monday and continue indefinitely. We can live with the slowdown but I have to say that the total shutdown was a real nuisance! However, it has forced all of us to be more enterprising; learning to use buses, taxis (and how much they cost!) and walking everywhere!

The boys are thrilled with Spain´s success in the World Cup and despite the metro strike attended the Big Screen presentation of the game at Bernabeu stadium. They were under strict orders to head home early and all managed to get in at a reasonable hour with great stories of celebration in the streets!

Wednesday we visited the house of Joaquin Sorrolla the famous 20th century Spanish impressionist painter with ties to Connecticut! Sorrolla´s patron, Archer Huntington, lived in Redding with his wife, sculptress Anna Hyatt Huntington. Archer Huntington brought Sorrolla to New York and established the Hispanic Society of America, museum and cultural association which houses an impressive collection of Sorrolla´s work. Upon their deaths, their estate was donated to the town of Redding to be used as a park. The Hispanic Society of America is open to the public.

Summer heat continues with temperatures hovering around 38-40 degrees. Next Spain game is Saturday night (our time!)

Madrid Metro Strike!

For the last week or so they have been announcing that there would be a "huelga" or strike by metro workers on the 28, 29 and 30 of June. The workers are protesting (like nearly all of Europe) cutbacks in their benefits imposted by the government as a result of the EU telling Spain it must cut it´s spending due to its rising debt. Yesterday, Monday, there was a slowdown. Instead of trains running every 3 minutes, they were 6 - 10 minutes, quite crowded and the transfers were a little crazy. However, everyone got where they needed to go.

Now I can assure you that I announced yesterday that there was probably going to be a full strike with no trains running today and how is it that at least one third of the students did NOT know that there would be no trains running today??? It was in the papers, on the news, I announced it.... go figure.

So, I walked 1 hour an 15 minutes to school this morning. I live on the far side of Retiro Park and I frequently walk home in the evening. Depending on where we are and what time it is, I enjoy the down time to reflect on the happenings of the day and collect my thoughts for the next day´s plans. There is no rush and the evenings are long and warm. I can´t say the walk to school was not enjoyable. The morning was beautiful and I was actually walking faster than most of the traffic! I have never seen such traffic jams in Madrid! The M30 (one of the major highway routes - I cross over it to get home) was at an absolute standstill! What buses there were, were crowded window to door. The bus stops were overflowing with people waiting to get a bus. I actually gave directions to someone who was walking to work through Retiro park - I guess they never walked to work before! haha

Tonight is the big game between Spain and Portugal. Lots of the boys want to go to the Stadium as they have before to watch on the big screens. However, I am worried about them not being able to get home - or at least not until very late. They think they will get a taxi - but don´t realize that with metro not runinng, every taxi will be taken...they are not happy with my telling them to watch the game at home.

Yesterday our excursion was a tour of the Museo de la Reina Sofia. It is a modern art museum - it contains a few Goyas, but predominantly is 19th and 20th century art. The big Spanish names are Miró, Dalí and Picasso. And the grandest of the works is Picasso´s "Guernica" - a masterpiece depicting the bombing of the Basque village of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War in 1937. Afterwards I took the guys to the Atocha train station to see the rain forest and the turtle pool that have been created in the interior of the old station. It is where we will meet when we travel south and I wanted them to know the meeting place. And it is very cool.

Today we are off to the Royal Palace. We have a tour of a few (about 50) of the 2800 in the Palace. One of the highlights is the Armoury with its extensive collection of armour dating from the time of El Cid (10th Century).

Weekend musings.....

Prior to this all of our excursions out of the city have been to the north - but this weekend, we ventured south into Castilla -La Mancha and visited the midieval city of Toledo (NOT Ohio) that was the capital of Spain up until the time that Felipe II moved it to Madrid in the 16th Century. Toledo is naturally fortressed by the Rio Tajo (Tagus) on three sides so it only needed to be defended on one and today you can still see the murallas or the refurbished fortress walls and gates. Because of the intense heat of La Mancha and also because the city has very limited space, the streets are incredibly narrow - wide enough for only one small car to pass through or sometimes only wide enough for pedestrian or equine traffic! This also serves to keep the sun off the streets and keep them (and the houses that line them) cool during the hot summers.

Our itinerary included the Cathedral which is the second largest Gothic cathedral in Spain and the third largest in the world, the ruins and museum of the sinagogue, the Iglesia de Santo Tome that houses the premier work of El Greco "The Burial of the Count of Orgaz" and finally the Iglesia de San Idlefonso - the only Jesuit church in Toledo. In between the boys had time for lunch and some shopping in Toledo´s many shops.

In the Cathedral which took some 200 years to complete, we also got a respite from the intense sun. There were a ton of tourists in Toledo - mostly and Americans and Japanese! I think we are on the same schedule as all the tour groups! The students saw the amazing transparente, a floor to ceiling alabaster sculpture the likes of which they will see nowhere else in the world. It is my favourite of the cathedrals in Spain even though Sevilla is the largest, I think Toleldo is the most beautiful. Also, because Toledo was the capital of Spain, the Archbishop of Toledo (sometimes a Cardinal) is one of the most important leaders of the Church in Spain. We saw the tomb of Cardinal Cisneros, confessor to Isabel la Católica and also saw many of his vestments from the 15th and 16th centuries that are preserved in the museum of the Cathedral.

Perhaps it is because they are unfamiliar with the history, or maybe because they just don´t think about the length of time that is 400, 500 or 600 years, but the boys just don´t seem to be too impressed with what they are seeing. I am always in awe of these items and works of art that are so ancient. Even if I don´t particularly like them, they are so valuable just for their age alone! They kind of zip through the museums giving things a quick glance - and seem more interested in getting back to the park to play futbol - ah well. I think it is usually afterward that they realize all the things they have seen.

Sunday was our only "low" day. We went to the Retiro in the morning so that they boys could finish up their shopping there. We are half way through the trip and they said that the time is just flying! Most of the boys spent the afternoon in the Retiro park playing futbol. On Sundays Retiro is full of mimes, singers, puppet shows, vendors of art, jewelry, snacks and lots of Mickey and Minnie mice giving balloons to kids and posing for photos. With it´s roller hockey, shade trees and cafes, it is a great place to spend a relaxing afternoon!

This week promises to be a busy one - we have lots of activities planned!

Second Week

I´m having trouble posting photos - IH has installed IE7 on all it´s computers and for some reason the photos are taking forever to load. I´ll try to get some more up soon, but for now..... the World Cup continues to capture everyone´s attention. USA matches take a back seat to the excitement generated by a Spain win. Students have congregated in a variety of places to watch the matches.

Monday after classes was the long awaited visit to the Estadio Santiagio Bernabeu - the home of Real Madrid. The tour is extensive - it begins with a trip to the "vomitorio" seats high atop the stadium where the guys get a great view and realize that in this stadium that seats 80,000 fans, there are no bad seats. We then move on the the history of the club - it is not only a futbol team, but an entire sports conglomerate including a table tennis, basketball and chess team, with a long and illustrious history. The trophy room is truly spectacular showing videos of some of their greatest highlights. Unlike so many of the Spanish museums, photos are allowed everywhere and the boys took a ton! Then we walk down around the stadium and they had a chance to sit in the seats of the teams - similar to the dugout in baseball. They are the most comfortable seats ever! We got a great group pic there. The tour ends in the Real Madrid store - the largest in Madrid. They sell everything you could ever imagine with the logo of Real Madrid on it. Animal crates, toilet seats, ridiculous things! But the boys had great fun doing all their shopping there!

On Tuesday we were very fortunate to have our guide Pablo with us again at the Museo del Prado. The boys got an extensive tour of the museum which contains Spanish art from romanic times up until the 19th Century. They saw the work of the great masters, El Greco, Velázquez and Goya along with many other familiar names such as Ribera, Rafael, Bosch and Murillo.

Wednesday was a very long day that began with the Cathedral of the Almudena, the modern Cathedral in Madrid where we had a tour of the cupula and were able to get a bird´s eye view of the city of Madrid from the top of the dome. I had never been there before and it was spectacular! From there the boys got to walk around the Cathedral which is totally different from any other Cathedral they will see in Spain or in fact, in any other parat of Europe. It is unique in its modernity. Then we visited the Church of San Francisco el Grande one of the most visible landmarks in the Madrid skyline because of its massive dome, but another place where I had never been. It has been closed for some years for rennovations. We got a tour of the entire chruch with its many chapels, one containing a magnificent Goya painting. We returned to the school for lunch and then headed off to the zoo. The Madrid zoo is huge and in addition to having a wide variety of animals from all over the world ( I always laugh at seeing the "American Wood Duck" - the ones that swim in the puddles in our driveways - in the zoo) there are great shows such as the sea lion show, the raptors and the dolphin show. I was a little disappointed to note that by the time the dolphin show started, all the students but two who were with me had left the zoo. We walked around for about three and a half hours and only saw about 2/3 of the exhibits. But I got some terriffic photos!

On Thursday we went to the Museum of Romanticismo - a wonderful 19th Century residence that has been converted into a musuem with a seemingly endless collection of items that graced the homes of Spanish citizens from about 1830 - 1920. What we would call the Victorian period. The furnishings were lavish, the artwork graceful and elegant; the tablesettings were simply beautiful. Unfortunately I think the elegance was somewhat lost on the students - they were more anxious to get to the park to play futbol than to oohh and aahh over needlework and furnishings. Go figure!

Today is Friday and Spain plays Chile tonight! In the interim we will watch a film in Spanish, but will be finished in plenty of time for everyone to get to his "game watching site". Spain and Chile haven´t met in a World Cup match since the 1950´s so this promises to be very exciting.

Tomorrow we head off to Toledo for a full day of exploring. Sunday? Who knows - I´m working on that!

Segovia Sunday

On Sunday we headed out to Segovia a midieval town about 100km from Madrid. Like the Escorial, it is to the north of Madrid, beyond the Guardarama Mountains. We met at the bus station, and caught a bus which got us to Segovia at about quarter to 12. The three main sights in Segovia are the 1900 year old roman aqueduct, the Cathedral and the Alcazar.

The roman aqueduct was built during the time of the Roman Emporer Flavius. It brought water 18km from the Guardarama mountains to the Alcazar de la city. It contains 188 arches and at it´s highest point in the main plaza in Segovia it reaches over 100 meters in height. It is a dry stone structure meaning that there is no type of cement used in its construction. Although it still functions, it was closed for use in the mid 1980´s due to the fact that it is open to the air and animals.

The Alcazar is a "fortress residence" which makes it different from a "palacio" or a "castillo". The word is moorish and the building is one of the most specatcular in Spain. It was used by Isabel la Catolica to receive Christopher Columbus when he came in search of money to fund his venture to the new world. Segovia is also the city in which Isabel la Catolica was crowned Queen of Castilla and Leon. Although the buidling suffered a fire in the 19th century and was partially reconstructed, it houses an amazing array of items from the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, including the thrones of the Catholic Kings, armour and armadura of the period and excellent examples of the mudejar style of interior design. The students were also able to climb up to the tower (I didn´t do it this time - I´ve done it SO many times!) but I enjoyed waving to them as they leaned over the ramparts!

I showed them the Church of St. Michael where Isabel la Catolica received her crown and they had the opportunity to go inside a church that has changed little in more than 500 years. I sometimes think the magnitude of the length of time is lost on the students. I am in awe of all these historic sites, but they seem to take it all in stride.

The last building we visited was the Cathedral. It is a baroque structure, but with elements of the gothic style. It is typical of Spanish cathedrals in that the choir is in the center of the church, which means that the main altar cannot be seen from the main doors. Built in the shape of a cross, the various chapels were all open so the boys got to go in and see the various works of art and decoration up close. We also got to see the cloister and the treasure rooms. It was a warm afternoon and the coolness of the interior of the cathedral was a nice respite.

Out in the Plaza Mayor, there was a festival going on! Music, street performers and mimes were everywhere. There were a ton of tourists (did somebody say there was a recession somewhere???) from all over the world. I think all the American students came to Spain this summer. And with them came the Japonese! By the time we walked back to the bus at 5:30 the boys were ready to nap all the way back to Madrid. Ready for week 2!