El programa de Español

I was very happy to see that everyone found his way to school with no problems on Monday morning - and they all arrived on time, even better! They each had a short quiz to fill out and then a brief linguistic encounter with a teacher to evaluate their levels. Leveling is very fluid here as some students who can speak better don´t do so well on the written part or vice versa. The first day is always a ¨getting to know the students¨ day and there is a great deal of movement in the levels. Some of the boys felt they were misplaced, and changes have been made. As I have told them, this is definitely NOT an American classroom where they can sit silently and blend into the crowd. The classes are small, they are all about conversation, speaking and understanding and if they want to move forward quickly, they must engage and converse. So far, it seems that they are all doing great - lots of Spanish going on and tons of willingness to talk. The students who have friends or acquaintances here have all gotten in touch with them and are planning excursions.

On Monday we had our first afternoon outing (after a rather spectacular thunderstorm which I have never seen in Madrid!). We walked ¨Madrid de los Austrias¨ which is a walking tour of the oldest part of the city during the reign of the Austrian kings. The streets are very narrow, barely wide enough for the smallest of cars; we saw the remains of the original ¨murallas¨ or the outer fortress walls of the medieval city, visited the Iglesia de San Miguel and ended up in the Plaza Mayor. We also strolled past the Catderal de la Almudena, the Cathedral of Madrid and the Palacio Real. We have plans another day to have a tour of the inside of both.
We are working on our schedule for the coming weeks. The boys are getting used to walking around the city and taking in the (sometimes unusual!) sights of European city life! While my photos are pretty tame, they have taken some very funny ones. I think you can find theirs on facebook!