CA Exchange Trip to Spain-Seville 2008

Dinner with Mundo Lengua

2008-06-06T09:16:00.000-07:00

By Tori Ravenel and Amanda Hatfield

¡Hola from Spain!

We can hardly believe it is Thursday already; this week has gone by so quickly. Today in school we learned how to conjugate verbs into future tense. We have already learned past and present tenses, so this was an exciting step. Afterwards, we worked on our play, which is based on a classic Spanish legend.

After school, we had free time the rest of the afternoon! Most of us went to a street market where we found all kind of cool things. Some stuff could also be found in every day stores, but at the street market they were cheaper. I am sure parents will be glad to know that some of us had a lot of fun with the awesome deals. Others went home and had a nap to escape the oppressive heat.

Later this evening, we all dressed up and met at Starbucks around 9:00pm to walk to a nice restaurant for dinner with Mundo Lengua. The lucky winners of the previous week´s scavenger hunt all received T-shirts. Congrats!

The dinner was very good and we thank Mundo Lengua for their kindness. By the end of dinner it was almost curfew and we were quite tired, so we headed home right away.
Be sure to check out the pictures. Everyone looked so spiffy tonight!!!

Cathedral and Barrio Santa Cruz

2008-06-06T08:32:00.000-07:00

By Mary Karasek and Courtney Berger

¡Hey Padres!

Today was a really fun day, as all of them have been! We started out this morning’s class going over the (immense) amount of vocabulary we have acquired so far. The winner of our vocab competition was Jack Hannon! After our morning break, we returned to class where the cultural topic of the day was everyone’s favorite thing: food!

After that, we continued to work on a play we are writing about Susona, the daughter of jewish conspirator, Diego Suson. When the text was finished, we were assigned roles. My roles (Mary Karasek) were la chica and a dead conspirator and my roles (Courtney Berger) were Christian and authority we are performing Friday. After school, we had our picnics that our parents packed us then met in the plaza by the cathedral. We toured the church and went up 40 ramps (!) to get to the top of La Giralda (the tower, the 2nd highest point in Seville)

Then, our tour of the cathedral, we toured la juderia, or the jewish barrio and learned about the history of said neighborhood where the jews were confined a long time ago. During our free time tonight, we (Courtney and Mary) went shopping and got ice cream (which Spain is Really good at making) then returned to our house for a dinner of pasta and yogurt.
See you soon! M&C

¡Flamenco Lessons and Professional Performance!

2008-06-04T04:59:00.000-07:00

By Mason Harris and Hudson Farren

The day started out with classes at 9:30am until 1:30pm. We learned about Spanish grammar and the language until about 11:00am. In the second part of class we learned about the flamenco dance, the parts of it, and the things involved. After class we walked home and had lunch with our families. We then had to meet back at the school at 3:45pm for flamenco dance lessons. So after lunch we all went to the school. Once everybody was there, the group headed to a studio or building that had a dance floor and a teacher. We arrive at the building and are waiting to begin our lessons.

The teacher taught us the flamenco dance and we spent about an hour doing that. It was not as bad as I thought it would be. When that ended we had some free time to do what we wanted. We walked around the city looking for food and shopping. At 8:45pm we met behind the cathedral and walked to a small theater in a hotel. We watched flamenco being performed by 5 people. One sang, one played the guitar and the others danced.

When this was over we had about an hour and a half to do what we wanted after that we went home and went to sleep.

Shopping Day!!

2008-06-04T04:54:00.000-07:00

By James Atkinson and Hunter Frank

Today we started the day as normal, getting up at about 8:00 to get ready to go to school. At 8:45am we met up with other kids studying abroad and went to school. At school we reviewed sentences related to bullfighting that we had prepared the day before. Then we went over the rest of the material “El Torero”, and took turns writing on the board. Then, we reviewed vocabulary that had been building up from the first class period. Afterwards, we read an article about different Spanish movies on it, and that ended another fantastic class period.

For the afternoon we had no activity planned, so we all looked around shopping for a bit and went home for lunch. We planned to meet with the group at 3:30 on the corner. After, everyone arrived we broke up a little and Roddy, James, Whitney, Grace, Amanda and Tori all went shopping together. We went to jewelry shops, Hunter and others shoe shops. In H&M James had a little shopping and got 2 T-shirts, jeans, and 2 sweaters (all chosen by Roddy). After shopping, we went to have dinner. Tomorrow we are going to learn how to dance flamenco and watch a professional performance. We all are very excited!!!

A day in Puerto Santa Maria

2008-06-02T15:35:00.000-07:00

By James Atkinson, Hunter Frank, Hudson Farren, Mason Harris and David Wieand

We woke up in the hotel, got ready and began to head down to eat breakfast. We ran into some soccer players on the way down. At the hotel restaurant, they had a really hearty and big breakfast with toast, cheese, ham, cereal, milk and other tasty foods. After breakfast we gathered for our activity in the lobby with our entire group.

For the activity we took a bus to one part of the city. We split up into two groups and started the tour of the old parts of the city. We learned about the history of Puerto de Santa Maria and some old buildings and churches. We went into one very old and big church just before a service started. After walking around a little more we went to a little market with streetvendors for about 15 minutes. Then we got back on the bus to go to the hotel.

When we arrived at the hotel we had time to go to the beach and spend some time with the group. We went to lunch at a local pizza place. It took a while for us to get out food because of the big group the we brought in. We pretty much ordered cheese pizza and it was really good. After that we either sunbathed on the beach or we walked around the city. Then, we met back at the hotel and got on the bus to leave for Seville.

The ride home seemed shorter than the first one because everyone fell asleep. We arrived somewhere outside the old city and walked to the Starbucks that we met at before the trip. Then, everyone went back to their apartments and slept, because we were all tired.

At 9:00pm we woke up from our nap and ate dinner. Then we went out and met up with everyone and went around the city until 11:00pm. We all went home so we would be home before 11:30pm. Finally, we went to sleep.

Cadiz and Puerto Santa María

2008-06-01T12:11:00.000-07:00

Sarturday, May 31

By Damien Jiang and Matt Hamm

Today was our first day in Cadiz. The group met at 11am at Starbucks in Puerta Jerez. After everyone got there, we boarded the bus to Cadiz. The trip was only a short hour and a half; and felt like in no time at all, that we were getting of the bus. After getting off the bus, the group walked toward La Torre Tavira. The tower was very tall and you could see for miles around. Inside the tower, there were mirrors set up so that if you focuse them just right, you can see the city from inside the tower.

Then, we took a long walk to the beach. We passed miles of walls used to keep the sea out of the town, and there were large concrete cubes in front of them to prevent the waves from directly hitting the wall. The beach was very nice- the sand was warm and fire, but the water was freezinf cold. Most people did not spend much time, if any, in the water, but sunbathed or napped instead. Tripp and I (Damien) built a sand castle, but we destroyed it before leaving.

While waiting for the bus to take us back to Santa Maria, where the hotel is, many of us bought ice cream. Then, we took the bus to the hotel. After a few hours of talking and TV, we ate dinner in the hotel restaurant. It was a three course meal of salad, entrée, and dessert- all pre-ordered by the teachers. There was also bread on the side. The entrée was spaghetti for vegetarians and chicken and french fries for others. The dinner was fairly good, but not the best I´ve ever had in Spain. After dinner, some of us went to the beach behind our hotel, walking around and taking pictures. When we returned to the hotel, some people played games while others watched TV and talked. At 11:30, we returned to our rooms to get ready for another day at the beach.

A DAY IN THE PARQUE

2008-05-31T11:21:00.000-07:00

By Whitney Strong and Roddy Moye
5.30.2008

At 11:00 AM we all met at Starbucks in La Puerta de Jerez. We walked a bit and then took the bus to the Torre de los Perdigones. We got a wonderful view of Seville. The city was reflected on a disc inside the tower via a mirror (a camera obscura). We could see EVERYTHING. We went out side the tower onto a balcony and could see all of Seville spread out before us.

Then we walked a really long way to the park. We walked across the Barqueta Bridge which spans the Guadalquivir River. We arrived at the Parque del Alamillo and had lunch. We brought lots of drinks and snacks and also the “pic-nic”s our families made for us. The day was so beautiful and after spending lots of time in the park, we took the bus home. We took a short stop at the Plaza de Nueva. We had free time after that but all the stores were closed due to the holiday.

Tomorrow we are going to the beach in Cadiz! Adios!

P.S. from Traña and Gooding - sorry there are no videos but we are in Cadiz/Puerto de Santa Maria and the internet services are intermittent. We cant seem to stay on line long enough for a video to upload. We´ll keep trying and will attach more later.

¡OLÉ!

2008-05-30T11:13:00.000-07:00

¡OLE!

5.29.2008

Jack Hannon and David Wieand

Today, Thursday, everyone went to classes at 9:30 this morning thinking about not having classes on Friday. We went over vocab for earlier in the week and past tense. Some of us played a vocab game but we all got a crash course on bullfighting and it's illustrious history.

In bullfighting, there are six bulls and three matadors, two bulls to each matador. The matadors use either a two-handed cape or one-handed, and have a back-up team to distract the bull if the head matador gets in trouble. There are three types of bullfighting; fighting the bull from a horse, slicing it (but not killing it) standing up, or stabbing its neck and trying to kill it.

There was a change of plans this afternoon. Instead of going out on the Guadalquivir River in paddleboats, we went to the Plaza de Toros. We had a tour guide who repeated her Spanish speeches in English, a welcome change for some of us. We saw the ceramic human heads that were whacked with lances from horseback in an attempt to phase out bullfighting. The heads of several famous bulls were mounted on the walls inside the building. We saw the plaza, which is still in use by bullfighters. it looked like a gladiatorial ring. We saw the entrances from which the bulls and matadors entered, and the tunnel leading to the small hospital.

Pretty much everyone is doing well, apart from the expected difficulties of travelling. Seville is a beautiful city and there are tons of places to see and things to do. We are all looking forward to Friday and the day-long festival in honor of San Fernando, patron saint of Seville. Can't wait to see what we do. And no one can wait for this weekend in Cadiz and the beach!

2008-05-29T03:15:00.000-07:00

LA SEVILLA ROMANTICA

28.5.08

por Kelly McNamara and Tiffany Petrisko

¡Hola Padres!

You should know that we are learning by talking to many people and by talking in class. I don't know about your children, but we (Tiffany and I) are having to be extra careful not to throw Spanish words into this blog. We can't stop thinking in Spanish and now we are told to write in English!

In our classes today we reviewed past tense verbs and learned vocabulary for the movies. We also learned about Arab culture in Spain. After the classes, most of us headed home to our Spanish family for lunch and a siesta. We know you are jealous that you cannot take one!

Before our next activity, many of us headed to the commercial center of the city for some shopping! We somehow managed to meet up and hang out before heading over to Starbucks, one of the 10 million they have here. Once everyone arrived, we headed to the Plaza de España. It is very beautiful and is where one of the scenes from Star Wars was filmed! The architecture there is also amazing!

After finishing our tour of la Plaza de Espana, we went over to the Park of Maria Luisa for a very competitive (well, for some at least...) scavenger hunt. Some teams took off running all over the park and completed the five tasks in 20 some minutes of the given hour, while others took off to a slow "go with the flow" start. Congrats to Tiffany (not that I'm helping to write this or anything), Kelsey, Grace, and Chris on winning the scavenger hunt!

After that, most of us headed home, while some wandered around the streets of Sevilla, before going home to dinner (if they ever found their way home, we only get lost a few times a day - but don't freak out. We can speak Spanish, ask for help, and we have the life saving tool called a map!

We hope you enjoyed reading this journal entry! We miss everyone so much, but we are having

an amazing time.

In case you are wondering, we had way too much fun writing this journal.

May 25th-May 27th

2008-05-28T02:59:00.000-07:00

By Kelsey Lee and Alex Hammer

We left Raleigh-Durham airport at 3:45pm and arrived in Philadelphia at around 5:00pm. From the gate we got out of, we had to hurry through the Philadelphia airport to get to our connection flight to Madrid. We boarded our second plane at 6:00pm and left at 6:10pm. We landed in Madrid, Spain at about 8:00am the next morning. Next, we went through customs, collected our luggage and boarded our buses and began our 8 hour journey to Seville. After two hours on the bus, we made a 30 minute stop for snacks, bathroom, and 1.5 liter water jugs. Back on the road for 2 hours and then another stop for an hour long sit down lunch. The food was... interesting, but the dessert was great! Then we had 2 more hours on the bus before reaching our destination, SEVILLA!!

Our families were in central Seville waiting to greet us with two kisses on the cheeks. We met our families and then each group parted our separate ways to settle into our homes. We unpacked, got situated and conversed with our families, including giving them our gifts from America. Some students went out to explore the city while others stayed and bonded with their family. Between 8:30 and 9:30 we had dinner with our families. After dinner some students did more exploring, and others went to bed. The next day we woke up around 8:00, got ready for the day, and ate breakfast. As opposed to the normal breakfast in America, our breakfast consisted of 3 small pieces of toast. Then, our families walked us to school.

At school, our schedule was 1.5 hours of studying Spanish language, a 30 minute break, and 2 hours of cultural learning, including 1 hour of exploring the city. At 1:30pm, school let out and we all walked home for the biggest meal of the day, lunch. Usually lunch is a multi-course meal and is very delicious. After lunch, some groups took a short siesta before returning to school for the day's excursion. For our excursion, we explored the religious part of central Seville. The major attraction was the "Palacio de Alcázar". This was a humongous palace with beautiful architecture and mosaic tiles and is where Christian kings lived almost 1000 years ago. Afterwards, we had a little time for exploration before returning home for dinner. Following dinner, many people went out into the city. The past few days have been wonderful, full of adventure and surprises. We feel our Spanish getting better and our vocabulary expanding with every conversation.