Immersion and travel week

The immersion week is going great. Everyone I have spoken with is happy. All I hear is how great their host familes are and how much they wish they could stay. Prepare a room in your home to have a Spanish family member or two visit.

Saturday morning, we meet up at the airport and fly to Sevilla. We will be in Sevilla for a few days and will see its Alcázar, cathedral, go to the arab baths, and see a flamenco show. Next, we will go to Granada and see the famous Alhambra. We will spend our last few days in Spain on the beach in Nerja on the Costa del sol.

Santander

We have said goodbye to Salamanca. The students were sad to leave and said they wanted to live there forever. Don´t be surprised if they mention going to the University of Salamanca after high school.

We are now in our immersion host familes in and near the capital of Cantabria, Santander. I met each host family and they all are so nice and really want to have your child in their home as a member of the family. The first few day or so is always such an intresting experiece as the student finds out how they fit in this new environment. In Salamanca, they had a roommate as a crutch but now they all get to really use the Spanish they have been studying all of these years on their own. Immersions are hard but worth it. By the end of this week, some students will want to be adopted here and be speaking fluid Spanish. I´ll be checking in on them and making sure they are all adjusting well.

Some more pics

 Our guys in front of the Alcázar de Segovia. The guide say this is where Disney got his ideas for his castles.

 During the World Cup game

 We won!!!!

 Pure happiness

 La finca

 La piscina en la finca

 Jeremy en la clase de cocina

 OOPS

 All better (with the help of the chef)

What we´ve been doing and the immersion week

The cooking class on Tuesday was so fun. The students ended up making paella, Spanish tortilla and gazpacho.

¨This is soooo good¨- Nicole S

¨That´s looking so good¨- Alex K

¨Tiene aroma muy bueno¨ – Rubén

Who knew your kids could cook, huh? Be sure to have them make you one of these dishes when they get home!

Wednesday evening, we had a scavenger hunt around Salamanca. Team: McCall, Jeremy, Jordana and Alex K won the close battle. Yesterday, we went to a really nice outdoor pool. We sunbathed, swam and napped. In the evening, we had our final language partner session.

Today, we are meeting up to prepare for our week with the host families. The students are getting excited to be a part of a family here for a week. This week with their ¨familes¨ should be the crucial time where the group´s Spanish clicks. Before getting there on Sunday though, we are going to a group movie Eclipse (The third Twilight movie). It will be fun because it´s a good series but also because it will all be dubbed in Spanish as all American movies are here.

La finca, la clase de cocina y la clase de flamenco

¡Hola!

The trip to the farm was a hit. ¨Do we have to leave? I want to stay here forever!¨ -Katherine S

Today, we have a cooking class at a local cooking school by the chef of the school. We will make paella, Spanish tortilla and alcohol-free sangria. Tonight, we have a flamenco lesson with a professional flamenco dancer at her flamenco school. This class gives a brief look into just how hard these dancers have to work and how each part (hands, feet, body, heels) have to work together to make this dance look so beautiful. By the end of the lesson, the students should be able to do one part of a Sevillana and learn the basics to the rumba.

Viernes, el fin de semana y lunes

The last few days have been awesome. Friday we had our last day of the first week of classes, an art workshop, an interesting ghost-legends tour of Salamanca, a visit to the town of Segovia, tapas with our language partners, a soccer lesson, and the World Cup game.

Today we will go the finca (farm) to relax, ride horses, eat a picnic, swim, maybe catch a nap, and just enjoy the sun.

From what I have been told and can see, everyone is settled in and loving Spain!

We just won the World Cup!

Last night made history and we were here. Spain won the World Cup for the first time ever! It´s hard to really describe the emotion, relief and pure happiness that we felt last night. Some of our students just stood silently with a smile and other yelled and yelled (and yelled…). We have some amazing pictures that I will put up later. You were right in choosing Salamanca 1B!

Some of our pics

  Our group on top of the Catedral de Salamanca

 Before the game with local leader Rubén

 After the game

 After the game #2 with street cleaner

 In the Plaza de Toros in Salamanca with real bullfighting cape

 With bullfighter Miguel Ángel Sánchez at bullring in Salamanca

We saw it!

Last night was amazing. Spain beat Germany in the semi-finals of the World Cup. On the 11th we will play the Netherlands and hopefully win. We were all dressed up in Spain themed t-shirts, jerseys, hats, scarves, face paint and flags. It was a once in a lifetime experience.

Yesterday, we also had a seminar on the introduction to Spain. We spoke about key figures, geography, history, development and pop culture of Spain. It was really interesting and touched on a lot of important topics.

Today, we are going to the Plaza de Toros in Salamanca to see a theoretical bullfight. That means that we meet a real bulfighter or trainer and he shows us the ring and props used in a bullfight. There are no bulls here today but the students will get an idea of what is involved in a bullfight and begin to form their informed opinions on the matter.

Tonight we are going to ¨El Sabor¨ to have a salsa dance lesson. It should be really fun.

If you have access to it, some students are posting their own pictures on their Facebook accounts. If you are ¨friends¨with them, check out their recent uploads.

Domingo, lunes y martes

We are now in Salamanca! We´ll be here for 2 weeks. Sunday night, everyone was set up with their host familes. It was fun to see them meet their señoras with the customary double kiss. We met up that night to see the Plaza Mayor at night and give our first impressions of the host familes. Monday classes started. Everyone takes 2 classes; one grammer and one conversation. Classes change weekly so students get to see new people and have different teachers. We met up in the afternoon for a small tour of some key places in Salamanca like the cathedral, the casa de conchas and the university. In the evening, there was a Language Partner session where a few students meet up with and speak Spamish with a college age student from Salamanca. Today, we go see more key places in Salamanca and enjoy a free (and supervised) night in the zona de cafés.