Bulls running through Alpedrete - no Niamh didn't go on a jog.

Saturday the 19th of May.

Today was the start of the four day festival in Alpedrete. The main event of the day was the bulls running through the town, and Niamh and I made sure to be front and center. Walking down, there were fake bulls being pushed around on wheels, the people pushing them squirting water at kids and any passer by. One of them aimed and us, and Niamh got soaked by the squirt gun embedded in the bull's head.We found the street the bulls were running down, and planted ourselves at the large fence built for spectator safety. I tried to get a better look by standing up on the fence, but as I lifted myself up I managed to successfully smack my head off a metal basket that an official was standing in.
    Mildly concussed, I stood back down on the ground and watched as the man taking part in the bull running's crouched on the road and prayed before they were let out of the gate.
    They ran up and down the road several times before being closed off in the arena. Niamh and I went to the packed arena where members of the public were invited to fight the bull. We watched as a huge group of men teased the bull and jumped out of the way as it darted for them. The men jumped over the barriers to avoid the bull, and honestly I wouldn't have minded to catch a few of them in my arms.

     It started lashing down, so Niamh and I waited for it to die down a little before going into the shop to get a few things, namely a few bottles of vanilla and strawberry milk, and some vodka for my pre-birthday celebrations. We know how to be responsible adults.
    Walking back to our apartment we came across a fireworks display, although from where we were standing it looked more like gunfire in a big cloud of smoke. We made it back to our apartment without too much smoke inhalation. We sat around for a couple of hours, me falling asleep on the couch (delayed reaction to hitting my head probably) and headed back out to the arena to watch the professional bull fighting.
    The arena wasn't as full as it was earlier on, but enough people turned out to see several men dressed in rather spiffy spandex and shirts run and dodge a bull for a couple of hours. It was fun to watch, and during the interval they invited kids to come down into the ring and run from a fake bull being pushed by one of the matadors. One of the kids gave it socks, doing poses in'all when he dodged it, but another kid just let it come and hit her, which pretty much sums up my motivational effort when deadlines are approaching.

   

The bull fights ended and we left the arena, getting a great video of a bull running up the street.

Classes with all year groups

18th May, Friday.

Yesterday, the only class that we were scheduled to teach was year 7. We went through the PowerPoint with them, just as we have with the other years, however, of course we tweaked it in places to fit with their genre, which is Comedy. Their character for the descriptive exercise was a clown, and their setting was a KFC.

Today, we were scheduled to teach Year 8, 7 and 9, in that order.

Year 8 began to write their stories during their class, myself and Jake there to help them if they needed it.

For class with year 7, we brought in all of the pictures that we had gathered from the quest that they sent us on. They were extremely enthusiastic with this. My group were verbally making up stories with the pictures, before I had even explained fully what they were to do with them. I allowed them to have some fun, passing around the pictures and making stories with them, before I got them to settle down and create their character. Their character was named Dora. She had green and purple hair, and liked apples.

Year 9 were supposed to have three paragraphs of their stories written by today, but regardless of whether they did this or not, their class today was spent either starting their stories, or continuing them. Again, myself and Jake were there to help if needed.

Later on that night, myself and Jake wandered over to a bar that Louisa, the usual teacher of our year 9 class on Fridays, recommended. We found cute bartender the second, and ended our night watching the animated version of Beauty and the Beast. Such good adults.

Devil Worshippers

16th May - Day 11.

Today we were scheduled to have one class with year 7, and two with year 9. It was only our second class with year 7, so we played the word game with them. The two other year groups seemed to really enjoy this, and year 7 was no different. Here is one of the stories that they created:

Mr. Hiley went to the fair and bought a balloon and a hippo, in a pool where there was a unicorn playing with a crocodile. In the end, they fell in love, got married and had 20 babies. 3 of them were called Joshua but Sala put a bomb in the car, and a donut, and he died because of the explosion but one survived that was called Mr. Broderick.

Seems like Jake isn't the only one that has some explaining to do. I'm looking at you, Clive.

For class with year 9, we brought in the photos that we gathered as a result of the quest that they sent us on. For the first half of the class, we sat in a circle with the students out in the sun and let them choose which pictures they wanted to use for their stories. Finally, each student had approximately five small pictures each that they chose to use. Following this, I asked the students how they would use the pictures that they chose in a story. One of the students had a photo of an open window and we brainstormed how that could be used in a horror story. Someone or some thing may climb through it, or someone may fall out of it. One of the other students had a photo of a cat, and I suggested that it could be killed. The students' suggestions were much nicer, but this is a horror story.

The year 9 class is the oldest class that we have, and myself and Jake have already seen some of their writing skills, so we decided to give them much more individual work than the other years. Instead of creating a character and setting as a group, we got each of them to do their own character and setting during the class. Jake and I sat at the back of the room, there to help the students if they needed it. They occasionally came up to us to show us their work, and if we felt that they needed more information, we asked them to keep going. Their homework for Friday was to write three paragraphs of their story. It was only going to be one, but their usual class teacher insisted on three. Sorry guys.

When the school day was over, we got the bus into Madrid to visit a few more places of interest. We went back to Retiro park since we discovered that it was bigger than we thought, and one of the monuments that we wanted to visit was actually inside it and we just missed it the first time around. The monument was the Fuente del Ángel Caído, or The Fallen Angel. This is a fountain that represents the Fallen Angel, or the Devil, at the moment that he was expelled from Paradise. According to the official website for this monument, it is often said that Madrid is the only city in the world with a monument to the Devil. Of course we had to take a picture with it.

Another highlight of the day was going to Círculo de Bellas Artes, or Circle of Fine Arts. This was a building with a Picasso exhibition and a rooftop bar that let you enjoy Madrid from above. We were very well behaved and just ordered two Fantas, and even though they were the most expensive Fantas ever, it was an awesome place with an awesome view.

An bhuil chead agam dul go dtí an leithris?

Tuesday - 15th May

Today we had our first Year 7 class, them having been busy with a group presentation during all of last week. Like the other classes, we told them their genre (comedy), brainstormed ideas of what makes a comedy story, and split them into groups for the quest.
    My group was very enthusiastic from the start, throwing out suggestions such as a book, a car, the beach, a comedy club, teenagers, donuts and parachutes to use as props, settings, or characters in their story.
    The next class we took was the Year 8 class, and before they got back into their groups, Niamh needed to name her new tiger teddy, so asked the class for suggestions.

Having gone through the PowerPoint with them in class yesterday, it was time to show them the pictures that we gathered for them from the quest so they could use them as prompts to create their characters and settings. The PowerPoint we showed them was the same one that we showed to the Year 9 class, however, it was tweaked slightly to better fit with their genre.
    In their separate groups, we got the students to create a collective character and setting. Both groups had so much fun being free to throw around any idea that came into their head, and each idea brilliantly served the story, which Niamh and I both were very impressed with. While working on the story, and having trouble with some pronunciations, one of the kids asked me how "Madrid" was pronounced in Irish. I simply said "Madrid" back to him, and explained that things can be pronounced differently in Ireland because of the Irish Language. With different accents over letters such as the fada over the "a" in "Sean", they said it wrong, and since they never actually heard the Irish language being spoken before, I decided to teach them a few phrases so they could hear what it was like.
    "Conas ata tu? means How are you?" I say, surprised that I managed to remember so much as that from school "And Dia Duit means Hello". Their particular favourite was the classic line of  "An bhuil chead agam dul go dtí an leithris?" Which means Can I go to the toilet?
    They loved this, and actually took it down in their copies to practice how to say it, and gave us a couple of Spanish phrases to practice, including Cuanto cuesta esto? which means How much does this cost? which is far more practical than the one Niamh and I gave.

    Class ended, them asking if we were to come back to them tomorrow for class, and were disappointed when we told them the next time we'll have them is Friday.

Here is an example of the work that was done from Niamh's group:

Main Protagonist

Name:  Niamh Swaine (yes, they named it after her)

Gender: Female

Age: 17

Clothes: Light, casual clothes

Pet: Tiger, named Emmet

Religion: Catholic

Home: She lives in a chalet with her family

Backstory: She has a secret, that no-one knows

Appearance
Tan
Black, medium-length afro
Skinny
Brown eyes
Tall

Family

Mother – Khloe
Father – Jake
Twin sister – Jasmine
They are a very close family

Education

She is in her graduating year
She studies a lot and gets good grades

Interests

Reading
Going to parties
Nature
Sports
Running – it clears her head
Chess – She is very good at it

Dislikes

Clowns
Her teacher, Daire Behan
She does not like her sister's boyfriend, Jay Kovar

Relationships

She has a boyfriend, named Brian Lynch
Her group of friends consist of:
- Colin Carters
- Ben Doyle
- Shiane Whelan
- Evis Zogaj
- Phil Challoner
- Her boyfriend
- Her sister and her sister's boyfriend
They are all very close

Personality

Responsible
Organised
Funny
Friendly
Empathetic
Beautiful inside and out

Main Antagonist

Name: Jay Kovar

Gender: Male

Age: 19

Clothes: Stylish, branded clothes

Home: He lives in an apartment with his cousin, Mikolas, who is 27.

Appearance

Handsome
Short, brown hair
Blue eyes
Tall
No facial hair

Family

His parents burned to death in a fire (supposedly)
His cousin, Mikolas, is like a brother to him

Education / Employment

He studies a lot
He attends University during the day
He works as a waiter in a restaurant at night / in the evening, and on some weekends

Relationships

He is Jasmine's boyfriend
He is in the same group of friends as Jasmine and her twin sister, Niamh

Personality

He is quiet
Seems very responsible

Setting

2018, modern
Summer, school has just finished

Weekend at Madrid Zoo and Retiro Park

Our first week of working in the school had come to an end, so Niamh and I had plans to do some activities in Madrid over the weekend.
    On Saturday we made it our mission to go to Madrid Zoo, it being first on Niamh's priority list. We left the house early in the morning, getting the bus to Moncloa, where we hit a snag in the Metro station.
    We topped up our travel card (Spain's answer to the Leap Card) and we strutted confidently to the gates, having just done it the other day when - bleep - a red light flashed and the screen said the tickets weren't valid. We tried again, and nope, wasn't working.
    At first we didn't think we bought tickets for the right line but after going to the information desk three separate times we were pretty much stuck. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, but I'll say, hell hath no fury like Niamh denied her train ticket. At one point I was ready to sprint through the station waving my arms and shouting for everyone to take cover, hoping at least a couple of commuters would understand English and alert the others.
    We were finally shown to an attendant who put in our cards and re-bought our tickets so they would scan for us (We didn't see what exactly she did, her hand was a blur across the self-service screen) and we were away.
    Leaving the station in Casa Del Campo we trudged through the scenic but rocky park towards the zoo, having to consult a park ranger for directions, who told us to just follow the family in front that he had just directed towards the zoo. When we got to the zoo the first animals we saw were the flamingos. One of them left through an opening in the fence and we contemplated whether that was actually supposed to happen or not, but people went up to it and fed it from their hands. Niamh and I walked off to see the sea lions and seals. Practically being the dogs of the sea, I loved them, they even reminded me of my dog at home- sleeping and ignoring everyone.

     Walking around we saw rhinos, owls, sheep and a sleeping leopard (I really resonated with this one, hanging off the branch) before we came to the main event.
    Niamh is obsessed with tigers, and she wouldn't die a happy woman unless she saw Madrid Zoo's tiger enclosure, including a white tiger.
    Majestic, beauty and grace are probably the words that were running through Niamh's mind, but for me it was just nearly fifteen minutes of watching her stare lovingly at the tigers and taking endless pictures. We eventually moved away from the tigers (Niamh promising to return to her "babies" before leaving). I honestly have never seen her so obsessed with anything else other than a man.

    Now I don't know about you, but when I see a sign that says "Please don't feed the animals" I don't get the urge to throw any piece of food into the enclosure, however, I can't say the same about the crowds in Madrid zoo. When we were at the bear enclosure, the bear itself actually sat up straight and caught food in it's mouth (mildly impressed, but still).

 

 Having trekked around the whole zoo, we decided it was time to head home. With our souvenirs from the gift shop, we walked back through the park to the metro station, feeling that nothing could go wrong this time.

    Hahahahaha nah it went wrong again.
    We bought our tickets but it still wouldn't let us scan through the gate, and asked an attendant to help us. He looked at us sideways and realized he didn't speak English, so he went off and we had to wait for him to find someone who did. Eventually another attendant sauntered over, and she informed us that we bought tickets to go to the station that we were already in.
    Not our finest moments, but we kept face. We bought the right tickets this time, and were back in Moncloa hopping on the bus in no time. When we got home, we changed out of our shorts and t-shirts and went out for dinner. Before we stopped at the restaurant we went to the church where a band was performing as part of the festival in the village. It was weird, hearing them talk in Spanish and then perform a song, singing in perfect English with American accents to boot. We stayed there for a couple of songs, and then went to the restaurant.

The next day was a much more chill day. With the intent of going into Madrid and visiting the Parque del Buen Retiro, we got on the bus and hoped there wouldn't be another problem with the metro. Getting to the Metro, and successfully buying our tickets, we discovered that the line our train is on was closed. So things were going swell with the trains so far. We were told that the other side of the same line was still running, so we risked getting on, and it just went the opposite direction, so turns out that there wasn't a problem getting to Peurto del Sol after all.
    Walking down towards the park, we kept taking pictures of the buildings around us, and walked across the road to admire the Fountain of Neptune (Spain's very big on the fountains it seems). The park was amazing, the statues and monuments never being anything like I've ever seen.

    The center lake is huge, with little row boats you can rent. Getting in one, and going around the lake, Niamh rowed for about three seconds before calling it quits, and I had to take up the slack for the forty five minutes. It wasn't that bad, although Niamh got walloped in the back by someone else's oar while they were lifting it out of the water (I tried not to laugh, honest) and after that we walked around, taking in the scenery of the park and eating ice cream and hot dogs (we really shouldn't be trusted with our own money).

    After the park we went to the botanical gardens, and frankly the four euro entrance fee was not worth the growing weeds we saw in the garden and the potted plants that looked like something off the shelves at the garden section of B&Q. Other parts were nice, with the colourful flowers and trees covering everything.

    We had a quick dinner in Burger King (With more ice cream, we really are disasters) and went home. When we got to the station in Moncloa we had to sprint for the bus, it being a couple of minutes before it left otherwise we'd be waiting around for an hour for the next one. We made it just in time, and were home within the next hour, wrecked after our day out in Madrid.

Jake has some explaining to do

Friday, 11th of May. Day 6.

So, after getting an updated timetable yesterday with more classes on it, we were scheduled to teach year 8, year 7 and year 9 today, in that order. We requested more classes, as done in previous years, as we did not feel like we had enough, and the students from year 8 would be missing out on 2 of their classes due to school holidays.

In the year 8 class, we planned to play the same word game with them that we played with the year 9 students, (see previous post.) It was a sunny day, so we took them out onto the grass before getting them to form a circle. Below is one of the stories that they formed.

A fairy was sitting with his Japanese girlfriend, waiting for a big dragon to come and destroy the whole forest. When it came they started talking about his girlfriend, that was invisible. The dragon stopped destroying to talk about their girlfriend that was also invisible. So now they are best friends. Jake appeared to be jealous because he didn't have an invisible girlfriend, but he wanted to marry Mary, who was a mermaid that came from the ocean, but their love was impossible because she was invisible. So, he married another mermaid that lived under the school that was in love with the hospital. They were married until the dragon separated them because he wanted to burn the school.

Jake has some explaining to do.

Following this, our timetable said that we were supposed to teach year 7, however their teacher, Clive, wanted them to work on their presentations for the year 6's. We have not had a class with year 7 yet but hopefully this will change next week.

We had 2 hours to kill before class with year 9, so we wandered down to a local café for some croissants. We ordered a ham and cheese croissant each, with a hot chocolate. We got our croissants, but what we thought was a hot chocolate beverage was actually just a whole cup of melted chocolate, which obviously was not for drinking. It turned out to actually be a pretty good mistake, because we got to order a second croissant each, specifically to dip it into the chocolate. Not even going to mention all the other things we've been eating since we got here. Thank God we haven't got a weighing scales.

Class with the year 9 group consisted of Jake and I going through a PowerPoint, with headings such as 'Character,' 'Setting,' 'Plot,' 'Conflict' and 'show, don't tell.' We explained that these elements are essential for story writing and told them to keep the points that we made in mind when they are writing their own stories. The last 2 slides of the PowerPoint each had a picture. The first picture was of a scary character and the second picture was of a location that could be used in a horror story. With these images on the screen, we did a descriptive exercise with the students. In regard to the character, we asked them to give a physical description, a description of what their personality may be like, what the character may be thinking, etc. Furthermore, we explained how to use the 5 senses in their writing. In regard to the location we showed them, what could they see? If they were there, what do they think they would hear? What do they think they would smell?

After the school day ended, we decided to search Alpedrete for someone to fix my bag strap and to try and gather photos for our quest. We eventually found a tailor that took my bag to fix for me, after going into about three different shops and asking for directions twice. And on our search for photos of bare trees, per the year 9 students' request, I ended up buying a new bracelet with a bare tree on it instead. But we still got photos of other things we needed, the most interesting being the Alpedrete library.

We then decided to stay at home for a little while before going back out on a midnight walk in the dark, attempting to get more photos for our classes. We had great fun attempting to take creepy photos for our horror class, with Jake as the model.

Year 9 classes - some of their writing

Wednesday - Day 4 in Alpedrete.

Today we dove straight into class with the year 9 group, who, again, are doing horror. What we had planned for them today was a couple of activities to help them get comfortable with writing their own stories.
    The first thing we did with the class was to get them to write stories that were between one and thirty words long. The point of this exercise was to allow them to get a small preview into what they will be doing for the longer story they will be writing with us.
    Niamh and I showed them examples of these stories that we found online through a powerpoint, and brainstormed a few ideas with them on what would be scary in a horror story. Some ideas that the students had were clowns, darkness and sharks.
    We let them get on with it, Niamh and I writing our own stories from their suggestions, and after a few minutes asked them to show us what they'd done. There wasn't one story that we weren't impressed with, all of the students had amazing thirty word or less stories and we got them to stand up at the front of the class and read out what they'd written or, if they didn't want to, we read it for them. Below are some examples of the student's work.

"I entered my room, a beautiful doll was sitting in my bed. I turned around, something fell to the floor, I looked again. She was sitting in my chair with a knife." - Written by Valeria.

"I got up and saw I was covered in a red sauce. It smelled like if someone was bleeding. Then realized it was me, the red sauce." - Written by Maria.

"If I think of them I remember their screams and my hands turn red, you never forget all those murders." - Written by David.

"I still don't know why my bed creaks at night, I just know those hands aren't yours." - Written by Alonso.

Following this, we asked them to think about how they would expand on these stories. If they were asked to write what came before this, what would they write? If they were asked to write what came after this, what would they write? Does their story feel like a beginning, or an ending?


The next class with them was spent playing a word game. The point of this exercise was to get the students to think on the spot, which could help when writing a story when you're just throwing all your ideas down on a page. The rules of the word game was that the students sit in a circle, and a single person would say one to three words, and then the person next to them would continue it with one to three words, and so a story would be formed. There would also be a person assigned to stop the game/story when they felt the need, which is a huge help in teaching them when and where they should end a story.
    While the students were creating their stories either myself or Niamh wrote them down and, after they had been stopped, we read the story back to the students and asked them questions for them to be thinking about if they were asked to expand on the stories themselves and bring the story their own way rather than relying on other people. Here are some of the stories that were formed from the game:

"The man in the forest was with a big deer who had killed everybody in the forest. They had cut down all the trees because these were bad people who gave infections to all the deer. In the past, these people were hunters, violent hunters. Young people and bears. The bears were very big and round and had a lot of fur. They were as dangerous as a tiger and nowadays they eat people."

"At night-time the clowns all met. Then the children screamed into the clowns faces. They were shouting because of their nightmares. They ran away quickly. They were exhausted and realized when they looked back that the clowns were chasing after them. The kids that behaved badly screamed again."

"Their eyes turned into diamonds when the guys woke up. Their eyes were shiny and looked bright and blue. But these became incredibly imaginable. When the guys saw each other they started to laugh because they wanted them to be as enjoyable as a banana."

"Once upon a time there was a house where little children with witches ate crying because they were afraid of not having more sweets. The witches were spooky and ugly. They treated children like as if they weren't children."

Apologies again for the lack of pictures. Hopefully we will receive permission to upload photos of the students soon.

In the evening, Niamh and I spent time writing this blog, and while proofreading a blog that Niamh wrote I, once again, pointed out Niamh's excessive use of commas.

Comma comma comma comma comma Chameleon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmcA9LIIXWw

We'll see ourselves out.

Day 3 - Rat Kebabs: A new delicacy?

Tuesday, 8th of May. Day 3 in Alpedrete.

Today, Jake and I made our own way to the school - without getting lost! We arrived in the Year 7 class with Clive at 9am to observe the class. Clive was telling the students that they will spend time with the Year 6's next week to help them feel better about making the transition from Year 6 to Year 7. Following this, we were scheduled in the Year 8 class. They were learning how to write formal letters, and we were asked to help them with their final drafts if they needed it. A few of the students did need the help, so they brought their copies to us at the back of the room, or asked us to help them at their desks. At 10:50am, we had the Year 9 class, and began our quest with them.

The quest we are doing with each of the 3 classes is so that the students can help us to help them. After telling them they're genre, the students send us on a quest to find things/pictures for them. These things/pictures can be anything they want. Objects, people, places, food, a colour, etc. Jake and myself then go in search of these objects/pictures around Spain. Once we find them, they will then be used to aid the students with their writing.

The first stage of the quest was carried out with the Year 8 and Year 9's today. We separated each class into two groups. One group was with me and one group was with Jake. Jake and I wrote down everything that they would like us to get for them for them to work from.

With the Year 9's, who are doing Horror, we made it clear that what they send us to find does not have to correspond with their genre. A good writer can turn the most un-horror thing into horror. This would be their challenge. Examples of things that they said are: Wolves, Scorpions, something dark purple, shadows, broken mirrors, animal skulls, a rocking horse, needles, blood, a sunny day, statues, someone laughing, a knife, ice-cream, a banana, a puppy, a cow and emojis. One of the boys even said a Rat Kebab. I won't be trying that, but thanks.

The Year 8's, who are doing Mystery, said things such as: old dolls, a time machine, an owl, a crow, fog, a teddy bear, a boomerang, an abandoned city, a calendar with an important date circled, a pink sky, a scar, a safe and footprints. They also gave us some places to visit, such as, Parque del Buen Retiro, Puerta de Alcala, Museo Nacional Del Prado, and, the Penneys.

On the way back from the school, I noticed that the strap of my bag was breaking and, as soon as we got back to our accommodation, it had completely snapped. Only my third day here and I'm already texting my mother for help. Why was I left unsupervised?

Jake had to put all of my things into his bag before we headed into Madrid to meet Phil and Michael. Phil texted us the steps for getting the bus to Madrid, and then getting the metro to Sol, where they would be waiting. Getting the bus was easy enough, but we had a bit of trouble with buying tickets for the metro and finding out where to go to get the right one. We figured it out eventually though, and hopefully now there will be no more problems in the future for getting around. Even got my selfie stick in the metro station!

We christened our new selfie stick with photos with Mickey and Minnie, and then with Phil and Michael in Sol! Soon after this picture was taken, Phil and Michael left us to our own devices. This is the last day that we will see them and then we are completely on our own. Pray for us.

The rest of our day in Sol consisted of Jake and I getting mistaken for a couple, getting a meal in KFC for only 5 euro, and finding pictures for our quests.

We were falling asleep on the bus home, but ended up staying awake to watch The Hannah Montana movie. We're adults, I swear.

 We do have photos of our classes with the students, but we are waiting on the school to email us back with permission to put photos of the students on the blog. Hopefully they will be added later!