Es Hora de Decir Adiós

Our time in Alpedrete has come to a end and although we are both itching to get home to see our loved ones after a long three weeks apart it is with great sadness we have to write our last post. These three weeks have been some of the best of our lives. We have had an experience that money can’t buy and will have memories that will last us a lifetime.

Not only have we gained some invaluable teaching experience we have improved our comprehension of another language, embraced another culture and had the opportunity to share some of our own. We have done all of this in a short space of time and are so thankful to have done so in the beautiful town of Alpedrete. 

Our Highs and Lows

Jamie

I am looking forward to going home to sleep in a proper bed and seeing my loved ones. If that is all I have to complain about then I have definitely had a good time.  I have adored my time here in Alpedrete.  I love the vibe of the place, so relaxed and easygoing. I loved that nobody spoke English here, it has forced us to use our Spanish and it has been significantly improved as a result.  I have a taste for Jamon Iberico and Manchego now so I will be hunting them down when I go home, the long and lazy meals spent chatting with good company are a huge contrast to meals out at home. The food is better, the service is better and you can take as long as you like. Everything is so cheap here, you get a lot more for your money in terms of both quality and quantity.

I will miss working at the schools most of all, there have been a few rocky moments with some students who at first seemed resistant to our teaching methods but soon warmed to us. There are a few students who we will never forget be that for their work ethic or for their cheekiness. Every day they made us laugh and made us proud of them for everything they have achieved. The three classes we were assigned were amazing to work with, and our co-teachers were beyond helpful, especially Beverly whose enthusiasm and passion for her work is infectious. I’ll even miss being called Hamie!

Wendy

To echo Jamie’s sentiments I am really looking forward to seeing my loved ones, particularly my partner. We have been afforded with a fantastic backdrop to our time here in Alpedrete. The scenery is absolutely breathtaking at times. It was a blessing that so few of the locals spoke English because it forced us to take a step out of our comfort zone and attempt to speak Spanish. The locals were extremely friendly and seemed to appreciate our attempts at speaking Spanish.  I loved the laid back and easy going attitudes of the town, something that appeals to my nature. We bought into the siesta culture and even had a few daytime naps of our own.  The only improvement I would suggest in terms of food is that it would be nice to have the option of ordering vegetables. They seemed to be a rare commodity. My most memorable meal has to be pig’s ear. It was extremely tasty but it was hard to ignore the hairs still on the meat.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed working with the students.  Each group that we worked with brought something different to the experience. Year 8 were fun and overflowing with enthusiasm. Year 9 were unpredictable, boisterous and surprised us with the work they produced. Year 10 were hardworking and possibly the most academic out of all our groups. I will certainly return to Madrid in the near future.

 

Several people have made this experience possible. We would like to thank Adrian, Clive, Beverly, Jan and Eva from Montessori. They have helped us immensely during our time. To Colin,  Amanda, Miriam and Sean. Thank you for your assistance, guidance and ultimately your faith in us.

 

 

 

Our Last Day of Classes

Leti and David from Year 9 posing while we write on the board.

So the day finally arrived. Sean flew over on Thursday evening to meet us in Alpedrete. We met him at the train station. We had four classes on Friday, double with Year 9, class with Year 10 and a class with Year 8. Sean walked into the classroom with us and immediately they were full of questions for him. During our time with Year 9 we found them to be boisterous at times but with Sean there they were on their best behaviour. We started off by giving them details of figures from Irish mythology like leprechauns, the banshee and pucas. We watched a clip on Youtube to show just how scary the banshee can be. We spent the next class with them writing their own stories. We asked them to write about a Spanish character in Ireland or an Irish Character in Spain. And they didn't fail to deliver. We reviewed each story and passed on their work over the last 3 weeks to their teacher Jan for assessment. We rewarded the group with some sweets at the end of the class to say thank you for all their hard work.



Year 9



Receiving our cards from Year 10

Year 10 are our oldest group. Sean was introduced to the class. To our surprise the students made hand-made cards for Jamie and I to say thank you which was fantastic. As you can see from their artwork they are a creative bunch. Each student produced a wonderful story.



Just some of the fantastic cards we received.





 

Javi, Caleb, Sean, Juan, Marcos and Julen Year

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Year 8 were our most enthusiastic group. When we arrived to class they were in groups rehearsing ascene from a play called Free. Each group then performed the scene for us. We got a group photo with the class. We thanked them for all their hard work and had a little party for the remainder of the lesson.

Year 8
 

Isolda from Year 8 made a booklet from our hand out about St. Patrick.

Beverly one of our supervising teachers invited us out after school. We went to one of our favourite places to eat in Alpedrete, La Casona. We talked over tapas and cold drinks and it was brilliant to end our work experience in fantastic company.




Wendy, Beverly and Jamie

An Introduction to Irish Culture

Winners of the Island short story Year 9.

We are now into our last week teaching our three groups and our Year 8 and 10 students have started to look at creating their own pieces inspired by Irish myths and legends.

With Year 10 we have begun showing them examples such as The Magic Cloak, The tale of Saint Patrick and give them some information on leprechauns, fairies, banshees and festivals like Bealtaine and Samhain, explaining superstition from fact. We will soon begin writing their own short stories over their last class.

With Year 8 we have introduced them to the videos on Irish culture that we had shown to our Year 10 group previously. We also got them to listen to The Salmon of Knowledge which they found very interesting.

Year 9 finally got around to writing their own fables with some really inventive and imaginative stories coming out of them. One contained two dinosaurs in a casino.

We have chosen four of the best from the group based on their skill at structuring their fable and having a strong moral at the end. Here are the four we have chosen:

 

David Ortega Fernandez Year 9

In a very hot desert once upon a time, a very hard working ant was challenged to make a house out of sticks and leaves faster than the Giraffe. The ant felt he was being insulted by the giraffe because of his small size. The ant saw this as a perfect opportunity to shut the giraffe’s mouth.

When the challenge started the giraffe sat down and began to see how hardly the ant worked. While she rested she began to think that she could make more in one minute than the ant could make in an hour. But when the challenge had ended the giraffe didn’t make nothing other than piling up some sticks badly and the ant had made a fabulous house.

Moral: To be outstanding in something you only need to have passion to do it.

 

Rodrigo Arellano Year 9

There was once a monkey who liked to practice human qualities because he spent all fo his afternoons going to watch the humans play football. He always said a prayer because he wished to be human or at least he wanted to have human qualities. One day he jumped onto the pitch. He chased the man who had the ball who then kicked him out. A few weeks later the football team had a trip into the jungle, the habitat and home of thousands of species of foreign animals. They reached a lake and something approached, jumping in the trees.

“The monkey” said the manager of the football team.

“Yes, I am the monkey” answered the monkey furiously.

The faces of the football players turned red and their eyes were as big as footballs.

“Don’t judge me because I am smaller, I don’t know how to talk your language or I don’t know how to play football because being a monkey I was capable of learning how to talk.”

 

Pablo Garate Year 9

There was once an owl and an eagle who argued every day at all times about which of them was the best, the owl or the eagle? Both had different ideas and thought that the other breed of the species was better than the other, until one day they noticed that they needed to respect the other animal’s ideas.

The moral is that you should respect other’s opinions.

 

Mickie Guinea Year 9

Once upon a time there were two dinosaurs that were called Simon and Ben, that were gambling in a casino. And Simon was feeling really lucky he was winning everything and thrashing Ben. Simon wanted to take everything from Ben. So Simon told Ben thinking he was going to win again. “If you win I will give you everything I have won today and if I win you will give me all of your belongings.”

So because Ben didn’t have anything to lose because he had already lost everything he accepted the bet. He actually beat Simon and Simon lost everything he had and Ben won it all.

The moral is do not be greedy and also if there’s no risk there is no gain.

 

 

Tuesday's Classes

Our morning started off with Year 8. We announced the three winners of the fable contest as mentioned in our previous post. We asked the students to write about themselves. We got some interesting information such as Emilio owns thirty three types of Rubik’s cubes, Isolda’s grandfather presents a TV show for teenagers in South America and Alejandro believes in living for today and not tomorrow. 

 

We had a double class with Year 10 today. During our first class we watched a documentary called The High Man, about Irish myths and monuments.  We then showed the class several photographs from Irish culture such as Irish landscapes, castles, round towers, leprechauns and banshees. An image of Michael D Higgins came onscreen and they all shouted out that he was a leprechaun which was pretty hilarious. We wanted to give them visual representations of Irish culture to help them when then write their own Irish / Spanish story.



Year 10 three best fables, Caleb, Paula and Julen

 

For the second class we attempted to immerse them into Irish culture with a combination of videos of hurling, gaelic football, Riverdance, music from U2, The Cranberries and even Westlife. We showed a brief video explaining the Bloody Sunday and topped it off with a video about the marriage referendum.  The vast majority of the class have not visited Ireland so it would be unrealistic to ask them to incorporate Ireland into their stories without visual aids. This work was preparation for tomorrow’s class when we target specific Irish myths.

Monday's Classes

Fable writing is something we have decided to do with our students to get them to focus on paring back a story to the bare bones of it and looking at it in its most simplistic form. We have done this with our Year ten group and our Year Eights. With Year Ten we have had to prolong the exercise over the course of two classes but with Year Eight they were able to see the point of it straight away and get straight down to business, bashing out their fables in about twenty minutes with the morals of their stories that were logical and occasionally humorous. The Year ten group preferred to focus on the human like qualities of the animals they used and as a result their fables were a good bit longer than the younger students.

Here we have chosen the three best fables from each group to share with you:

 

Ethan Wallace Year 8

A ladybug found another really cute ladybug and wanted to marry her, so they got married straight away. After a few years the man ladybug saw the female ladybug’s personality and wanted a divorce. Her personality was really bad and she was greedy and didn’t care about anything.

Moral: Don’t marry someone just because of their looks because you can be beautiful but with an ugly personality and you can be ugly with a beautiful personality.

 

Lucia Eiriz Year 8

There was a dog and one day while he was asleep he heard a strange noise and when he woke up he saw that his owner was holding a furry thing in his arms. He realised it was a cat! He didn’t like the cat. He thought that his owner didn’t like him now, he liked the cat. A month later the three of them were walking in the forest the cat was trying to play with him, but he didn’t want to play so he walked in another direction. But he got trapped in a  hunter’s net. He passed hours inside and fell asleep.  He woke when he heard some noise, the cat was creeping the tree to save him. He got saved and thanked the cat and since then they are friends. And the dog realised that the cat is not so bad at all.

Moral: Don’t judge someone without knowing them.

 

Alvaro Cangni Year 8

A bear was having a walk when he found a big rock in his way. Next to the rock there was a spider. The spider was very intelligent and the bear was very strong. The bear tried to take the rock out of the way but he couldn’t, it was too big for him. But the spider knew how to take it out of the way, as she had thought of a way using physics and logic to move the rock. So she told the bear how to do it. And they both were able to move the rock and continue their path.

Moral: Strength in union. Teamwork.



Year 8 Students Ethan, Alvaro and Lucia

 

Julen Sharp Year 10

Once there was a man who had a monkey and a donkey as his friends and pets. The monkey was always doing smart things but he also did naughty things, but his ownder never told him off. His donkey always did the work and never did clever thingsand whenever he did anything wrong he got hit. One night when they got lost the monkey ran away, but the donkey stayed with his master all night long and protected him. In the end the master started to value the donkey more and never hit him again.

Moral: Never value intelligence and cuteness over hard work and loyalty.

 

Caleb Josiah Wallace Year 10

The boy was reading, watching his little cat play with his little kitty toys on top of the balcony which was the highest in the building. The cat was flying around the place in joy when he played with its toys but accidentally slipped through the metal bars on the side of the balcony and fell. The boy saw it happen and rushed down the seven storied building to see his little cat on the floor. He cried hoping to see his cat get up but he didn’t.

Moral: You only get one chance, not seven.

Note- Although we commonly say a cat has nine lives, in Spain a cat is alleged to have seven lives.

 

Paula Gimare Year 10

One beautiful summer day the food collection started for the ants. As they went and found all types of seeds and fruits, little ant on her way found an enormous corn seed. She tried to get it on top of her back with all her strength. Little ant had only a few steps to reach home with the seed. Suddenly a cheeky fox got in her way and tried to argue with her. The fox offered her a change, she will give him the seed and he will give her the whole plant. Little ant agreed, she gave him the seed; but when he had it in his hands he ran away with it. As he disappeared into the forest he saud: “ You were cheated little ant. So innocent!” The ant went crying home but surprisingly she found a whole plant , full of seeds, she called her friends and they all used their union to take it home. They had food for the rest of the year from only that plant.

Moral: Cheaters never prosper, union and loyalty is the key.

 

With our Year 9 group we set them the desert Island task which we had previously given to our year 8 and 9 classes. They had to work in teams with their assigned characters and items to aid them in their survival. We again gave them names from our class for their characters. We chose the two best groups. This time we got two interesting accounts on Neil Kavanagh and Mark Galvin, accompanied with drawings that are exact likenesses for both!

 

Jaime, Pedro, Alexia and Paloma – Year 9

 

THE TIMES

Survival of Neil Kavanagh



Year 9's story about their character Neil, stranded on an island.

 

 

Neil, a 53 year old man has survived on a desert island for four months.

We interviewed him and he talked to us about how he survived on that island. Firstly he told us about how he got there, he wanted a adventure in his boring life so he decided to jump off a plane at 2000 km above the surface. When he landed on the island the weather was tremendously disgusting because it was raining.

The first thing he did was to place down a tent and furthermore he made fire with his matches and the leaves that he found on the sandy beaches.

Weeks later, the weather was better, Neil decided to use his hand saw to cut down trees in case the weather changed dramatically and with these he could make fire using a lipstick he found. It was important to remember that the lipstick was flammable.

Two months later Neil had health problems because he didn’t have enough vitamins in his body. But with good luck he had vitamins in his bag because he knew he would have these type of problems. He survived.

The End.

 

David, Barra, Marcos, Alejandra - Year 9

 

Mark Galvin

Year 9's artistic impression of their character Mark Galvin.

Mark is on a deserted island. He needs to survive or he will die. Mark is trying to look for food but he is struggling to find some. He only had these four items in his bag: Hunting rifle, rope, mirror and a knife. It was very hot on that deserted island so he jumped in the cold sea where he saw fish, he thought he could get them with his hand but he couldn’t. He looked in his bag and got the knife out to fish.

Mark saw that the clouds were coming so he got out the knife and started cutting the trees to make his house. He gets the rope and joined some trees to tie them together to have a place to sleep and stay warm at night. Then inside the hut he puts up a hammock and goes to bed.

The next morning he wakes up, it has stopped raining and the sky is clear. He was hungry so he went deeper into the jungle to get coconuts and bananas and he got his rifle out and shot a monkey. He needed to cook it with something so he got his mirror out and using the sun reflected it onto some wood to make fire. He made fire and started cooking with two sticks. He thinks it’s not a bad place to stay at all.

 

Retiro Park (Parque del Buen Retiro)

Retiro Park can be located slap bag in the centre of Madrid city centre, close to the big museums and galleries such as the Reina Sofia, the Prado, the Thyssen and the naval and archaeological museums. It is worth stopping into this stunning plot of greenery dotted with sculptures to escape the chaotic streets teeming with traffic and pedestrians outside. The ideal place to take siesta in the 300 acres of breezy green bliss, you can take your pick of the trees to sit under and rest your tired feet. The perfect place to picnic or people watch.

The Stunning lake

The majestic Retiro Park was once the private domain of royalty, since Charles III decided to share the park with his subjects in the late 18^th Century the park has been enjoyed by locals and tourists alike.

There are plenty of cafes, bars and refreshment stands throughout the park so it is quite possible to spend the whole day here only having to retire to another part of the city once the park shuts at dusk at the end of each day. The highlight of the park, for us certainly and a big draw for all of the tourists seemed to be El Etanque, the big lake at the centre of Retiro, this urban expanse of water is filled with big fish and water fowl. At midday on Saturday and Sunday the area around the lake becomes almost like a circus with street performers, jugglers, puppeteers and a lot of local colour. The ducks appeared to adore the attention from passers by, almost posing for photographs, seemingly unbothered by the plethora of rowing boats slopping up and down the length and breadth of the lake, oars slicing through the murky green depths and rocking from side to side. We unfortunately decided not to rent our own boat for fear we would tip over the sides and have to make the long journey back on the Metro to Moncloa and the long bus journey back to Alpedrete dripping wet and smelling of pond scum. Had we been staying nearby in Madrid we would have been tempted to go out on the lake as it looked like the ideal thing to do on another gloriously sunshine filled Spanish afternoon.

 

Tour of Santiago Bernabéu



The Magnificent Pitch 

Football is a religion here in the capital. The Santiago Bernabéu is the church, home to the Galactico’s of Real Madrid. Going to the Bernabéu was one of the few things on our to-do list before we came over and thankfully we can now cross it off.  Real Madrid are arguably one of most successful football teams in the world.  The tour consisted of the trophy room and museum, the presidential box, changing rooms, sensations room that house La Decima, player’s tunnel, benches and coaching area, the press room and most importantly the pitch. It is a self-guided tour so you can walk around at your discretion.  Our visit lasted about two hours. The tour was a bargain at €19.90 each.  From Sol we took the number 1 metro to Tribunal and from there we took the number 10 metro to Santiago Bernabéu. If you are visiting Madrid we recommend you purchase a 10 journey metro ticket for €12.20. It makes getting around that little bit easier.

Ronaldo's Locker

Locker's of James, Bale and Marcelo

It's Ok not to be OK

Breifne as he cycles around the world

Imagine the physical torture of completing a Tour de France while baking under the Mediterranean sun. Now imagine having cycled the equivalent of the Tour de France 10 times. An old football friend of mine is currently cycling around the world as part of the World Cycle Race to raise aware for suicide prevention, mental health and depression. He is spreading the message that “It’s ok not to be ok”. Breifne Early is a Leitrim native. He set off on his journey in March 2014 from London. As of 19^th May he has covered a total distance of 25,795km with just over 3,100km remaining.

In 2012 Breifne got involved with the Cycle Against Suicide, an organisation raising awareness for suicide prevention. In April, their annual two week cycle around took place and Breifne was keen to show that this was where it all started for him. “I got involved with the organisation and after spending time on the bike I realised that I wanted to spread the message worldwide that Its Ok not to be ok. Mental health is a cause close to Breifne’s heart. In October 2010 Breifne decided to set himself 10 challenges to achieve following a battle with depression. This started a blog know as Challenge Ten.  Following the completion of the initial 10 challenges he set his sights on his most ambitious challenge yet.

Breifne in Sydney

I have followed his progress closely and as a result I took a keen interest when I saw his intended route to travel through Spain. I got in touch and explained that I was in a small town outside Madrid and we arranged to meet in Alpedrete .   Inspiration is a word used often used lightly.  Depression can have debilitating consequences and for some sufferers it can be impossible to get out of bed in the morning. To find the motivation to complete a solo cycle around the world is nothing short of remarkable. What is even more remarkable is his enduring enthusiasm for the race despite having been on the saddle for 13 months. Breifne hopes to complete his journey in London on 4^th of July.  It is by sharing his story with people along the way that Breifne is helping to spread the message that “It’s ok not to be ok”.

Breifne and I in Alpedrete

Making Progress

Some of our Year 10 Students

 



On Wednesday we had all of our groups. We began the day in Mataespesa with our Year ten group. Today they were really productive. The work they are doing with us now will count towards their final grade and will be assessed by myself, Wendy and their English lit head Beverly Perez. We began by introducing them to a number of Aesop’s fables and asking them to pull out the morals in each tale and seeing if they could comprehend the reasons why certain animals were chosen to illustrate each moral. We created a sprawling list of animals together as a group and attributed human qualities to them all. Then we decided to assign them the task of creating their own fables involving animals. Writing their own fable shows them how to keep a story short and to the point, allows them to think logically and look for meaning behind what they write rather than just slop words onto a page because they have been told to do. Here the imaginations of the students shone through and we could see their interest growing as they began to associate the animals with the message they wanted to express. We will continue with fable writing with them on Monday.

With our year nine group we finally had the opportunity to take control of the class after observing them for so long. On previous observations we had discovered them to be quite a boisterous bunch and felt playing word games would be an ideal way to break the ice. They responded well to instruction and played well. After the game we asked them to write down everything they knew about Ireland like we had done with the previous groups and again we had some interesting answers. This group all started off by saying that the Irish love beer and shamrock shakes. We discovered that one of our students Jimmy (Jaime) had been to Dublin and he spoke for a few moments about his time staying in Ballsbridge.

With our Year eight group we played spelling and vocabulary games with many of them proving really clever and able to recognise words like Zephyr and Pneumonia. Although one student did confuse pneumonia with amnesia and announced that pneumonia is when you forget things to the whole class. We also handed out story evolution sheets to the group to gauge their level of understanding of how to structure the story. This proved a little difficult for this group with the majority in a panic over what to name their character more than anything else. Several could not finish the exercise but those that did flourished and came up with some really interesting and imaginative ideas.

 

Tuesday

The Walk to Los Fresnos

 

 

Our morning started off with a leisurely stroll from our apartment up to Los Fresnos. Year 8 awaited us. They are a lively bunch and their enthusiasm is infectious. We started off the workshop with Pictionary. The students picked items to draw on the board based on a pre-approved list. The entire class got involved. We made sure that every student got their chance.

 

We then moved on to a free writing session. We asked the students to write what they know about Ireland. The responses we received were quite humorous.  We then used a spider diagram to illustrate associations with Ireland such as dance, music, celts, banshee, sport, food, St. Patrick. We introduced them to Irish legends such as leprechauns, banshees, phukas and Sidhe.

 

For our next class we had Year 10. We had high expectations for this group having listened to their narrative and descriptive pieces last week. We asked the class to write a very short story to improve their story telling ability, show them how their characters can overcome obstacles, how they can get straight to the action without getting bogged down in description and how to problem solve. The activity required them to choose items from a pre-approved list on the board. They were split into groups of four and each member of the group got to choose an item, once an item was gone it could not be chosen again. They each took their turn and were assigned a character and along with their four items had to create a story involving how their character used these items to either escape from a deserted island or survive on it. Again, we received mixed reactions. Some students thrived and some students had no interest and resorted to speaking Spanish despite the protestations from their teacher. In general, the class struggled to get their ideas onto paper. They seemed comfortable to talk about their story ideas but were reluctant to commit them to paper.

  

For our last class we had the same group again just under a different teacher. We had a word with the teacher and gave honest feedback on the last session. She was surprised at the low quality of the work that they produced. We ran our lesson plan by her and she had some extremely helpful and practical suggestions. We noted that certain groups did not prosper so she offered to assign groups based on who could work well together. We happily accepted.

 

Year 8 Students knowledge of Ireland

At the start of the lesson we asked the class to write about what they know about Ireland and we wrote their answers on the board and elaborated on each point. We explained that particular emphasis would be placed on Irish myths and legends as they would be producing their own narrative during our placement here. To wrap up the session we handed out story evolution worksheets and asked the students to complete it with their new found knowledge of Ireland in mind.

Class Activities

As part of our work placement here in Alpedrete we are running creative writing workshops. There are two school sites that we move between, the Mataespesa Montessori and the Los Fresnos Montessori. We are doing these with three different age groups, Years eight, nine and ten. Year eight are aged around eleven to twelve, Year nine are aged thirteen to fourteen and Year ten are aged fourteen to fifteen and are currently studying A Level English.

For our first few experiences in a classroom environment we were invited to simply shadow the teachers, sit in on lessons and judge for ourselves the level of English and the student’s capability of performing the tasks and activities we had planned for the workshop. Year ten had been working on descriptive and narrative composition essays, Year nine had been studying Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Year eight had been studying detectives, so have been watching a lot of Agatha Christie to teach them problem solving. We sat in while they watched, Peril at End House, a Hercule Poirot mystery.

Our beginning activities with the students involved playing word games to strengthen vocabulary and teach them how to ask and answer questions through the English language. One of these activities involved writing words or names on a post it note and sticking it to the student’s heads and having them try to guess who they were supposed to be while asking questions to their neighbour who could only answer yes or no. This worked really well with Year eight who were enthusiastic and really enjoyed it, they asked and answered through English and proved themselves adept at following instruction. Surprisingly the Year ten group had a mixed reaction with some students doing really well and others cheating and basically speaking in Spanish and telling each other who they were without guessing. We have yet to try this with the Year nine group who have already proved a boisterous and rowdy group during regular lessons.

Another activity we used with our Year eights was to write a very short story to improve their story telling ability, show them how their characters can overcome obstacles, how they can get straight to the action without getting bogged down in description and how to problem solve. The activity required them to choose items from a pre approved list on the board. They were split into groups of four and each member of the group got to choose an item, once an item was gone it could not be chosen again. They each took their turn and were assigned a character and along with their four items had to create a story involving how their character used these items to either escape from a deserted island or survive on it. The students proved incredibly imaginative with some off the wall ideas and interesting uses of the islands resources and items at their disposal.

Collection of group work from Monday

We decided to make things interesting for ourselves by giving them character names belonging to friends from our class ( Jamie Byrne, Peter Dune, Mark Galvin and Alan Hogarty ) and of course our course coordinator  Colin Carters. The students provided us with sketches of what they imagined their characters looked like in addition to the stories they had imagined for them. We will be conducting this activity with the Year nine and ten group as soon as we have them.

Portrait of the character Colin Carters as drawn by the Year 8.

 

Festival Week

Sunday kicked off the festival in Alpedrete known as Fiestas Patronales en Honor a Santa Quiteria. The fiesta lasts for an entire week.  The festivities kicked off at 12 noon. The procession of the Orchestra gathered at the town square as they made their way to Plaza de la Villa. Hundreds of people gathered in the square under the huge marque to listen as the Banda Juvenil de Alpedrete and Banda de Tordesillas played. The town was bursting with activity. It seems this sleepy town really comes alive for a fiesta.  Hopefully the rest of the week has just as much energy.

 

About Alpedrete

Alpedrete is a town in central Spain just outside of Madrid in the Sierra de Guadarrama mountains. It has a population of over 13,000 inhabitants and is a charming town with a relaxed atmosphere.  The locals here are incredibly friendly and helpful and have humoured us good naturedly with our clumsy and staggered Spanish and atrocious accents when dealing with us in bars, restaurants and shops. We are now comfortable enough to speak in Spanish as long as we are not given anything too complicated to comprehend.

There are many amenities in the locality including numerous supermarkets, bazaars, boutiques and pharmacies which stock everything you can get back home as well as some typically Spanish products and specialities. There is a fantastic library in the Centro Cultural displaying historical artefacts and tools from the town’s quarry and construction history and agricultural ledgers dating back over the past 200 hundred years. There is also a display of photographs of various members of the community from the 1950’s. There is an enormous leisure centre with full pitch sized football training grounds, basketball, tennis and squash courts, a multi-laned swimming pool, Jacuzzi, sauna, steam room and Turkish bath facilities.

 We recommend while here that you do as the locals do and eat what they eat, drink what they drink, frequent the bars and restaurants that they frequent and you won’t put a foot wrong. I was hesitant to do so in the beginning but having seen Wendy embrace the lifestyle and eating pig’s ears and enjoying the local beer I felt curious to give myself over to trying new things and am now loving it.  I’m still not brave enough to try the pig’s ears, they are a little too hairy for my palate. The portion sizes are huge. The typically Spanish thing to do is to have a long and large lunch during the day as your main meal and eat something light in the evening. Food is important to the locals and they relish every last bite. Even sharing a meal we still find ourselves leaving behind food which can almost feel wasteful. When ordering drinks you are also presented with a plate of tapas to share, usually consisting of some tortilla, a cold Spanish omelette, some chorizo con patatas or some fresh crusty bread with olive oil and anchovies or Iberico ham. These come free of charge every time you order a drink and by just paying for drinks you could happily feed yourself for the evening sampling the local delicacies.

With the town being so high up in the mountains we are constantly walking up or downhill, the plus side to this is not only do we get a good workout we also have some fantastic views of the surrounding Sierras. On Friday morning on our walk to the Los Fresnos School, through the backroads of the Mataespesa private housing estate we were greeted with some low hanging cloud at the top of the hill, not something you see every day!

Alpedrete is an extremely accessible town, you can walk anywhere in the town in about thirty minutes and despite the abundance of luxury cars in the area there are always people out walking. There is very little crime in the area and it is perfectly safe to walk around at night time. We can’t wait to explore more of what Alpedrete has to offer and promise to keep you all posted.

National Archaeological Museum

Museo Arqueológico Nacional- click here to visit website

An early example of a student 

The Festival of San Isidro -15th of May

San Isidro

The festivities in honour of San Isidro offer a unique chance to see Madrid at its most typical. They are held in May, and are a time when the chulapos and goyescos (inhabitants of the city dressed in the traditional costume of Madrid) take to the streets to enjoy themselves with music, dancing the typical regional dance known as the chotis and eating typical dishes in honour of the Saint. This is also the occasion of the prestigious San Isidro bullfighting festival.

more info on San Isidro- click here

The Bear and the Strawberry Tree

The bear, the tree
Wendy and Jamie.

What does the national symbol of Madrid, which has a bear, a strawberry tree and seven stars surrounding it means? Somehow the national symbol of Madrid, makes the Capital of Spain feel like a really lovely, friendly, simply a pure and simple city to live in. Yet it has a more profound meaning to it. The stretching bear on its hind legs for fruits on the trees, actually symbolizes the resiliency and strength of the industry of Madrileños.

Originally, Madrid was actually named URSA, which means “bear” in Latin. There were various forests in Madrid where bears populated. In these forests there were trees that gives delicious fruit that looked like strawberries, hence they are called “strawberries trees or strawberries bush” (Madroño in Spanish).

First trip into Madrid

381 bus to Madrid

Travelling from Alpedrete to Madrid. The easiest way is by bus, although the Cercanias is also a simple and viable option. By bus, get the 381 bus to Moncloa interchange

, and from there take the metro to Vodafone Sol, (sponsorship is alive and well) Journey takes about 40 minutes.

Sol

On returning, take the metro back to Moncloa from the city, follow to ISLA 2, where you can catch the 381 back to Alpedrete.

Villalba

Today we took a stroll round the lovely nearby town of Villalba. It is a about 10 minutes on the 681 bus from Alpedrete. It has everything you need, cinema, Mc Donalds, Pizza Hut and a fantastic little shop called Shana which is extremely similar to Berska back home. We are currently sitting in La Tabernita de Mimo enjoying a cold drink while we decide what we would like to eat for dinner.

First Day of School.

Wednesday was an early start.  Colin came down to our apartment for breakfast and we made our way to Montessori School which is literally 3 minutes from the apartment. The Head Master Adrian was there to greet us with Clive, head of the English Department.  Clive showed us where the staff room was where we can grab a cup of tea in-between classes. He brought us into his office and explained that we would be working with three groups, Year 8, Year 9 and Year 10. The ages range from 11-14. Year 8 and 9 are located in the other site at Los Fresnos, it’s a 15 minute walk away. He asked if we would like to sit in on a class with Year 10 as they were doing essay prep with their teacher, Beverly.

 

Beverley welcomed us in to her class. The students were reading out the introductions of their essays. Some essays were inspired by images and photographs. As we listened we were immensely impressed.  Initially we were worried that the language barrier could hinder our project. We can confidently say that it will certainly not be an issue.

 

Once the students left we chatted with Beverly and Clive in their office while sipping on my first cup of tea since Sunday morning. Clive gave our timetables. We will spend the reminder of today an our classes on Thursday sitting in on lessons. On Friday we take the reins.

Our First Day

On Monday we met the Adrian, the Head Teacher of Montessori  school. We had a chat about what we would like to do during our time in the school and Adrian was really enthusiastic about having us here. He explained that the English department were having a meet later that afternoon and he would discuss our intended project. He asked if we would come back Wednesday morning at 9am.