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.