SYA Students Visits Casa de Chase

Many of the SYA students are homesick for American food, speaking English, and a little American companionship. As one of two American faculty families, we were delighted to have a few students come to our place.

Photo: Hannah and Colin tearing it up on Wii Fifa soccer. Hannah won but a rematch is certain

First, we had Parker's advisees over for dinner: Tom, Chelsea, Danielle, Taylor, Charlie, and Riley. When asked what they'd like for dinner, Taylor said that anything was fine as long as it wasn't pork, or fish, both of which are extremely common in Zaragoza. While Spain eats a lot of cerdo (pork or pig), it's not just called 'pork' here. They have names for numerous types of pork and you can eat just about every piece of the pig's body -- serrano (the leg), chorizo (sort of like pepperoni, jamon (ham) and many more. While Americans tend to disassociate themselves from the meat they are eating, Spaniards embrace it. For instance, in the U.S., cow is beef, pig is pork, etc.; we have a category to describe the animal, and we generally don't serve meat or fish in a way that the animal is readily identifiable. However, in Spain, fish is frequently served whole with the head and body in tact. Sometimes, it is a bit of a shocker to have a scaley friend served on a plate with its eyes seemingly peering up at you. In the market, it's not uncommon to have pigs' heads, or full rabbit bodies hanging up in the butcher section for purchase.

We forgot to take pictures of the advisee dinner night but we had a great time with them. All told, they are a fun group of kids. We're lucky that many of them are in our Spanish class so we've had the chance to get to know them in that setting. Many of the SYA students are from the East Coast; New Jersey and New York represent the biggest contingencies. The dinner gave them the opportunity to talk about some of the challenges they are facing and how things are going with their host families.



Photo: Colin, Angelica, Arabelly, and Regina look at pictures from the trip to the Veruela Monastery and Tarazona.


The following week, we hosted a pancake brunch with several students with whom we have a home connection either through St. Paul's or U.S. friends: Angelica, Chanel, Hannah Brewster (niece of Becca and Toby; she is the daughter of Toby's brother, Seth), Regina Saravia (daughter of SPS faculty/family), and Arabelly (one of Parker's advisees who couldn't make it to the advisee dinner). Chi Chi, who's also a SPS student couldn't make it as her host family went to their pueblo for the weekend.




Photo: Hannah and Kelsey


Colin and Kelsey love having the students visit. Many of the students take the time to engage with them. For instance, Hannah worked a puzzle with Kelsey for some time and then played Wii with Colin.







Photo: Chanel on her 3rd or 4th cup of coffee




















Photo: Everyone relaxing in the living room. They felt at home and stayed the afternoon until 5pm.