Colin Christmas Show at Juan De Lanuza

Before the Christmas break, Colin and Kelsey both had holiday performances at their school, Juan de Lanuza. Colin's 6th grade class sang songs and did a hip hop dance to Ayer by Flo Rida. You can see from the pictures how much enjoyment Colin gets from singing. He did a nice job in the dance -- his debut. Unfortunately, the video is too large to upload to the blog but we'd be happy to provide a personal viewing if you're interested (I've also posted it to my Facebook page).

Photo: Pre-show. Colin with buddies Cesar and Antonio (Gus Hirschfeld look alike)












Photo: Both 6th grader classes at the performance (Colin is in the top row, right hand side)


Photos: Colin and Antonio singing

















Photo: Hip hop dance

Haircuts

Last Friday, 3 SYA students, Dixie, Taylor, and Martin came over for a hair cutting session. Dixie cuts hair regularly and has been doing trims for many of the SYA students. We recruited her to give Kelsey and snip and primp. In return, Celia made chocolate chip cookies and served Diet Coke which is expensive in Spain, and a treat for the students. It was a good deal for everyone!

Photos: Dixie cutting Kelsey and Taylor's hair. Martin in the background. Notice that we even supplied a trash magazine. They don't have People here but we managed to drum up Hello! and in English to boot. Did you know that Prince William is getting married on Parker's birthday, April 29, 2011??

Day Trip to the Pyrenees

Recently, when we rented a car over the weekend, we took advantage of having wheels and headed to the Pyrenees for the day to check out a few of the local ski towns such as Panticosa and Formigal. Panticosa is small and family friendly, sort of like Pat's Peak in Henniker, New Hampshire. Formigal is much bigger and looks like Squaw Valley in Tahoe.

Photo: The beautiful Pyrenees


While it's been pretty mild in Zaragoza in terms of weather, the Pyrenees were snow covered and chilly even though they are less than 2 hours outside of Zaragoza. Formigal is right on the Spain-France border. We drove across to France and had planned to find a place for dinner but the falling snow got the best of us, and we turned around before our little Volkswagon Golf slipped off the curvy roads.

Photo: Formigal ski lodge in background. We scoped out the ski places so we have a good lay of they land when we ski in a few weeks.





















Photo: Parker was thrilled when we spotted numerous mountain goats. They are hearty creatures living in the snow and cold.











Photo: End of the day -- grabbing tapas in a local cafe in Jaca

Salamanca

Photo: View of Salamanca

On the Monday of the puente long weekend, we took a train to the beautiful city of Salamanca which is west of Madrid and not far from Portugal. An architect's dream, Salamanca is filled with sandstone buildings so ornate and grand that we had to crane our necks to view them.

While Salamanca is generally known to be colder than other Spanish regions, we got lucky and left the rain in Madrid and entered a crisp but sunny city.

Photo: Looking up at side of one of the University buildings, and craning the camera to get the whole view


Salamanca is probably best known for having the oldest university in Spain, and one of the oldest in Europe. The Spanish spoken in this area is supposed the purest in the country and the origin of Castilian.




Photo: View of University at night














Photos: Salamanca is a quaint town with narrow, winding streets






































Photos: We found a few of the culinary delights including the random 'make your own sushi' which include mayonaise and cheese!

































The enormous facade of the University is dominated by the Catholic Monarchs in the center and all kinds of floral designs around them. Yet, the big attraction is spotting the frog. The story goes that if you can find the frog without any help you'll enjoy good luck and will marry within a year...let's hope that doesn't apply to Colin and Kelsey.

Photo: We found the frog!












Photo: Inside the University. Alvaro, one of the SYA teachers received his PhD here and his name is engraved on the walls


Besides the sites, we made good headway on our Christmas shopping, and came back to Zaragoza with overflowing luggage and toting a few extra bags.

Fútbol and Baloncesto

Colin has been enjoying playing 5-5 outdoor soccer on Saturday mornings with the JDL 5-6th grade team; most of the games take place at schools around Zaragoza, some of which are quite a distance which can be challenging for us without a car. We've taken taxis and buses, and accepted gracious offers for rides from several other families. The spirit of the games is fairly relaxed, and everyone gets at least some playing time. JDL is doing well with ~6-4 record so far.

Photos: A couple of Colin's recent games



Like most Spanish schools, JDL has a long break in the middle of the day, approximately from 1-3pm, and during that time, the students take part in activities of their choice. As part of their chosen school activities, the fútbol team practices during the school day unlike the U.S.








Photo: Kelsey hanging out with Victor (classmate and brother of Colin's friend, Caser) and Lucia. At least it's warmer than the hockey rinks in New Hampshire although still not Kelsey's favorite way to pass her time. Kelsey gets her turn this weekend with gym and dance recitals.















Photos: The Spanish version of Dunkin' Donuts or Starbucks. The guy pouring coffee brings it to every game along with the little extra Bailey's type liquor (it's acceptable to drink in the morning in Spain; in fact, beer at 10 am is common)
















He is also playing basketball during the week but he has only been able to play in one game so far as the games have generally conflicted with soccer. In his first and only game so far, he scored 6 points which is a good start!

Madrid

During the 'El Puente' (bridge) 5 day, long weekend, we traveled to Madrid and Salamanca. One of the biggest holiday weekends in Spain, the puente combines the recognition of Spain's Constitution Day (established after the fall of Franco in the 1970s) on December 6 with a religious holiday, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8.

Photos: On the streets in the Sol district in Madrid. A beautiful area decorated with lights but SO incredibly crowded.



Luckily, we traveled via train as the air traffic controllers decided to strike and shut down air travel for about 48 hours until the Spanish military threatened to intervene. We hadn't taken an extended trip is several weeks and it felt good to explore outside of Zaragoza again.


Photo: Christmas tree of lights in Puerta de Sol.



Photos: Museo of Jamón (Ham Museum) but it's actually a restaurant. The number of people inside was indicative of the packed scene in Madrid. It reminded me of what I would anticipate Times Square looks like on New Year's Eve.





Photos: More Museo de Jamón. Omnipresent in Spain, the ham or Cerrano (pig leg) hanging from the ceiling is a common site in Spain.




We arrived in Madrid on Saturday evening and took a train into the historic district of Sol and Plaza Mayor. Decorated with festive lights for the holidays, the city was swarmed with more people than a packed rock concert. We made our way around the Plaza, shopping and enjoying the holiday spirit before we became overwhelmed by the masses.

Colin and Kelsey were thrilled when they saw that we had a TGIF restaurant right next to our Holiday Inn hotel. Generally, Parker and I have encouraged eating Spanish foods but Zaragoza has only one "sort-of" American style restaurant and nothing like a TGIF so this was a rare treat. The Starbucks was also an unusual indulgence since we don't have anything like that in Zaragoza either.

On Sunday, we trotted out in the rain for the famous Prado museum. To buy tickets, Parker waited in line for almost 2 hours while Colin, Kelsey and Celia grabbed lunch. What a trooper! An amazing museum that offers more than you can cover in a single visit, the Prado has key works – mostly paintings-- from Velasquez, Rubens, El Greco, Ribera, and Titian. After spending the bulk of the day there, we went to the upscale and lively Salamanca district which reminded us of San Francisco. Full of shopping and lights, Salamanca was much more approachable than the crowds we encountered in Sol, and after a good walk, we found a wonderful place to have dinner. Many restaurants don't open for dinner in Spain until 9pm or 8:30pm (at the earliest) which presents a challenge when trying to get the kids to bed before midnight!

Thanksgiving

Photo: The Chase family upon arrival at the restaurant


All of SYA celebrated Thanksgiving dinner at El Centro de la Historia de Zaragoza, a restaurant in downtown Zaragoza that's attached to the History of Zaragoza museum. Between the students, faculty, families, visiting families, and alumni, we had a grand total of almost 100 people at the dinner. Everyone wore their best duds and looked spruced up for the occasion. And, strangely enough, the dinner kicked off with the American National anthem. We were later told that that was the first time the students had sung the National Anthem at the SYA Spain Thanksgiving dinner.

Photo: The Thanskgiving scene






Unlike the U.S., the festivities started at 8:30 pm and ended around 11:00. Yet, we did have turkey (not a food generally found in Spain), stuffing, sweet potatoes, and green beans.

Photo: Kelsey and Chi Chi Davis having their usual good time together








Photo: Colin with 'his babes,' Hannah Brewster and Taylor Spratt, one of Parker's advisees





Each of the U.S. Families (Chases, Wolf-Kings, Griffin Morse – the director--, Pauline – the college adviser-- and her family) made 5 pies ranging from apple to pecan to berry. Finding the pie tins and ingredients to make them was an interesting feat since pies aren't a typical Spanish food but in the end, they were all pretty tasty and no one left hungry!

Photo: Guapos! Phonetics and AP Spanish teacher, Angeles and her husband










Photo: Ana, SYA administrative assistant, Alvaro, SYA Faculty, and Danielle Conway, one of Parker's advisees



All told, it was a very fun night for all!

Teaching English and Irish Friends

Photo: Gemma and Colin


Our Irish friends, Gemma and Hannah, her daughter, along with Fran came over for tapas and drinks recently. Fran and her husband, Peter own an Irish pub in Zaragoza called, Bull McCabe's. Parker and Ellen discovered Bull's back in September, and at that time it was a rare treat to hear other people speaking English. The small and relatively tight-knit English speaking community in Zaragoza, largely made up of Brits and Irish, often frequent Bull's. While Zaragoza is some 700K people, it often feels like a small town in that you run into the same people repeatedly...kind of like Concord, New Hampshire!

Photo: Hannah, Gemma and Colin in our living room



When Parker and Ellen first met Gemma, they discovered that she co-owned a local English language school called Number 16. Gemma explained that they were in need of native English teachers and that they would welcome both Kevin King (Ellen's husband), and Celia to teach part time. Zaragoza, and perhaps Spain in general is starving to learn English. With the economic crisis, and English being the standard language of the European Union and global businesses, Spain is lagging in its English education; many Spaniards are eager to learn it.

Photo: Fran with her doggie

Kevin and Celia both did a one week training at the end of September and have been teaching 5-15 hours per week ever since (Kevin is also a seasoned and published ESL teacher so this is right up his alley). Speak Your Mind, the teaching method at #16 is focused on speaking and while the students do have books, they are primarily taught by learning a new word or words and then answering questions which requires them to immediately put their language to use. It's almost the opposite of the Rosetta Stone method that Parker and Celia have been using for Spanish, which relies on visual prompts to teach language.

In addition to some adult level classes, Celia has had a regular Tuesday-Thursday evening class for 10 and 11 year olds. The kids alternate between being adorable and monstrous. Teaching English has been an interesting change of pace from high-tech marketing, and a great way to get out and meet locals.

All the teachers at #16 are British, Scottish, Irish, Australian, or American; they are an impressive and fun group. One guy is a West Point grad, Navy pilot on a military exchange for 3 years in Spain. He flies fighter jets during the day and teaches English some nights "for fun" because he had "too much time on his hands" !!!
About a month ago, after some hullabaloo, Gemma left #16, and now, she's actively working to set up a new school with Fran, and another friend, Nines.

Photo: Parker requesting kisses



Due to the turmoil and the required night work at #16, Celia switched schools in the first week of December and has started prepping students for the Trinity exam at the Sagrado Corazon school (like I said, there's no dearth of Spaniards wanting to learn English!). Gemma and I are sharing the student workload and 12 classes. The completely oral Trinity exam level tests students on their English ability and is used for both children and adults.

Favorite Spanish Words

Every language has choice words that sum up a feeling, action, or multiple words in a succinct package. On the whole, it takes more words in Spanish to express the same meaning in English but a few of our favorites capture more meaning than a single word generally expresses...and sometimes it's hard to translate the meaning into English.

Photo: !Ya! Enough doggie kisses already



'Ya' – already, immediately, that's it, enough, done. It's amazing that one little two letter word can say so much. You've finished you're cereal in the morning...”mama, ya.”








'Vamos' – let's go, let's get a move on. When we're trying to get out the door in the morning or go somewhere, one of us is likely to say, 'vamos,' which can be translated as 'move your bootie or we'll be late.'


Colin is quickly becoming the family aficionado of all things Spanish; he has had a few situations where he completely understands what's going on in Spanish but can't translate the exact nuisance into English. It's not uncommon now for us to ask Colin what someone was saying in Spanish or how do you say....in Spanish.


Photo: “Colin, !Venga! Venga!”

'Venga' (pronounced Benga) – come on, go, hurry up, Go! (in a sports game). When walking around town or watching a futbol (soccer) game, you're more likely to hear this word than any other. During Colin's games, instead of parents cheering, “come on, let's go,” you'd hear, “Venga! Venga! Venga!”

'Claro' – that's true, clearly, clear, of course, duh. I love this word. You'll hear Spaniards talking so rapidly that you can barely decipher the individual words and then out pops the more slowly enunciated, “Claro!” (pronounced claaa-ro, with a slight roll of the r that almost makes it sound like an English 'd'), which slows down the rhythm, and provides a pause in the otherwise amazingly fast speech.

'Mira' – look or look here. Usually stated when you're trying to call attention to something quickly. ¡Mira, mira! Or, if someone is trying to explain something to you, she/he could start the sentence with 'mira, to get to the bank, go straight and then take your first right.”

Photo: ¡Mira! Chi Chi and Kelsey are sharing a silly moment



'Verdad' (pronounced Ber-dad) – that's correct, that's true, really. Often stated to agree with another person. 'The Red Sox are the best baseball team.' And the response may be, 'Verdad.'


'Vale' (Bal-ey) – Ok, got it?, um (filler word). Expressed with an upward inflection sounding like 'bal-eh.' When we first arrived in Zaragoza, this word stuck out more than any other. Everyone uses it, with frequency. We thought, 'what is this 'vale'?' I didn't remember it from Spanish 1 in 7th grade. It's often used at the end of a sentence, such as “I'll meet you at the train station at 6pm, vale?” Or, it's used to check in that the other person understood you. 'The history of Zaragoza is very rich as it's rooted in Moors, Jews and Christians, vale?' However, if someone asks you, ¿cómo estás? (how are you?), you can't answer with 'vale.' You would need to say bien or muy bien.

'No pasa nada' – no big deal, nothing happened, it's all good. If you said, “I'm sorry I was late for coffee yesterday,” the person may reply, 'no pasa nada.'