Toledo

At the beginning of March, during the Carnaval long weekend, we visited Toledo which is about 30 minutes by fast train south of Madrid. Toledo's historic city center is almost an island since it's almost completely encircled by the Tagus river.

Photo: Chases with Don Quixote statue




Photos: Views of Toledo including the Alcazar

Toledo has a unique history since the city has been the host to Christian, Islamic and Hebrew cultures and the architecture of the city reflects its rich history - it's almost impossible to walk the streets without coming across an ancient mosque, a Gothic or Mudejar church, a Romanesque or Visigothic structure, a synagogue, or a Renaissance palace.



Fascinated by the history but more interested in the shopping, we spent the bulk of our time in shops looking at the Damascene jewelry, knives, and swords which are signatures items of the area.





























Photo: With Joel, our friendly French waiter on an extravagant night out. It turned out that we were the only people in the restaurant and we had the full attention of the staff of 10. The following day, Joel offered to take us to the roof top for one of the better views of the city surroundings.










Photo: Craftsman making Damascene jewelry which is indicative of Spain. Damascene jewelry is made by embedding gold wire or metal shapes into blackened iron or steel. 'damascene' is a metal working process which involves decorating base metals with 22 - 24k gold plated patterns. Silver is sometimes used too, though only to highlight little areas of the gold. The item is finished with an oxidising technique which blackens part of the metal and creates the overall gold and black finish to the item. We managed to stock up on several pieces of Damascene for Celia, Kelsey, and gifts for family and friends.









Photos: Inside one of the historic synagogue. Isabel and Ferdinand ousted the Jews during the Spanish Inquisition starting in 1478

















Interestingly, even though Jews have not been a significant part of the population in Spain for about 500 years, the Spaniards still call former Jewish districts, Judías (Jewish area)

















Photos: Tagus River and the Vasco da Gama Bridge. The area reminded us of northern California with rolling hills and dry brush

The Fur

From what we've been told, our apartment was previously occupied by a older, single woman who had an unique collection of artifacts. She passed away 4 or 5 years ago and SYA has been renting it from this woman's family ever since then. Many of her personal items have remained in tact including this sweet piel or fox fur coat which can make even the slightest of frames look ready to play American football. The wide shoulders are straight out of an 80s wardrobe. Spaniards have never heard of PETA as far as we can tell as fur coats are as common as down ones in New England.

Photo: Kelsey and Angelica (SYA and SPS student) modeling the fur coat

Nines' Birthday

We celebrated Nines' birthday at Monumental with her family and friends.



Photo: Nines birthday: Nines with her brother, and friend, Barbara in foreground












Photo: Nines and Gemma













Photo: Nines making her wish

SYA Skip Trip to Cerler

Around the third week of February, the SYA crew went on an optional weekend ski trip to Cerler in the Pyrenees. About 20 SYA students joined along with SYA Faculty member and organizers, Marta and Oriol, and the Chase family.

Photos: Kelsey and Chionere Davis (also a SPS student) and good buddy of our family














Photo: Parker and Kelsey on the slopes


After Semana Blanca, both Colin and Kelsey's skiing improved substantially and Colin is now better and faster than both Parker and Celia. On the second day, he skied with a few of the SYA boys so they could find as many jumps as possible and speed down the mountains.










Photo: Marta and Oriol on the lift. Marta was one of the most graceful skiers we've ever seen. She's one of those people who "floats" down and makes it all look so easy.


While Saturday, our first day, was cloudy and even snowy with tough visibility, Sunday was fantastic and sunny. It's amazing what a difference a clear, sunny day can make.

Photo: Colin with Jacob (left) and Holden


Some of the SYA students had never skied before and only one wound up taking a lesson. The novice's willingness to jump into skiing impressed us and for the most part, they all survived. Only one boy, Mark mildly injured his knee, and we heard that was probably due to being a little overly bold on the slopes.





Photo: Kelsey with Tom and Hannah Brewster











Photo: Helen, Celia, Tuere, (on left side); Maria (back right), Kelsey, and Ariel













Photo: Ariel, Helen and Maria











Photo: The Student crew













Photo: Jacob, Holden, and Sofie "band"













Photo: Colin and Holden cheesing it up

Paris

Photo: Dinner with Heather and her boyfriend, Phillipe at a fantastic foie gras restaurant




It seems that every month, the Spanish find a reason to have a holiday or long weekend. True to form, we had a long weekend in February and traveled to Paris to visit Parker's older sister, Heather. Heather has worked and lived there for about 5 years.

Photo: In front of the Notre Dame with Heather



Our first day was full of glorious sunshine and we made the most of it by walking the city to see some of famous sites including the Notre Dame, Tuileries neighborhood, the area surrounding the Louvre, Tuileries Gardens, La Grande Roue (the giant ferris wheel) and more. It would cliche to say that Paris is beautiful but Paris is beautiful especially on a sunny day.







Photos: Inside and outside Notre Dame



































Photos: Sites around Paris. Colin in front of La Grande Roue; Eiffel Tower at sunset and dusk; In front of the Louvre.







We found food to be more accessible than in Spain and the meal schedule, while somewhat later, more aligned with an American regime (rather than the 9 or 10 pm start for Spanish dinners).



At night, the Eiffel Tower is lit up and is breathtaking, and at midnight, the lights flicker on and off for 5 minutes like a New Year Eve's celebration.



While by no means would we declare ourselves fluent or even highly proficient in Spanish, we found it difficult to try to speak French. Parker studied French for many years and had reasonably comfort with the language in the past but it's amazing how when you're submerged in another culture, your brain has difficulty accessing that previous knowledge. Whenever Celia opened her mouth to 'merci', only gracias would come out. It was hopeless but alas, short lived since we returned to Zaragoza a few days later.










We didn't think we had enough time to enjoy the city and take a day to plunge into the Louvre so at the recommendation of Griffin Morse, the SYA Spain director, we toured Musée de l'Orangerie which contains the most well-known Impressionists Monet, Renoir, Cezanne, Rouseau and others in a size that we thought would be more digestible for the kids (2 hours rather 5+ hours). Musée de l'Orangerie also contains a whole floor for with Renoir's expansive Waterlillies that cover entire walls in each room.

Photos: Inside the Musée de l'Orangerie

Spanish Lunch at Mari Mar's

Mari Mar works as the financial coordinator in the SYA Spain office. She is a lawyer by trade but changed her career when she started her position at SYA to have a more preferable work-life balance.

Celia and Mari Mar have been having 'intercambios' since the beginning of the school year where we meet for lunch and a language exchange. Mari Mar speaks English and Celia speaks Spanish. Or, shall we say, that we each try to speak each other's language with varying success.



In early February, Mari Mar generously invited Ellen and Celia to her home to share some traditional Spanish recipes including langostinos (shrimp), mussels, and Spanish omelet with eggs and potatoes. Everything was absolutely delicious!

Spanish style meals are eaten in courses and a typical Spanish lunch will have 2 courses. El primero is usually something like a salad or soup or another small appetizer, and el segundo is a generally meat, fish or poultry. Unlike in the U.S., Spaniards don't mix their vegetables or other side dish with their entree so when you have your fish, for instance, that's all that will on your plate -- no parsley, or potatoes, or green beans. Solo pescado.