Photo credits for Mercat pictures: Leah Schnieder and Henry Young
Another sunny day in Barcelona. In class students have been interviewing locals, showing them maps of Spain and asking them to talk about other areas of the country. They have also been working on some advanced readings on Gaudi to prepare them for the sites they will be seeing. The afternoon we visited the Mercat de La Boqueria and students had another opportunity to try new foods and see another corner of Barcelona. In the evening we had the first birthday celebration. More to come! Tomorrow is our last class day of class for the week and then on to our first weekend outings to Girona and Parc Guell.
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YES! Our first proper day. Room checks are done and I can take a few minutes away from this lovely group to inform you, the parents and family.
I'm posting pictures of smiling faces at our evening room check and another of the fresh fruit, yogurt, croissants, avocados, cereal to stock their fridges for breakfast in the morning. This morning we began with a placement test and the teachers were very impressed with the Spanish level of this group across the board. The range of ability starts at good - and then only increases. Classes begin tomorrow. Jet lag was real. We had more than a few students waking up at 3.30am. Some couldn't get back to sleep but I also heard one boy comment "I woke up at 3am, and thought: "awesome, I got five more hours of sleep!" (It's so nice when your body actually listens to you!) So we all needed a proper recovery day. We went to the lovely Born area to have lunch in pre-assigned groups, so people could make new friends and then went to the Barceloneta beach, walked back to the Residencia for showers, some group name games and then out to dinner in the neighborhood in small groups of 5-8 students. They checked in regularly and were all back on time in the evening in time to collect their fresh food and breakfast supplies. As we walked along the tree-lined avenues, we discussed differences from the USA such as how a beautiful centuries old building may hold a government office. It's like Health and Welfare working out of a Cathedral. We talked about how sales tax is high, but it's concealed in the price and not added on. This group wants to learn! I very much look forward to another lovely day tomorrow. Our group are troopers. It's been a very long day of travel for almost all our staff and students. As much as I would like to inspire everyone immediately with a "Look at what we did in Barcelona!" write up, our big activities were taking delayed overnight flights, waiting two hours to clear customs, and getting ourselves settled while coordinating eight different arrival times. Sometimes getting there is simply not half the fun.
However, I'd love to share with you how inspiring this group of young people is to be with. I turned around as we were waiting to board, and they had not only taking the initiative to make a broad circle for playing cards, but there was a littler girl in the circle who felt welcome enough to join in! This group is so welcoming and friendly. When we were walking to our gate they stopped to ask each other's names. That's a big deal for this age. What's an even bigger deal is when everyone is on their phones waiting at the gate, and one girl makes a point to change seats and start talking to a student who had a connecting flight and didn't know anyone. They joke, they have a good sense of humor that even this long and tough day couldn't knock out of us. We're here and we're getting ready to enjoy these weeks to the fullest. |