A few more photos!

Hello Rassias-Segovia goers!
I just stumbled across these last few photos from the summer in my email inbox and was excited to be able to share them with you all still. I hope that everyone is having a great fall and is planning to travel again in the hear future :)

Saludos,
Courtney

Home tomorrow!

Hi all,
We have been so busy and as you know, we leave Spain tomorrow am. Here are a few pics of the last days. I'll narrate them ASAP.

See you soon at JFK!

Madrid Part II

Yesterday, Saturday, we went back to Madrid for round 2. First, we took the kids to the famous San Ginés Chocolatería for churros and porras:

Then after some free time in Puerta del Sol, it was off to the Reina Sofía museum displaying Picasso, Dalí, and Miró´s work, amongst others of course.

The students "siesta"-ed in Starbucks after the museum.

Then, we went back for a second visit to the students´ favorite spot... Madrid´s Mercado de San Miguel where they got fresh tapas, and a variety of other yummy snacks:

Fiesta with the Host Families

Last night we hosted our first big reception/thank you party for the host families. José Miguel and his friend sang and played music, the host families brought food, and the students even sang a couple of songs with Ben on lead vocals- thanks Ben!!!- and Nick on guitar. I believe that there is YouTube footage floating around somewhere. I'll locate it and have it up tomorrow!

We're famous!

It turns out that our visit to the town hall was a hit! We even made the local paper, "El Adelantado". I couldn't find the photo on the website, but here's a shot from yesterday's newspaper. As you can see, the students dressed up for the visit.

Visit to the town hall and girls' lunch

Today, the students put on their finest clothes and we visited Segovia's Town Hall. We got a tour of the rooms and then Claudia, the mayor's spokeswoman answered the student's questions about the city.

Then, Anna and I took the ladies out for lunch at the town's only vegetarian restaurant. Boys' moms, don't worry!  We're taking the gentlemen out to lunch on Sunday for hamburgers :)

Shadow Theater and the Royal Glass Museum

Today, we had an exciting class in which the students participated in a Rassias activity called "Shadow theater" in which two students provide the inner monologues of the other two students dialogue. The theme was hilarious- Segovia Host Mom vs. Rassias Student at the dinner table.  We got a kick out of it.  Then, we hopped our Segobús and went to the pueblo of San Ildefonso de la Granja to visit the Glass museum/workshop and the Royal Palace.  You can read more about the Palace here.

In the Museo de Vidrio (Glass musuem)

Sorry Chris! It's on the blog!

Juegos de John Rassias

The students have done an amazing job of keeping us laughing with John Rassias' language games. Here they are playing the "Pyramid game", which is similar to the board game "Taboo". It was a nice way to wrap up yesterday's class!  

Theme: The Paintings and Painters of the Prado (that's Jake hiding)

Theme: Restaurants of Segovia

Madrid: Part 1

Sunday, we took our first trip to Madrid with the students. We started out at the Rastro market. Then it was off to the Museo del Prado, where the students saw ¨Las Meninas¨ by Diego Velázquez, and ¨El dos de mayo de 1808¨and ¨El 3 tres de mayo 1808¨ by Francisco de Goya amongst countless other famous works of art. After the Prado, we took a leisurely stroll through the ¨Parque del Buen Retiro¨and the Palacio de Cristal.

Then we stopped by the Plaza Mayor and the Plaza de España and ended up at the Mercado de San Miguel for gourmet tapas before heading back to Segovia.

PS: Anna's birthday was yesterday... So wish her a belated ¡Feliz cumpleaños!

En el Metro de Madrid:

Yummy! Tapas con Anna y Courtney en el Mercado de San Miguel.

Mini-plays: ¡luces, camara, acción!

Today, the students performed their original plays in front of the class. The theme was based around our vocabulary unit from yesterday, transportation, and the grammar that we are currently covering- commands and the subjunctive.

The skits were hilarious (see photos), and afterwards, we interviewed the actors. Jake let us all know about his natural acting skills in "La tragedia de las perdidas", Sara played a princess and Abdul a warring prince in "Un principe, una princesa y el castillo", Zach was the good policía for his group's play "La ley y el orden" while Ben was a corrupt policía who stole Mackenzie's bracelet in "La joya perdida". All in all, a hilarious morning.

Then this afternoon we took a stroll/hike around the outskirts of the town center, saw an old Jewish cemetery and finished up with a beautiful view of the Alcázar.

The students are getting excited for our Madrid trip on Sunday, but more about that later!

A lively class and then a visit to the Alcazar

Hi all,
Today, Anna and I decided that we would take advantage of an event occurring right now in Spain and incorporate some grammar and cultural background to make for a lively class debate. The theme: the running of the bulls and the pros and cons of the tradition of bull fighting here in Spain. The students really got into it as you can see from the photos below. Then, for the afternoon, we visited Segovia's Alcázar. Here´s a link about the castle if you want to read more.

Festival de la luna llena

Last night the students had the opportunity to cruise around in downtown Segovia and partake in the festivities celebrating the full moon. The celebration began in front of the aqueduct where a huge tapestry was placed on the ground for participants to lounge on while listening to local musicians covering the Beatles. We got a kick out of their rendition of "Yellow Submarine". Then, the students explored the other events which included interactive light displays, planetary talks, art exhibits, djs and more.
Today, we are having an optional movie night in Nueva Segovia. The scavenger hunt winners yesterday chose to see Spiderman in 3D. I'm not sure how many of the students are expecting this, but the American films shown in Segovia are always dubbed into Spanish. It's probably best that they chose an adventure film for our first theater visit.

Tomorrow, we'll begin class at the Colegio Claret. We hope that all is well in the states!