Life in the Old World

Monday, July 1, 2013

EXTRA! EXTRA! Read all about it!

Well, as the school year here has ended, we have been getting quite a few questions about what we will be doing now. Up until a week ago we still weren't quite sure. I am happy to tell you now though that we will be returning to Madrid for another year.

We had prayed about it a lot and decided that we are really enjoying our time here. We have made some great friends and are loving the experience of living in Europe. In February, Ben applied to renew as an auxiliar. At the beginning of June we FINALLY got confirmation that he had been given a position but that they still didn't know what school he would be at. Last week we got a letter with his official placement.

Instead of being in a primary school, Ben will be in a secondary school this coming year. The school is just south of the center of Madrid. We went and visited the neighborhood the other day and it seems like a nice place.

We are pretty excited to come back for a second year and are so thankful for supportive family and friends as we continue our experience here in Madrid.

Instituto Juan de la Cierva: Ben's new school

Ben's celebratory treats that he picked out at the grocery store.

End of Year Festivities

This year is wrapping up unbelievably fast. Since Paris, time has flown by. We are trying to make the most of it! I have been going to yoga classes in the park with a friend, Kelsey. She found these pictures on the instructor's facebook and was kind enough to share them. As you can see, I am still quite new to yoga.

Here are some of Ben's classes that he worked with.

On his last day at Vicente Aleixandre sporting his new school shirt.

The last week of school we had "color week". Each day was a different color. Thanks to my wonderful friend Katie Olson, who loaned me her Spanish jersey before I left, I had a great shirt to wear for Red Day. All my students kept saying "Teacher! Teacher! You are wearing a Spanish shirt!"

Here I am with a group of my first year students on White Day.

And here with some of the staff.

As I was hanging out with a friend, we noticed something was going on outside the Gran Via movie theater. We realized it was the premiere for Superman and waited around to see if we could see any actors. I even texted Ben and told him to meet us there after his private classes. After waiting around for 2 hours and seeing only minor actors we decided to call it a night.

Since it was Ben wasn't going to be returning to his school he wanted to make something "American" for his teachers so we made bagels.

We are finishing up packing and cleaning and getting everything squared away here before leaving for the summer. Our to-do list is getting smaller and smaller which makes me happy. We can't believe we've been here for 10 months already. It has been such an amazing experience and we are so glad that we have had the to chance to live here. In a couple of days we fly off to Rome where we will meet our friend Andrew and work our way up through Italy and the south of France before flying back to the States.

Friday, June 21, 2013

Paris Day 3

Our goal was to wake up early, which we did, and head back to the Eiffel tower to climb up it. However, when we got there the line was a bit long and since we didn’t know if the transportation strike would still be going and we didn’t want to feel rushed getting back and checking out we decided instead to get some breakfast and eat it on the lawn by the Eiffel tower.

Eventually we headed back, checked out, bought some lunch and then headed to Gare du Nord to catch the train, which fortunately was running. We ended up getting to the airport super early! But I suppose it is better to have a three hour wait then miss the plane!

We had a great time in Paris. We definitely wouldn’t mind going back some day.

Paris Day 2

We slept in a bit today and then headed off to the Arc de Triomphe. There are 12 streets that go into the roundabout around the Arc. It is amazing! Next we headed down Champs Elysées, one of the main streets in Paris for good shopping. Once we got to the end of the street, we headed to the Orsay Museum where we saw Monet, Van Gough, Manet, Dégas, Renoir, Gaugin and Cézanne. There were some beautiful paintings in here.

Then we headed to the Musée de l’Orangerie where we saw more Monet, Renoir, Cézanne and some Picasso. The most impressive piece was Monet’s Water Lilies. It took up two entire rooms. The canvases went along the walls and you could sit on a circular bench in the middle of the room to look at it. The only thing that would’ve improved the experience was if the bench in the middle of the room rotated around the room so you could see all of it without having to get up and go sit on the other side. Absolutely beautiful!

After the museums we went to a street market for lunch and some ice cream. By this point we were exhausted so we headed back to the hotel for a siesta.

After some downtime we headed to Sacre Coeur, a chapel on the top of a hill with a great view of the city. For dinner, we tried kir, an aperitif that is common in France. It was yummy! Ben tried foie gras which was actually pretty good. It had the consistency of butter so he said it was like eating meat flavored butter.

I almost forgot, we got into everything for free! Since Ben has a student visa and I am under 25 with a Spanish residency card, everything was free for us. It was awesome!

Arc de Triomphe

The eternal flame.

Champs Elysées

You can drive it for 89 euros for 20 minutes.

At the Orsay Museum

One of the stops from the first metro line in Paris.

Chocolate model of Notre Dame

Sacre Couer

Paris Day 1

We took the metro into Paris to the Hotel de Ville and walked across a foot bridge to the Isle St. Louis where we stopped at a pastry shop for breakfast. Our plan for the day was to do a walking tour from Rick Steve’s France book. It started at Notre Dame. The cathedral was beautiful! Also, while we were there, there was an all-boys choir performance; Les Petits Chanteurs de Bratíslava. They were really good. We also found out that this year is the 850^th anniversary of the Notre Dame Cathedral. Across from the street we saw the Memorial de la Déportation for the 200,000 French victims of Nazi camps.

After that we walked around in the Latin Quarter, which is where medieval Paris was and it also has the narrowest house in all of Paris! Then we went to the St. Severine chapel. It wasn’t very big and it was really old! We walked over the Pont de Sully where lovers write their initials on a padlock and lock it to the bridge as a symbol of their eternal love for each other. The bridge was FULL of locks!

We then moved onto to Sainte Chapelle, which was built to house the crown of thorns that Jesus wore. The chapel was built by King Louis IX and it only took 6 years to build which was unheard of for a Gothic cathedral during that time period. The bottom floor, for the commoners, was covered in fleurs-de-lis, the symbol of the king. In the upper room, reserved for royalty and where the crown of thorns used to be has 15 separate panels of stain glass, 6,500 square feet in total and has 1,100 scenes from the Bible. It was breath taking!

The Conciergerie’s prison, where they took people who were sentenced to the guillotine was right next door so we went to check that out too. Here we got to see Maire Antoinette’s prison cell. The Palais Justice, next door had the phrase: Liberté Egalité Fraternité written across the entrance as a reminder of the French Revolution.

We started to head back to the metro to go home and rest for a bit. As we were walking across one of the bridges we ran into two girls from my program! It is funny how no matter where we go, we seem to usually run into someone we know. After chatting with them for a bit we walked around in a flower market, grabbed some lunch and then went back to the hotel.

After a couple of hours of rest we went to the Louvre where we saw the Mona Lisa, Venus Milo, famous because it is one of the few remaining authentic Greek statues and we also saw Michelangelo’s Slaves statues as well as many other pieces by Batachelli, Rafeal and, art from the French and Italian Rennassiance.

After the Louvre, we headed towards the Eiffel Tower. It was pretty neat to see such an iconic figure in person. We had dinner at a little restaurant nearby, Le Royal, where Ben and I tried pate. After dinner we went back to the Eiffel Tower for the light show. It was a good ending to our first full day in Paris.

We are here!