scenes from Spain

I chaperoned the Spanish Club trip to Seville and Granada with a colleague (she was the Spanish Club adviser at the high school). When she asked, I thought "That sounds like fun!" but it came at such a bad time - which I didn't even consider originally. It was the last full week of school and we were so busy trying to get report cards finished and stuff cleaned up. However, I did have a great trip - even with the 18 8th graders! We had to phone a few parents the second night (all parents of boys) and then things improved immensely!






Some of the funny comments/incidents -

Day 1: Bonnie asked if any of the kids wanted to put valuables in her room safe with the passports. One boy brought in his Rolex (yes, it was real) and another brought in a belt. Bonnie - "Really, you want to put a belt in the safe?" Boy - "Do you know how much this belt cost?" I shudder to think!

Near the fountain (in photo) as we were crossing the street to catch a bus - one boy squirts water onto belt boy (who dresses very nice and is carrying a very expensive leather messenger bag). Belt boy drops expensive bag in the street and chases after water boy. Man walks by and picks up bag and begins to walk away. Little old lady stops man, takes bag away, chews out the man and returns bag to boy. He is confused and Bonnie elbows him and says "Muchas Gracias." Later, boy admitted he thought the old lady took his bag (and then returned it?). Clueless - we teased him the rest of the trip!



Dinner - we ate a great dinner of different tapas dishes. All the kids ate at tables on the sidewalk. Afterwards, they all jumped up and asked to go to a tourist shop. 10 minutes later, Rolex boy comes back and is distraught - someone stole his Ray Ban sunglasses!! Stole? Yes, I left them on the table when I went to the shop! You left them unattended at an empty table out by the street for 10 minutes? Yes - but someone took them! Sweetie, it is more like you gave them away.

Day 2: Friend of Rolex boy says he doesn't like Spain as much as Germany (most of the kids were German) because Spain is full of robbers. Really? Yes, someone took my friend's sunglasses yesterday - that would never happen in Germany. Someone stole my wallet in Germany. But, I bet it wasn't a German!

Street vendors were selling sunglasses - Rolex boy's friend bought a fake pair of Ray Bans for his sister (and 3 other pair for himself). Hey, you girls should buy some of these - you can hardly tell they are fake. Girl - Why should I buy fake Ray Bans when I have real ones, I don't support sweat shops! Huh???

Same girl - The bulls are treated so badly in Spain. Well, what about the animals raised for food in America and Germany - they are treated pretty badly too. That's different! (OK)

Day 3: Traveling to Granada on a bus we stopped at a little store/restaurant and bought some great olive oil. Several boys bought flats (yes flats) of cherries for 4 Euros each. They were so excited (they did look yummy) that they started to eat them immediately. I asked if they were going to wash them first. Huh, why? Now, these boys wouldn't eat any salad in Seville at all because of the ecoli scare (originally it was thought that the culprit was Spanish cucumbers and tomatoes but that was proven incorrect - which I reminded them). But, you are going to eat unwashed fruit from a roadside stand? They did reconsider and asked the store owner to wash them - which he happily did (all 5 or 6 flats).

All in all it was a good trip. I absolutely loved Spain - the people, the language, the weather, the food! The kids were fine - the worst stuff was just silly 8th grade boy stuff. Two boys were very annoying but one of them thanked us at the Frankfurt airport (before leaving with his driver) and apologized for being annoying at the beginning of the trip. So, that was a good end!!

The most magical moment - after the flamenco show we walked around the old city of Granada and up a hill. At the top, we have a stunning view of Alhambra with the lunar eclipse overhead. It was amazing!! My attempts at photographing were lame so I linked to one I found on Flicker.