spanish@owen's

Last day of exchange, students comment on the last couple of days

Illya (brackets by Charlotte)

Monday: Firstly, I woke up fairly early to a hectic household because Daniel, my partner, had not packed his bag (REBEL!). I live fairly close to the school, so after I had had a shower we met up with Laura    (♥ her) and her partner, and walked to school. Unlike most people, I have made many friends (or so he thinks!) ha ha!! After trying to understand most of my Spanish friends, we went inside to watch a video on Navarra (a pretty village in Spain). After the video we went on the computers for an hour until we were called to go to class! Charlotte and I were paired up together by Mr Melling (we ♥ him!). We went into a science classroom, only to find out it was my partner's sister's class. After 1 hour of copying out ALL the bold words in a Spanish textbook, I was told to translate some of the words on the board, whilst Charlotte sat at the back laughing at me! Then, we had another tour around Pamplona. We decided to leave early to play on the climbing frame for 20 minutes then we met our partners back at school. I went home and got changed, then took the bus with Wil, Keturah, Ellie and their partners. We managed to get the wrong bus twice! (Good one!) Eventually, when we got there, we were half an hour late and only had 20 minutes shopping. I still managed to buy 2 t-shirts (I bought a jumper :)!). Once we had finished shopping, we went bowling. I got over 100 and came 3rd (I got 93 AND CAME 2ND, NOT LAST FOR ONCE!).Once the games had all finished, we played in the arcade then went home. For tea, I had omelette (I had eggs and bacon). Then I went to bed. SORRY FOR THE BAD GRAMMAR MISS ROWLANDS!

Amy

Spain, over the last week, has been AWESOME. When we got on the coach, I realised that this week has gone so fast! On Monday, me and Keturah went into a Spanish lesson with sixth formers. ¡Qué desastre! No entendemos! After that, we went to a computer room and spent an hour on MSN and Myspace! In the afternoon, we went shopping in La Morea, and bowling. Me and Ket got the coolest picture together :) In bowling, naturally, I lost. On Tuesday, we went to a castle in Olite, which, in my opinion, es un poco aburrido. Then there was the petrified heart and the sugared almonds. Nice. ¡Adiós!

George

On Monday morning we had to stay at the school and have part of a class. Now, most people got stuck in complicated lessons and had no idea what they were saying. A few people got asked very strange questions too: Denis got asked what happened when you put an apple in a freezer, he glanced at me and I just grinned. We also got 1 hour on the computers too. After that we walked back to the centre of the town for a littel bit of free time. On the way back we were allowed to go on a kiddie playground!  (Which ended up with somebody's shoe being buried, to his disgust!) Later, in the evening, we went to a shopping centre (I was 4 minutes L8!!!), then bowling which was thoroughly enjoyed by all. On Tuesday we went off to Olite Castle. A large number of people were more interested in complaining about needing the toilet or the cold tortilla sandwich they had.. I personally thought it was quite nice but needed more to keep everybody's attention. Plus the place had a large amount of birds...leftovers, which ended up on lots of people's shoes. After that we went to an old cathedral and ending up buying the whole village out of caramel coated almonds (which are delicious).

Monday 25th February, after a weekend with Spanish families

Beth

Hola! We are back from a long, hard weekend without school. We´ve got used to just being with the families now. This is my account of the weekend:

On Saturday morning, I woke up at 9:30 and went downstairs to have breakfast. At 10:30 me and Miriam went to her basketball match. Pappi and Hayley and their partners were there as well. Unfortunately Miriam´s team lost. After that we went home, then went to Katy´s partner Carolina´s house for lunch. We had three courses of pasta and tomato sauce, steak and chips and then strawberries and whipped cream! At about 4:30 me and Miriam went to her scouts. We only stayed for about half an hour as we were meeting other people at the bus stop. When we got there there were lots of english people with their exchanges and also lots of Spanish people without exchanges! It was very fun. After about an hour the bus came and we went to a shopping centre for a bit, and then at about 8ish we went to McDonalds for dinner! Yay! We got a lift home with Michael and his partner at about 10.

Sunday morning I got woken up at 8:30 by Miriam´s little sister Laura! I wasn´t very pleased but I let her play in my room! I went down for breakfast, went on the computer and then at about 11:30 Michael and his exchange picked us up and we went to a little village 45 minutes away with other english people and exchanges. We played in a park for a bit then at 1:30 we went into a resturaunt. I had fish for lunch, and after we went and placed football outside, Spanish vs English. We won, of course! But only becuase we had three boys! After we went back to Pamplona and everyone came to Miriam´s house. We played Twister and had waffles. Everyone went home at about 8:30 and we had dinner, and then I went to bed.

Izzy, Tansy and Laura

Izzy, Tansy and Laura´s Diary of the Spanish Exchange Weekend

What was the best thing about your weekend?

Laura:

Definitely being able to tell people that I went to

France

for 20 minutes! We took a boat from a coastal town in Spain to another coastal town in France. It was very hot and picturesque.

Tansy:

My favourite thing about this weekend was going to see my first football match!  It was Pamplonas football teem – Osasuna V A. Madrid. Osasuna scored twice in the first 5 minutes!  Osasuna won 3:1. I ate lots of food and shouted a lot! ME GUSTA MUCHO EL FÚTBOL!

Izzy:

On Sunday we went to a hotel / restaurant in the middle of nowhere. Beth, Michael O, Rob, Amy , Patrick and Sabina were also there. We had lunch in a really posh restaurant and Beth nearly choked on a fish bone (she´s OK now). The meal was huge and the steak was pretty much raw. Afterwards we played a football match, English vs Spanish. We won by a lot!

What kind of food did you eat?

Laura:

I went to a restaurant and ate typical spanish food. It was great to try new food! We also made lots of different hats with our napkins! (I have lots of pictures =]) I especially liked these chips we had which tasted like ready salted crisps! =]

Izzy:

On Saturday I had Paella! It was really nice except I didn´t know what to do with the whole prawn that was in there. When we went to the restaurant we all had Spaghetti Bolognese for starter, then either Steak or fish for main and ice cream for pudding. The portions were huge!

Tansy:

For lunch on Sunday we had tortellini and then we had burgers and rabbit! We have fish a lot and its all really nice!!!

Oisín

¡Hola!

Yesterday (Sunday), Brian and I went to church in

Pamplona

. I tried to follow as much as I could. Después (after for you un-spanish out there), we went into pamplona to get a tapa. I tried a strange smoked-ham and mayonaise mix on bread. ¡No me gusta! Yuk! Alter that, we went for a proper meal in the mountains. It was so nice. Firstly, we had shot glasses filled with a creamy soup thing, then we had these special sausages called Txistorra. For my starter, I had artichoke hearts and smoked ham and leek. It was soooo nice. For my main course I went for lamb chops with chips (patatas fritas) and red pepper. Yum! Then desert (Yes I know I ate loads but it was so good). I decided to have a cheesecake with strawberry sauce and ice-cream.

Afterwards, we went into town to meet with Laura, Wil, Ellie, Illya and Eireni. We walked around a bit befote going to the cinema. The cinema is a bit boring. Maybe it would have been better if we had actually gone to see a film rather than just standing around in the lobby looking at the posters. Then we went home. The end (of the beginning!).

Charlie

On  Saturday a group of us went to the nearby park and placed football. It was fun but exceedingly hot compared to England. In the evening most people on the exchange met up at McDonalds, this was very good because it gave us a good chance to talk about our plans for the next day. Alter seeing our friendo some of us went to a food court where there were kebabs, pizza etc. we stayed there until midnight.

Sunday, some of us and our exchanges went on a walk through a woods  before going to a resturaunt for lunch. Afterwards me and my partner returned home and placed playstation befote going to bed.

Wil

On  Saturday i went  to  the stables and went horse rideing for the day , it was very fun, alter we went to a very nice restaurant and had parma had as a starter and a steak, then we placed football for a while befote giong to see a game of football involving my partners cousin, it was all very fun! xx

Friday 22nd February - Bea. Kirsty and Kate

¡Hola! ¿Qué tal todo? Today we went to San Sebastián which is on the north coast of Spain, about an hour away from Pamplona. First, we went to the aquarium where we touched an octopus - it was really slimy! There were some amazing fish.

Then we went to a small café and had churros con chocolate which was really yummy. Then we had free time to explore the area. Next we went to the beach. We went in the sea [only paddling! (Sr. Copsey)]  (which was very cold!) and got extremely sandy and wet.

After that, we went shopping for a while - the shops in Spain are great. We also had a go on a merry-go-round!

Now we are on the coach and are very tired. We can´t wait until tomorrow!

¡Adiós!

Yr 9 in Pamplona - Thurs 21st Feb

Gemma and Charlotte

¡Hola!

Yesterday, at 9.00 am we got on the coach and drove to Stansted Airport. We boarded the plane at 1.05pm and had a smooth flight to Bilbao, lasting about one hour and a half. We arrived at the school in Pamplona at around 7.30pm after a 2 hour coach journey from Bilbao. When we got there we found our partners excitedly waiting to meet us outside the school. We then met our partners and went to their homes to their families. They greeted us and were very welcoming and showed us to our rooms. After a lovely tea and some relaxing time, we went to bed.

In the morning, we woke up and had breakfast. We then got ready and went to their school to meet our friends. Spain, so far, is amazing :)

Alex

My first impressions of my partner were very good. After we got off the coach from Bilbao airport we met our partners and collected our suitcases. Then we went to their houses and unpacked. Some people went into Pamplona with their partners whereas others just went home and had dinner. It was quite weird. For dinner we ate sausages and bacon and sloppy mashed potato.

Thursday 14th February by Joel and Theo

With our heads full of images of Tom´s dancing prowess and smiles on our faces due to last night´s partying, we set off for lessons in the morning recovering from last night´s events. It took Pedro´s best efforts to maintain a sleepless environment by giving animals personalities, with a Spanish twist.

After our daily stop at Pan´s and Company for refuelling, basically, Tom launched into an explanation of Spanish architecture, resulting in a stampede to reenter the classroom. Gloria responded by engaging the class in a classic agony aunt situation where the general consensus was heeded.

A hot chocolate and four portions of churros later, we were ready to journey to Ávila, the city which is famous for its thousand year-old fortified walls and having little else going for it. Despite being a reasonable 10°C an hour away in Salamanca, at the 1100 metres of Ávila, 2°C was a better description. The city was established on a roman necropolis and reconquered by the archaic Spanish Catholic Kings. For protection, the Kings expanded the existing roman fortifications in the XI Century. They used the existing Roman style to construct around 2,540 metres of wall, with 88 towers and 9 gates.

After a bit of vertigo whilst climbing the narrow, steep and ancient stone stairs, the view from the top over the plain on which Ávila was established was nothing other than breathtaking. Ávila was also the birth place of Saint Theresa of Ávila and within the museum resides her finger, 500 years after her death.

A desperate hunt for an elusive smoke-free restaurant which served churros con chocolate commenced lasting over half of our alloted free time. The lashing wind now made it difficult to stay outside waiting for the remainder of the group which were indulging themselves in the nearby café, blissfully oblivious to the time and temperature of the group 5 metres away.

As it was Valentine´s Day, the Plaza was heaving with extravogantly dressed and drunk University students which may have taken the concept of fancy dress slightly too far. A few hours later and we were turning the light off as the clock struck 12. One full day to go!

Day 4 in Salamanca - subjunctive poems

To practice the present subjunctive, one of the groups was made to write short poems. Here are the results.

Helen, Rhiannon and Milo

Todos contra hablar en clase

Que los niños no hablen en inglés
Que los hombres escuchen a otras personas.
Silencio en clase,
la profesora quiere.
Si habláis, debéis ir a las afueras.
Que los alumnos no estén cansados,
si están buenos,
Isabel va a comprarlos helados.

Nikki and Ella

Deseo que...

Que mujeres no limpien todos días,
y que hombres no piensen que son los reyes del mundo.
Y también que no vean mujeres como máquinas
(quien pueden cocinar todos segundos.)
Además que mujeres son más de artículos de sexo,
y que hombres comprendanlas como - comprendan fútbol.

Tom, Farah, Rianna and Jon

Que los hombres no digan mal cosas,
A mujeres que no sean hermosas,
Que las mujeres tengan oportunidad, Desafortunadamente no es verdad,
Que las mujeres puedan salir la cocina,
Que los hombres no rían cuando las mujeres trabajan en la oficina.

Wednesday 13th February - by Ella

And so another day in Salamanca dawned clear and bright, and the students of Don Quijote rubbed sleep from their eyes as they stumbled into class, ready, though possibly less enthusiastic for, another day of ‘Gramática’. The sole bright spot on a horizon of verbs and pronouns (amongst the churros and Cola Cao, of course), was the prospect of seeing Tom mastering the art of Flamenco in their dance class later on. However, no one could have predicted the hidden excitement that was to come…

After four hours of Spanish lessons, a thankfully less oily lunch than normal, and a short siesta, I returned to school for oral practice only to find my friends in a state of feverish anticipation. Amongst Arun’s awed excitement and Rhiannon’s squealing hysteria I established that the red carpet I had seen constructed the previous day was for a film premier of ‘Vantage Point’, and the actors, including Oscar winner Forest Whitaker (Last king of Scotland) and Mathew Fox (Jack from Lost) were staying in Salamanca to attend the event. As they proudly explained, they had chatted and been photographed with both celebrities in the Plaza Mayor just hours before. At this point Helen’s eyes, who normally devote themselves entirely to watching ‘Jack’ on TV, began to sparkle with disappointment and longing. I myself felt jealous at having missed Whitaker, (in spite of initially not knowing who he was…but hey, an Oscar’s an Oscar…) and we proceeded to Flamenco class with heavy hearts, the image of Tom dancing no longer sufficient to satisfy our discontent. After 30 minutes however, when it became clear that the teacher was either too scared of our dancing to bother turning up, or had simply disappeared off the face of the earth, we wandered about the college, vaguely pondering the idea of churros to improve our moods.

Suddenly Ms. Kremer’s excited shouts punctuated the air, and she desperately explained that Whitaker’s body guard had just entered the college café to proceed his unexpected arrival; naturally the group of us bundled into the smoky room like lightning and crowded the slightly disgruntled looking actor for a photo. Helen’s face seemed to glow with anticipation when we subsequently learned that Mathew (AKA the love of her life) was to arrive at the premier in just one hour, and so, moods feeling somewhat heightened we strolled down the cobbled streets, past the Plaza Mayor to the red carpet…

Spending time waiting outside in the freezing cold February air for a tiny glimpse of a celebrity isn't my cup of tea, but we mingled around inside the barriers seeing how long it would take the Spanish police to chuck us out, whilst enjoying the few comical instances when confused Spaniards took photos of us! I eventually gave up and joined the others in the crowd; Antonia, however, with her dark hair and long coat blended right in and began jokily directing the crowd. A couple of half hearted dares and tense minutes later, Toni could be seen strolling up the red carpet in line with a bunch of tech personnel, fitting in perfectly. With shock and terrified humour we watched in amazement as she disappeared through the gates, past the paparazzi and into the press area, with mouths hanging open. That Toni sure can get away with a lot.

Jealously we waited outside in the cold, receiving sporadic updates by text on how ´boring´ it was with all the presenters and Spanish stars. As the Z –listers poured out of their cars and past us we desperately tried to make up for our mere-mortal position outside the gates. Light skin and British accents secured us some exciting celebrity loving: a kiss on each cheek from the winner of Spanish Big Brother for me (woo-hoo, get in!!); an old director and a swimmer for Rhiannon, and we felt almost on a par with Toni... She exited minutes later to photos, kisses and screams from the confused Spanish crowd, one of whom turned out to be our tour guide from Segovia, who claimed 'I really recognise you!'. We then watched, in hysterics, as she took her last walk of glory, escorted by a policeman, raising her hands in the air to embrace her screaming fans.

A hungry Toni then degraded her celebrity image to dine with us in the university cafeteria (€3.20 for dinner is simply irresistible…), and we were later joined by Helen who had persisted in her attempt to prove her love for Mathew by awaiting his arrival. It paid off, of course, and she grinned dazedly for the rest of the evening, telling anyone who’d listen that they were so close ´they might as well be married´…

An hour and a plateful of greasy chips later, we braved the icy cold once more to meet some Owenians in the local Irish pub. We then repeated the usual rounds of empty bars (the Spanish don’t kick up their heels till well past midnight) and stumbled upon some slough–folk looking for a good time. The excitement of the day drove me home early to write this blog, and all else to bed by their curfew (I think).

And so, after an interesting day, a star struck Salamanca closed its eyes… Photos will, undoubtedly, be on Facebook soon.

The wonderful blog of Rhiannon and Nikki

After arranging a meeting time and place for the evening's activities, we headed back home, truly excited about the prospect of dinner. After ten minutes of fumbling with the incredibly complicated locking system of our flat, we finally entered! Unfortunately, our family failed to materialize, as did the plates of food which we so desired. After two hungry hours, our hearts leapt as we heard the front door open. It was Alfonso, the self-proclaimed 'chef' and son of our host. However, he had decided that he was too tired to prepare us our dinner and so we retreated to our room, resigning ourselves to get more endurance of the increasingly loud recorder practice from the next door flat. Although this too was cruelly taken from us, as the 'music' abruptly stopped with a thump and a crash, something which we could only assume was caused by another disgruntled neighbour, doing away with the afore-mentioned recorder player.

Finally, our host arrived home and hastily prepared us dinner, all the while shouting at Alfonso for his lazy ways. After wolfing down our meat and chips, we found ourselves late to meet our friends and hurtled off to the 'Plaza Mayor'. A night of tapas, laughter and ... 'good clean fun' ensued and we went home happy and very sleepy!

The morning after ... as fun as it is waking up early, nothing tops off a morning quite like a freezing cold shower, just like the one Nikki experienced today. The presence of copious amounts of shower gel and shampoo forced the poor girl to continue bravely with the shower in sub-zero conditions after the last of the hot water ran out.

After, a day at school followed with more past tense exercises, all of which are proving very beneficial. After a relaxing lunch in a sunlit plaza, we headed back to 'Don Quijote' to work on our oral presentations - some students took full advantage of this this opportunity to get some work done ... whereas others took great delight in the discovery of the 'Wikipedia Game'!(Feel free to ask us for the rules of this wonderfully exciting activity!)

Love us x x x

Day 2 - Milo and Arun

Following the hectic day (in Segovia), we returned home, both very tired. Greeted with the smell of cooking, we arrived back at the flat both with appetites and ready for dinner. The meal consisted of a single fillet of white fish on an otherwise empty plate with a bowl of mushy vegetables soaked in a watery soup. The news blared out in the background, adding to the clinking of our cutlery and the Spanish interaction between us and Ángela. Time flew quickly after this. What seemed like possibly half an hour of deep conversation amounted to somewhat more. Not only did we discuss old Spain and some of its history, but the most random conversation starters popped up, including our favourite hobbies and our views on Zapatero. By this time our brains were exhausted and the only thing left to do was sleep - and what better way to end a jam-packed day than to collapse onto a warm, soft bed!!

Morning came around after a good eight hours of dreaming and after a breakfast consisting of  fruit and cereal we headed off to Don Quijote with a new-found companion: at breakfast a girl randomly walked into the room who is in fact an American student studying Spanish at the University. With her help we found the school promptly, so much so that we were the first there! After slowly waking up on our brisk, freezing cold walk to school, we were hastily ushered to our classrooms where we were split up.

Arun: Lesson 1. I entered the classroom that was to be mine for the next week only to find that I was the only one there. Sitting in silence for several minutes, I managed to absorb my surroundings and appreciate what I had done so far - seeing the Palacio de la Granja and experiencing carnival in Segovia. The room filled up as my mind wandered and soon enough all the others sat around, some trying to resist their eyes from closing, whilst others beamed eagerly awaiting the morning of lessons. Our teacher sat in the room amongst us, and seemed to almost emit a sense of friendliness. He introduced himself - Pedro - and then fired away. We directed questions at him that were responded to quickly. He made it clear that his style of teaching was like how "House" is from "House", the TV program. He created a very relaxed environment which helped us all to feel comfortable and not intimidated and within twenty minutes we were all actively participating in the class activities. He made the subjunctive seem so easy and made us converse in the past tense effortlessly. Before I had known it, the first lesson had flown by and it was break.

BREAK: Picture a café full of people or queueing in clumps attempting to catch the waiter's attention so that they can yell their order at him. Now add the stench of cigarette smoke combined with the aroma of fresh pastries and you have the cafeteria that we went to at break. However unappealing that image sounds, it was nice. Whilst getting some food into our systems a mention of internet access was heard and, like moths to a flame, people migrated rapidly to the computer room, some to read e-mails while others were eager to check up on the news.

LESSON 2: When I returned to my classroom following break, there was a woman teacher - Gloria. I could immediately tell that she was going to be bubbly from how she looked and the vibe that she gave off. We all introduced ourselves to her (as we had done earlier) and then in similar fashion asked her questions to which she replied. Although at first it seemed as though she spoke possibly quicker than Pedro, I found that I could understand what she was saying - which was very satisfying. She asked us what our inspirations in life were as well as getting us to tell her our favourite colour - as apparently it is an indication of what you are like as a person. For the remainder of the class, we had to distinguish the differences between ser and estar [the two verbs meaning 'to be' in Spanish]. Somehow she even managed to make that interesting!

Milo: After a morning filled with lessons, we were all starving. A small group of us decided to buy loaves of bread, a packet of cheese and some chorizo and construct our own sandwiches. We ate our food quickly on some steps, conveniently sheltered from the wind but catching the best of the midday sun.

After a well-earned ice-cream from the 'heladería' and a lie in the sun, we returned to Don Quijote for another guided tour - this one of the University, 2 cathedrals and the main square. A man, mid-thirties, shoulder-length curly hair and a goatee-ish beard stood before us in a large leather jacket ready to lead us. Salamancans are clearly very proud of their historical and architectural assets - with every right in my opinion. The University was ornately decorated with stone sculptures of kings, queens, saints and figures from myths and legends. Apparently there is also a small frog hidden in the decoration which, if spotted, grants good luck and prosperity, some people spotted it but I had conveniently not worn my contact lenses so couldn't see a thing! We then proceeded to the 2 cathedrals, essentially a newer (newer, as in the 15th century), bigger one built around the original which was no longer big enough to house everyone. At the top of the highest tower all of Salamanca could be seen, which was truly stunning in the early evening sunlight.

As the tour drew to a close, more people became interested in which bar we were going to go to to watch the Arsenal match rather than the cultural history of the town, nevertheless, we were all in high spirits after a more interesting tour around the town. We all went our separate ways and began to prepare for getting completely slaughtered - only joking Miss!

Bethany and Zoë talk about their first day in Salamanca

After recovering from a ridiculously early start of 4.30am it was exciting to see that the centre of Salamanca lived up to expectations. The sun was out and so were the hordes of Spaniards in the Plaza Mayor. There was no better way to start our trip than with an ice cream, a chat and a laze around in Salamanca´s most impressive meeting place.

So far all our families have been incredibly hospitable (even if they do seem to love their salt!).  Finding our bearings has been fairly easy, and during the evening everyone seemed to enjoy letting their hair down and having a bit of a dance in one of the local discotecas!

Though slightly bleary-eyed on Sunday morning we made a 2 hour journey (including a stop for stocking up on ludicrous amounts of "Oreos" and crisps) to the picturesque town of Segovia. Our morning spent at the Palacio de la Granja de San Ildefonso consisted of looking at the beautiful gardens, tapestries and artwork. Later, after joining in the local festivities (announcing the end of the carnival season) in Segovia´s Plaza Mayor, we visited the Alcazar, or castle from which, much to our excitement, much of Walt Disney´s inspiration was taken. Afterwards, a quick trip was made to the HUMUNGOUS aqueduct (constructed 2000 years ago by the Romans) which seemed to impress everybody with the gravity-defying, cementless bricks (??!). Overall so far we have come to the conclusion that ... SALAMANCA IS WELL GOOD ...

Year 12 in Salamanca - photo record

We're off to Salamanca! Click on the Flickr badge on the left to look at photos taken during the week we spend in Salamanca. Also, students will be posting reports on what they get up to over the week. Feel free to post a comment!