Day 16, Wednesday

Our last day in Málaga.  We had a study session at the ISA office in preparation for the final exam tomorrow and to be available for tutoring if needed.  We then went to the main shopping avenue for some free time to purchase last minute souveniers before the students went off to their homestay families for their farewell dinner.  Tomorrow the students will take their final exam and then we will travel to Madrid to depart early Friday morning.  Although it was a very packed 16 days, our Málaga homestay group has had an invaluable time experiencing the Spanish langue and culture.

EL

Day 15, Tuesday

Today was our second to last day of class here in Málaga. We went to school and started our first class at nine o’clock with señor José as usual. We reviewed what we had learned earlier about the subjunctive, then he taught us two new forms as well. With our second teacher señor Álvaro we practiced grammar and did a speaking activity after. Lastly, with señora Beatriz she finished teaching us about the different Spanish fiestas, which we started yesterday, and then we ended with a game. We learned about La Tomatina, San Fermines, and La Feria which all sounded very fun. We ended school at two o’clock and then went home to our houses to eat lunch with our families. After food and a little rest we got picked up again for our afternoon activity. Today we visited the Museo Carmen Thyssen of Málaga which is a collection of Andalusian paintings about "Costumbrismo Andaluz" (Andalusian Folklore). The first part of the museum that we visited was “Romantic Landscape” art. All of the paintings date back between the 1850’s and early 1900’s. One in specific that is famous for its romantic features is called Beach at Estepona with a View of the Rock of Gibraltar by Fritz Bamberger. It is a beautiful painting showing the sky when the sun is just starting to set and a view of the ocean, and of course the rock of Gibraltar. On the second floor, all of the paintings are of Precieux style and naturalist paintings. This type of painting and the paintings in this collection are from the second half of the 19th century. In Spain this style of painting is known as Preciosista. On the third and final floor we saw how Spain had been transformed into one of the most popular artistic clichés at the end of the 19th century. Young Spanish artists were known for their sense of modernization. Darío de Regoyos was one of the first Spanish artists to be internationally recognized for his paintings linking the modern approach and the use of traditionally Spanish subject matter. Afterwards our tour came to an end, but we still had two stops before heading home. First we went to a Taste of America store which we were all very excited about. We showed our ISA leader, Iker, all the best American foods to get and stocked up on some for ourselves. After that we went to a little café to enjoy the famous chocolate churros of Spain. They were delicious and we were all very pleased. It was a great way to end our fun day. With our stomachs full, we all loaded back onto the bus and returned to our houses to spend the rest of the night with our families.

Ellie N and Lauren

Day 14, Monday

Today, we went back to school after a very fun weekend in Granada! First, in grammar class with José, we learned about even more ways to use the subjunctive mood. Then in grammar practice, we finished watching “Frozen” in Spanish, which we all loved. In culture class with Beatriz, we first played a game in teams where we asked the opposing team questions about the Spanish culture we have learned about so far. Then, we learned about some important Spanish festivals, for example “La Tomatina” and “San Fermín”. “La Tomatina” occurs on the last Wednesday of August in Buñol, Spain, where thousands of people gather to throw tomatoes at each other! “San Fermín” is a week-long festival in July in Pamplona, Spain, which includes many different activities and events. One of the most well-known, however, is the “encierro”, in which bulls are released in a sectioned-off part of the city and men run with the bulls through the streets. After school, we all went back to our houses to eat lunch and rest. Iker came to pick us up around 4:30 to take us to our Flamenco dance class! At first we were all a little shy, but after awhile, our teacher, Verónica, brought us out of our shells. She taught us a simple four-count rhythm, and by the end of the class we had had a dance battle and were learning choreography for a routine to a song. Our dance teacher found ways to relate the dance to a bullfight: you must stand tall, and with confidence, and dance in a way that shows you are sure of yourself. She also told us that this would be the perfect way to try and grab the attention of a Spanish girl or boy if we were in a discoteca! Overall, today was incredibly fun and interesting, a perfect Monday after our exciting weekend!

Pacey and Olivia

Day 13, Sunday

Today was our second day in Granada; we spent it touring the Alhambra which receives 3 million visitors per year. We first met with our guide, Antonio, to start the tour; he had ample information to share with us about the beautiful architecture and exciting history of the Muslim built “red castle”. The Alhambra was built in 889 and expanded and restored in the mid 11th century by Mohammad ben Al-Ahmar who built the Alhambra that we can view today. The castle was conquered by Catholic Monarchs in 1492, whom had a love-hate relationship with the Alhambra because it symbolized the defeat of the Catholics in 711, so they constructed Christian buildings and walls within the castle, including a palace by Carlos V, but left the magnificent outer architecture. After years of abandonment, Washington Irving rediscovered it and wrote "Tales of the Alhambra" which made it world famous. There are four different palaces within the Alhambra and each of the Arabic palaces share the same basic design. All of the rooms throughout the Alhambra face an open court that generally consists of gardens and or fountains. The court is always rectangular in shape with rectangular rooms bordering the court. They placed fountains and pools in the courtyards as water was a sign of wealth for many of the sultan’s visitors from the southern parts of the world who rarely see water. The water also serves the purpose of cooling the Alhambra. To supply the palace with water, a 6 km aqueduct of potable water ran throughout the palace, providing drinking fountains. The most impressive palace has the largest fountain, the fountain in the Courtyard of Lions. This fountain has twelve lions that symbolize the twelve hours of the day and it also has Jewish and Christian architecture. In this courtyard as with every room in the entire palace, extremely detailed Arabic inscriptions are inscribed. The symbol: لله, which means Allah in Arabic, is commonly seen throughout the palace. Beyond the inscriptions, they modeled the ceilings after the caves where the Qur’an was written. We ended the tour with some breathtaking views at the Generalife, the retreat palace of the sultan. Although it was a very cold and rainy day, we enjoyed our visit of the jewel of Granada¨. Afterwards we returned to downtown Granada to eat a delicious lunch at “Las Tres Tortugas” pizzeria before our return to Málaga with our homestay families.

Ryan and Hamilton

Day 12, Saturday

We started off our day a little bit later and going directly to Granada. After the one and a half hour bus ride, we braced the cold and began to walk the streets of Granada. We first arrived at the plaza de La Bib-Rambla which is also commonly called the plaza de las Flores by the locals because of the abundance of flower shops in the area. The street that led to the plaza was also where the Christians anciently hung people as a sign of power and to instill fear. Next we went to La Plaza de las Pasiegas, where the main cathedral and the house of the bishops are held. This catherdral is the most gothic in Spain, and has the same name as the cathedral in Malaga, La Catedral de la Virgen de Incarnación. Like the synagogue in Toldeo, the interior is painted all white to increase the amount of light, something very unique in these two places. Connected to the cathedral was the chapel which holds the tombs of queen Isabel and king Ferdinand, and their successors queen Juana La Loca (the crazy one) and her husband king Felipe II el hermoso (the handsome one), and also the oldest daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, the original successor of the throne, but who died as a child. These nicknames were given to Juana and Felipe because many believe that Juana killed Felipe out of jealousy because of his many lovers. However, not all of Felipe's body is held in his tomb. His heart is in Brussels where he was born, and his body in Spain, where he ruled as king. Before entering the tomb, there were sculptures of the four rulers. After seeing their tombs, we later got to see the day to day crown that Isabelle wore, the royal septor, and the Kings sword. The most interesting thing, however, was the queen's mirror, which was very small considering her status. She was a very simple and religious woman, and was not bothered by material things or her appearance. After the church, we entered the small plaza del carbón, named for its use in ancient times as a place to hold carbon for fires. This is also the central point of Granada and ironically, there was barely any noise in it because it was walled in. Then we went to La Plaza de Isabel the Catholic, where we saw a large statue of Christopher Columbus showing her a map of the new world. Contrary to popular belief, Isabella was the only royal that backed Columbus and was the only to profit from the riches of the new world. Afterwards, we made our way into an Arab marketplace, where we were able to walk and see many items of that culture. We then made our way to La Plaza Nueva where we were able to walk along the Paseo de los Tristes, originally the procession of bodies up to the cemetery in the mountains. On the other side we could see the river that runs along and under Granada, the Rio Darro. Afterwards we had time to relax and shop a little. We then had a surprise activity, which was to see the Alhambra at night from a spectacular point high up in the mountains. We later went to a flamenco performance held in a Gipsy cave! It was the highlight of our day. We are all very tired from our long day, but very excited with all that we learned from Granada today!


Ashley Deutser & Ellee Dukes

King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella with their daughter Juana la Loca and her husband  Felipe II el hermoso

Day 11, Friday

Today in grammar class we learned more ways to use the subjunctive mood and also did worksheets for practice. In our next class, which is grammar practice with Álvaro, we watched “Frozen” in Spanish and all sang along! Next, we had culture with Beatriz and learned about traditional Spanish foods along with famous dishes from specific areas of Spain. For example, in Andalucía, the southern region where Málaga is located, a famous dish for the summer is gazpacho which a cold soup made from tomatoes and other vegetables. After school, which ended at two, we went home to our families to eat lunch and rest a little before our cultural activity. We went to the Picasso Museum and the home of Picasso today and it was very interesting. We learned about Picasso’s different styles of art like realism and cubism. Also, an interesting fact we learned was that Picasso’s first teacher was his father. First, we saw a video of Picasso painting bulls, flowers, and women in a transparent glass. We saw many paintings from Picasso’s personal collection such as paintings of his sons and their mothers. Some of my favorites were the Musketeer with Sword, which uses a lot of bright colors, and Portrait of a Woman, which uses the dark colors and twisted features of the woman to show the political meaning behind the painting about the war. Since Picasso was a painter, a sculptor, and made ceramics, we saw many different types of art, including a ceramics piece called the Insect. The Insect was a pot which had the arms, legs, and face of an insect. Picasso's masterpiece, Guernica, is located in Madrid at the Reina Sofía museum. Next, we went to Picasso’s house. Picasso was born in Málaga in 1881 and died in 1973 at the age of 92; he painted to the day he died. The house of Picasso had many different recreations of what his rooms would have looked like and we also saw the dress and shoes in which all of his family had been baptized. After the tours, we went to relax at a café to drink coffee, hot chocolate, and  smoothies. Finally, we went home to our families, ate dinner, and packed for our trip to Granada tomorrow!

Caroline

Day 10, Thursday

Today was the first day of having classes until 2pm, instead of 1pm; we now have an hour more of our Culture class. In our first class, grammar with José, we learned more about subjunctive, and the cases in which you use it. Next we had grammar practice with Álvaro, we did a worksheet on subjunctive and then listened to Spanish songs containing subjunctive verbs. Our last class is Culture with Beatriz, we first learned the provinces of Spain on an interactive puzzle map, then we learned about some crazy Spanish laws that are still on the books and also talked about stereotypes of Spain. Then we went home to eat lunch with our Spanish families and rested for a while. Our activity today was a cooking class! It was at the new ISA office, and Iker and Carolina taught us how to make: Huevos Rellenos (stuffed eggs), Tortilla de Patatas (Spanish omelette), Paella de Pollo and Berenjenas Fritas (fried eggplant). To cook the Huevos Rellenos you need eggs, tuna fish and mayonnaise. First you hard boil the eggs, then peal of their shells, cut them in half and take the yolks out. Then you remove the oil from the tuna fish, then you mix the tuna with the egg yolks and add mayonnaise as well. Once you’ve mixed it all together you use a spoon to put the mixture into the eggs. To make the Berenjenas Fritas you need eggplants, olive oil, salt and flour. First you wash the eggplant and cut it up into slices, then you put a bit of salt on them to take away the bitterness, then you leave them there for about 15 minutes. After the 15 minutes you wash all the salt off, then press the slices with your hands to remove the water and let them dry. Once dry you coat the slices with flour and then you fry them in hot oil, continually turning them as they brown, once they are done put them onto a plate covered in paper towels to soak up the oil. Then you can add a drizzle of sugar cane honey to add sweetness if you want, and youre done! To make Paella de Pollo you need rice, chicken, onion, peppers, tomatoes, lemon, garlic, saffron, pepper, parsley, rosemary, thyme, oil and salt. First you fry the chicken then take it out and continually add onion, chopped peppers, salt, pepper, a sprig of rosemary, thyme sprig and then let it fry for 10-15 minutes. Then add 1 clove of finely chopped garlic and parsley, add half a glass of lemon, chopped tomato and a strand of saffron, then let everything fry on a low heat for 10 minutes. After the 10 minutes add the chopped chicken, the rice, turn it for a couple of minutes and finally add the chicken broth. Then leave it for 20 minutes on medium heat, once it’s done take it out and let it sit for 5-10 minutes and then its ready to eat! To make the Tortilla de Patatas you need potatoes, eggs, onions (optional), salt and oil. Firstly wash and cut your potatoes and onions into cubes. Then you heat up the oil and add the potatoes and a little salt, fry on low heat. When they are cooked drain out the oil, then beat the eggs and add a little salt, once they are beaten add the potatoes and mix well. Then add oil to a pan and fry it, but remember to continually turn the tortilla over so it doesnt burn on one side. Once its golden on both sides, you're done! That’s what we learned today in our cooking class, it was fun! Afterwards, we returned home to do our homework and have dinner with our Spanish families.

Daniela