Tuesday, June 28

After a few kids and I took a quick morning run, we hopped on our bus heading to Madrid. Many people used this long 6 hour bus ride as an opportunity to catch up on some much needed sleep. After a couple of hours we stopped at a local gas station, to eat our "bocadillos" that the hotel had given to us. Then after another couple of hours we stopped again at a small restaurant on the outskirts of Madrid. The claw machine in the corner of this restaurant got a great deal of use during our quick 15 minute break and after the stop we only had a quick 30 minute ride to Madrid. I’ve attached some photos to this post from our long 5-6 hour bus ride from Granada to Madrid, but to be honest I was asleep basically the whole ride, so don’t expect much.

At 9 o’clock we all took a twenty minute walk to a restaurant named "Galopín". Inside we found one older man who was ready to take on the challenge of serving all 25 or so of us. The chicken and potatoes that I had was very good, and I’m pretty sure almost everyone else was very happy with their choice as well. Throughout the dinner many tables were playing a card game called "Kemps" which has become very popular on this trip. I won’t go into any details, but this card game has been a favorite for the entire group. After some ice cream for desert we headed back to the hotel at around 10:30 to get some sleep. Tomorrow will be our last full day in Spain and I know it will be bitter-sweet for all of us.

-Grady Hayes

This is my second and last post, and I did not love this part of our trip, but know that I enjoyed visiting the stadium while not being a soccer fan (I could be arrested for saying that in public). I believe Grady has accurately described the bus ride, but admittedly I have not read his account. Either way we hopped of the bus a bit tired and walked a few flights of stairs to see the view of the stadium from a high vantage point. Sadly the field was occupied by workers setting up for a Placido Domingo concert. Then to my surprise we met a tour guide, who was prepared to flood us with knowledge. As she began to speak the artist below began to check sounds, making it difficult to hear but we pressed on to the lower parts of the stadium which showcased their many trophies and awards. Again our guide was having difficulty speaking over the different videos that automatically played throughout the small museum. She never lost hope and even started to shower us with questions. Either we could not hear her, or her questions were way to difficult for sup par soccer aficionados. I was surprised to see so many golden shoes, cups and balls. I was convinced this stadium was the true show of wealth in Madrid. As our group was in a fit of awe and daze by the magnitude of love put into this sport, our guide asked a question and received to answer. She gave a snarky remark asking if we knew how to say no. We continued in silence, having been incapacitate by the awe inspiring success of the one and only Real Madrid. She was not pleased by our modest silence. We continued to a video room where a player said something along these lines: I wear this badge because it is a winner, and I am a winner. I’m happy RM is staying modest. On our last legs of the tour we we asked in English if we wanted to take pictures with players (it was just a green screen). We asked how much the photos cost but they refused to answer, and yes we asked in Spanish too. Then finally we went to the post game conference room. A few student sat where the professionals sit and we fired a few questions at them, like if they could imitate Juan (Our amazing guide who has been with us since day one. I really hope someone talked about him in heir blog but regardless, is a kind funny man). After a few imitations, we were prodded along into their official gear shop. The jerseys on average where 100 euro. To put this in perspective, euros are worth more than dollars and the Spain’s economy isn’t doing well. Real Madrid, the team for the people, ever so slightly takes advantage of their fame for major profit (I’m getting a feeling this is the Yankees of soccer).

-Elson Ortiz

trip to madrid

trip to madrid

madrid

Monday, June 27

Today we spent our first, and sadly, also our last day in Granada. After meeting early in the morning in the hotel lobby, we took a bus to the big attraction of our time in Granada: the Alhambra. A medieval fortified city, the Alhambra is strategically situated at the top of a hill that we were all too glad to ascend in the bus. I can only imagine what it would be like for a Spanish soldier approaching the fortress. Juan had our tickets ready, and we received some jealous looks from other tourists as we entered without having to wait in line.

After entering the city we said hello to our tour guide, Susana, the owner of a seemingly limitless supply of knowledge about the Alhambra. She was also cheerful and enthusiastic and a wonderful tour guide throughout our time at the Alhambra. We began our tour walking through the different streets of the fortress. Our tour culminated when we reached the highest point in the fortress, la Torre de la Vela, which in the past had provided the Moors with a good scout post, but now provided us with a great photo opportunity of all of Granada. Along the way we learned how the Alhambra was constructed on the foundations of ancient Roman fortifications, and that it is a great example of the wonders of Moorish architecture. With perfectly symmetrical arabesques lining every wall, we were all very impressed by the beauty and majesty of many of the buildings. Eventually, in 1492, Ferdinand and Isabella conquered the fortress, and it then served as a palace for Spanish Kings– it was even supposed to be the capital of Spain until the king decided against it. All in all, it was a valuable, visually stunning experience.

-John Philippides

patio de los arrayanes

palacio de carlos v

la alhambra de noche

Sunday, June 26

Unfortunately our time in Cádiz has expired, and this morning we had to say goodbye to our host families. I am confident that I speak for everyone when I say that our host families were all amazing and that everyone, families and students, enjoyed these past three weeks in Cádiz. Due to the generous efforts of my host family, my Spanish has continued to improve over the past week and I am grateful for that.

In saying goodbye to our families, we also said hello to the rest of Dr. Guerra’s family. They will be joining us for the rest of the trip and embarrassing us with their fluency in Spanish.

A bit of first top fun just off the highway.

Nevertheless, we packed our luggage and boarded a bus destined for Granada. The bus ride spanned a total of almost five hours, with two stops along the way. Our first stop was in a roadside cafe where we relaxed and had some time to buy a drink or snack. We then boarded the bus again and continued on our way, with most sleeping during this stretch of the ride. A few hours later we stopped for a quick bathroom break, which doubled as a convenient time to eat lunch on the stationary bus. Some time later we arrived in Granada and immediately drove to our hotel to get settled.

-Zach Levin

Saturday, June 25

I can’t believe we’re leaving Cádiz tomorrow. During our stay my spanish has certainly changed, both in some subtle and not-so-subtle ways. For example, I’ve become much better at fixing my sentences to be grammatically correct when the thought that I’m trying to express changes midway through the sentence, which turns out to be surprisingly difficult to do.

For example, if you start a sentence wanting an apple, but then decide later that you want a few grapes instead, your sentence might look something as follows:

Quiero un…as uvas.

It was shockingly difficult for me to remember to make small changes like this with adjectives and verbs and resulted in many embarrassing mistakes in my first few weeks.

In the not-so-subtle category, I’ve learned that the appropriate response to ¿Que tal? is not nada as I through for the first two weeks, but in fact bien. Conversations until that realization tended to go something like this…

Me: Hola

My family: ¿Que tal?

Me: Nada

My family: ………

Me: ………………

More generally, my “week 1 of Spanish 1” Spanish, primarily greetings and common exchanges, has improved significantly after a long period of disuse.

The other category of major improvement is in my vegetable vocabulary. Meals are a natural place for conversation, and food is thus a common topic of discussion. Vegetables stand out as particularly difficult because, in addition to being very difficult to explain with gestures, some vegetables that are common here are rarely, if ever, eaten in the US (paraguayan peaches, I’m looking at you). In other related notes, the speed at which I can play guess-the-vegetable given a series of vague gestures and a color has increased dramatically.

-Robert Cunningham

Friday, June 24

I’m sad to say that today was one of our last days here in Cádiz. I don’t think that it’s really hit us yet that we’re going to be leaving this place so soon. In a lot of ways it feels like we’ve only just arrived; in other ways, it feels like we’ve been here for years. Time certainly flies on this trip, but there’s also something about the way in which we’ve all come to know this city that makes it feel almost like we’ve been here forever.

The Old City

Today’s activities were all, for the most part, centered around the common theme of saying goodbye to Cádiz. This morning we all had class at San Felipe Neri for the last time. Everybody arrived in a bit of a daze, both because we went to bed so late after the festivities for Los Juanillos and because we were still recovering from the intense emotions of the previous day’s monumental rap battle. Nonetheless, we all found our way up to the classrooms and settled in for one last ride.

David Ma, feeling the effects of the previous night

San Felipe Neri

The order of the day today was to present our final projects, which were PowerPoint presentations giving a short biography of sorts on a citizen of Cádiz (a “gaditano”). Every student selected one of his Spanish parents as the subject of his presentation, since naturally they are the people we have come to know best on this trip. The presentations covered mostly general information about the person’s family, background, job, and interests. Dave told us that his Spanish father’s favorite sport was “sleeping” (no wonder those two got paired up…), Ayinde talked about his Spanish father’s love for soccer, and I reported my own Spanish father’s passion for Juego de tronos (Game of Thrones). These projects provided an interesting way to learn more about the people of Cádiz and about the experiences other kids were having with these people. Eventually, when the presentations came to a close, we stacked up the chairs on the desks and left the classroom for good, moving on to the school’s computer lab to complete a survey about the trip.

David Ma, delivering his presentation

Rohan Balakrishna, delivering his own presentation

The end of the class

In the computer lab, we were instructed to complete a lengthy survey about our experience in the immersion program. We had to comment on our teachers, the class material, and all of our various “extracurricular” activities as well. The activity was obviously more of a formality than anything else, but nevertheless it was an opportunity to take some time to reflect on this trip and what it has meant to each of us. We had to rate each activity we had done and we had to suggest improvements to the program as well. Some of the most popular activities turned out to be surfing, kayaking, and the biking in Sevilla. After spending about a half hour answering questions in the computer lab, we were all dismissed and had some free time before we had to return home for lunch. Most of us took this opportunity, of course, to make the trip over to McDonald’s, considered by many to be the single best McDonalds in which they have eaten. It’s touch-screen ordering system and indescribably delicious McFlurries have given it a legendary status among RL boys.

The survey

McDonald’s

In the afternoon, we all headed to our daily activity, which today was a recycled art workshop with a local artist. This workshop consisted of the construction of masks, made from cut up milk containers, various caps, and tiny plastic ties. For whatever reason, the usage of glue was strictly forbidden, in spite of its potential to make our work significantly easier. I suppose recycled glue must be particularly hard to come by. Nonetheless, we all built our masks using the materials which we were given and brought a great deal of artistic flair to the undertaking. Some students even finished their projects so quickly that they had time to use the plastic ties to fasten James Jaffer’s backpack to his chair; it would take him nearly ten minutes to successfully remove them all.

The workshop

Evan Lim and his mask

Rohan Balakrishna with his mask, wearing his signature “Do you go to RL?” outfit.

Zach Levin using a hole-creating tool

James Jaffer attempting to liberate his backpack

After the art workshop, I went along with a few other kids to buy some ice cream. I am somewhat embarrassed to say that there was a day on this trip on which I ate a total of 3 medium-sized ice creams, but at this point I have no regrets. Today I settled for the one ice cream, if only because of a lack of time to buy more. I returned to my house after eating and helped my family to prepare for the group’s farewell dinner, at which all RL boys and all of their host families would eat together. The dinner would serve as a chance to begin saying goodbye to our host families; we will spend all day tomorrow with them, so it was actually not our final moment together.

The farewell dinner took place at La Caleta, one of the smallest yet most popular beaches in Cádiz. There was quite a bit of food of all types: seafood, bread, gazpacho, chicken, vegetables, and more. It was a great time. Everyone was happy and conversational, and the food was very good. Ruben, my three-year-old Spanish brother, had a particularly fun time running around the deck on which we were eating and playing with his cousins (Joe Nero’s Spanish brothers). It was a great opportunity to talk with my family, the teachers from our classes (who were also present), and the program directors for the last time together as a group. Despite its status as a “farewell” dinner, which might suggest a somber mood, the prevailing sentiment at this dinner was certainly one of happiness and high spirits. It was a great way to wrap up the program here in Cádiz.

Before I finish, I want to say a little bit about my personal experience so far on this trip. First of all, I am very happy about how well my homestay worked out. I get along very well with my family. They all have great senses of humor, especially my three-year-old brother, and they are really easy to talk to as well. I’ve learned a lot about Spanish culture through my interactions with them. I’ve had a great time spending time with my friends as well, and I feel that I’ve gotten to know everyone on a deeper level than before. The group of kids who came on this trip is a great one in which everyone really gets along with each other.

In terms of my own personal growth as a Spanish student, I think that this trip has been more valuable than any sort of class ever has been or could be. There is no better way to learn a language than to immerse yourself in it, and that is exactly what we’ve done. Despite the obvious challenges in using Spanish all the time, it has been a very effective learning tool. I personally also did not have any huge problems communicating with my host family or other Spaniards throughout the trip; obviously I experienced some minor misunderstandings, but for the most part I was able to have conversations without major issues. I feel that we were well prepared for this trip by our classes back at RL, and that the program here is an excellent way to test our knowledge and to expand upon it as well.

Finally, I’ll say that besides improving my Spanish, I feel that this trip has forced me to grow as a person in general. We have all been given a level of independence and responsibility which we have never really been faced with before, and I believe that everyone on this trip has truly risen to the occasion. This program forces us to deal with situations which feel unnatural and uncomfortable at first, such as living in the house of a family which you have never met before and which speaks a foreign language. Even little things like ordering food are that much more challenging here. All in all, I think that we will all return to Boston more mature, more independent, and more confident.

I’ve had a great time on this trip, and I’m sure that the final week will be a fitting end to such an incredible experience.

-Connor Dowd

Thursday, June 23

It is safe to say that today was one of the more action packed days of the trip. Like many others, we started off with class at San Felipe Neri. Given that today is the holiday of San Juan, we learned all about the Spanish holidays and festivals, especially today’s holiday. The significance of la noche de San Juan seemed a little strange to us Americans at first. On this night, the Spanish people would burn "Juanillos" ( Dressed up mannequins that would criticize an aspect of Spanish life) and then proceed to watch fireworks and for some to jump into the ocean. This signified the washing away of bad spirits and the arrival of good omens. Therefore, for the second part of the morning class, we were able to walk over to the beach and see some of the Juanillos pre- destruction but also talk to the locals about what la noche de San Juan means to them.

The afternoon activity today was a sight to see. Twenty one RL boys and Mr. Walsh learning the art of the Flamenco Dance. I never thought I would’ve been able to see Mr. Walsh shake his hips like Shakira before today. It was like the flamenco music touched a part of his soul. He was without a doubt the unanimous MVP of the afternoon. All joking aside, it was incredible to both try and watch this amazing style of dance. I was all the more impressed in the performance after I had tried it for myself.

After a three hour stint of relaxing on the beach, we were finally able to head back to the Caleta to watch the burning of the Juanillos and the fireworks. But the Juanillos were not the only things on fire tonight (the verdict to come later). The entire ceremony for la noche de San Juan was spectacular. It felt like the entire city of Cadiz had come to the beach. I was really taken back by the pride the people have in their city but also in it’s traditions.

With the trip winding down, it has been cool to start looking back on all of our experiences. Mine in particular has been a little different from the rest of the group. I am the only kid living alone with one other person, a 70 year old grandmother. Initially I didn’t know what to expect. I assumed there would be a few awkward moments and times when we would both be completely lost. And at the beginning we were on two completely different pages. She didn’t understand that I am not a fluent Spanish speaker, which was funny. She would be speaking a millions miles an hour and I’d be flipping through my pocket dictionary a millions miles an hour. But inevitably, she realized my Spanish speaking abilities were not amazing and she slowed down her speech and really helped me out.

Since my abuela is older and retired. I was at her center of attention the whole trip. And this meant I would have three course meals for every meal. I swear the only thing she did when I was gone was cook. And it showed in the food. The food was absolutely incredible. She really pampered me and I am so grateful for it. Mealtimes were also the times where we would do the most of our talking. All meals being one on one, I really got to know my abuela and she really got to know me. It was a very personal experience but I was also able to learn so much Spanish along the way as I was always in the midst of a conversation.

Overall, I have loved my experience in Cádiz but I also can’t wait to get back to Boston.

-Jimmy Duffy

flamenco

juanillos

juanillos burning

Wednesday, June 22

As our time in Cádiz sadly approaches the end, we have all been trying to embrace each and every moment with our host families and with each other in this beautiful city. Today, we went to San Felipe Neri as usual in the morning, and had our second cooking class of the trip later in the day. During the school day, we had the opportunity to create our own political parties since Spain will soon select one of their own four political parties to represent the country for the next four years. The two parties had to make posters that demonstrated their beliefs regarding work, health, education, and the environment. After we created these posters, we had a very exciting (or “lit” as some would say) debate in which the two parties had to convince two “citizens” of Spain to vote for them. During the debate, there were some very interesting points made, including Zach M. attempting to persuade us that global warming is not a real thing, and that we should therefore stop focusing on protecting the environment. Clearly, he needs to have a conversation with Ms. Carroll about this. After a 30 minute break in which many of us went to the gym to play basketball and/or soccer, we headed over to the computer lab to work on our presentations. Being the RL scholars that we all are, we were absolutely delighted when we heard that we had to do presentations on a member of our host families to learn more about the life of a resident of Cádiz. To be honest, however, I think that these presentations are helping us get to know our families better.

Before the afternoon activity, a third of the group did some volunteer work with the children of the JUNIORS Foundation, spending quality time playing at the beach. The last two volunteering sessions were spent teaching the children English and avoiding calls to the police due to seemingly unoccupied old men, so these guys were pretty lucky.

We then met at the Plaza Mentidero for our second cooking class. Today’s menu included Gazpacho, a cold, tomato-based soup, traditionally served in the southern Andalusia region of Spain, and paella, a dish served on a very large plate, generally consisting of rice, many vegetables, and (in our case) chicken, but can include many types of seafood. Many of us started by cutting vegetables, which proved to be a difficult task for some of us, but when Jimmy and Ahmed were promoted to “Cooks,” we all knew we were in for a show, as they showed us some of their moves while cooking.

Once we had finished cooking, we went up to the roof to eat. Thanks to John and his speaker, we listened to some Spanish tunes, but Andrew S. unfortunately wasn’t willing to repeat his elegant, swanlike dance performance from last week. Despite our disappointment, we had a great meal and got to spend some time as a group as the trip comes to an end.

Knowing that we only have a few days left on this trip is pretty hard to believe. It doesn’t even seem realistic that we have been here for two and a half weeks. Time is going by very fast, so I have really been trying to internalize every moment that we have left in this beautiful city. It is a bit disappointing that we have to leave just as we are really getting to know the people, the city, and the bus schedule. I am also really looking forward to the trip to Granada and Madrid after we leave Cádiz, but for now, I will try to perfect my Cádiz accent, and enjoy the rest of our time here.

-Mahamud Hashi

Tuesday, 21 June

Today we began our second day learning about the arts in Cádiz. We started our day off at San Felipe Neri and there we had our usual class from 9:30-12:30. In the first half we discussed politics and how the constitutional monarchy of Spain differs and connects to the political situation in the United States. I won’t go into too much detail, but we learned about the four major political parties (Ciudadanos, PSOE, Partido Popular and Podemos) and the specific views of each political party. On Sunday June 26th Spain will decide which of these four parties will represent their country for the next four years. It will be very interesting to witness this monumental date in Spanish history.

In the second half of class we went to the computer lab and each picked out a painting online to present when we visit the Prado museum later in the trip. After class another U.S. vs. Spain basketball game took place. Thanks to the masterful layup skills of Rohan Balakrishna, (or as he calls himself “the best football receiver on the Spain trip”) team USA pulled out another victory. One of my favorite parts of this trip has been the interactions with the locals, especially while playing sports, and today was no exception.

In the afternoon we all met up in the plaza San Antonio to take a trip to Cádiz Oculto. There we visited the Casa de Aramburu while learning about some of the legends and mysteries of Cádiz. In the house we were told a classic ancient gaditano legend describing a young girl who was killed and still haunts the Casa de Aramburu today. We were surprised by loud noises and some creepy music that made our experience at the Casa de Aramburu scary for some, but I was unfazed. Unfortunately, there was no photography allowed in the house, so I couldn’t get some action shots of Will Connaughton jumping into the air, but I’m sure everyone can just imagine it.

Thanks to my host mother, brother and sister my Spanish has been improving drastically. I’ve always been a decent Spanish writer, but I’ve never had confidence speaking the language. By talking to the locals and my host family, my confidence with my Spanish speaking ability has risen to new heights. I’m looking forward to using this newfound confidence during our last week here in Spain.

Although there is so much to look forward to, the trip is dwindling down right in front of our eyes. With only about a week left, and even less with our host families, I know that I, as well as our whole group, will cherish every last second of this trip. Whether it’s playing beach football on a hot afternoon with some guys or learning about the upcoming elections in Spain, everything molds together to create a memory of this trip that will be tough to ever forget. I’m looking forward to spending these next few days with my host family, who have been extremely gracious by letting me into their household, and I will cherish every last moment I have with them over the course of the next few days.

-Grady Hayes

hayes 1

hayes 2

hayes 3

hayes 4

Monday, June 20

Today, sadly, marks the beginning of our last week in Cádiz. It’s incredible how quickly this trip has flown by, as we have just under a week left with our homestay families. It’s still amazing to me how relaxed and friendly everyone is here, a stark contrast to the streets of Boston.

This morning for me was an interesting one, as I, along with several classmates, had woken up at around 4:30 to watch Steph Curry choke away Game 7 of the NBA finals. As such, I strolled into class today incredibly exhausted, however it was completely worth witnessing an incredible game.

The main topic for class today was music in Spain. Per usual, we opened with an entertaining game of “En Un Minuto”. This game is usually played in pairs, and the objective was to name as many styles of music as we could. My partner Will and I, however, struggled due to an unfortunate misconception, as we were trying to think of the names of these styles in Spanish. The other groups decided to list as many styles as they could in English, and as it turns out around 90% of English music genres are spelled exactly the same in Spanish. After the break, during which I played in a game of 25-on-25 soccer, we headed back to class to listen to some songs from different genres, such as jazz, pop, rap, and flamenco. Our teacher Elena, being Spanish, could not possibly be expected to know every single word in the English language, especially some slightly derogatory slang. However, most of us were still surprised when she chose to play “Straight Outta Compton” as an example of quality rap music. That pretty much wrapped up the school day as the group headed home to take a much needed siesta.

After my 3 hour nap, I met up with the group in La Plaza de San Juan de Dios, where we proceeded to walk to an art studio to paint. I was excited about the activity, mainly hoping that my painting skills were going to be a significant improvement on my clay-molding abilities. It turns out that art in general is not my forte, although I definitely enjoyed trying to paint. We were given a couple of pictures depicting parts of Cádiz to choose from, and we were then told to select an individual detail of the painting we chose.

Some pictures of us clearly hard at work:

It’s probably fair to say that the group as a whole enjoyed this as well. My attempt at a house didn’t fare too well, but I’ll attach some photos of paintings drawn by those who are more artistically inclined.

This one I feel deserves special mention, it was done by Dr. Guerra and I was pretty impressed.

After the activity was wrapped up, I along with about half the group went to the beach, where we played football and watched Will somehow manage to jump and catch the ball over people who had half a foot on him. I headed home at around 9:00 to watch Wales decimate Russia in soccer, before heading to bed early to finish the night.

-James Jaffer

Sunday, June 19

Today was the second Sunday of our trip, meaning that it was a “family day” where we spend time with our host families. Unfortunately, both of my Spanish brothers, Raul (14) and Asier (5), were sick. So instead of going to the beach in a nearby town named Chiclana, as we did last Sunday, we did not go out at all. After sleeping late, a rarity on this trip, I watched some Spanish TV about blind dates gone wrong and played some video games with my brothers until lunch, a pork and rice dish with a side of fish sticks and ham croquettes.

Tyler enjoys his Ben and Jerry’s with a gelato spoon in la plaza de San Juan de Dios.

After lunch my mother told me to go meet some of my friends rather than to stay in the house so I decided to meet Tyler and get some ice cream. We walked through the streets and eventually stopped to buy ice cream in the Plaza de San Juan de Dios. Actually, I bought ice cream in the plaza whereas Tyler had already bought a pint of Ben and Jerry’s at a convenience store. Tyler soon realized that just as back home in the states pints of ice cream don’t include spoons. We continued walking around for a bit, me eating my ice cream like a normal person, Tyler licking his Ben and Jerry’s like a dog. Having perused perused the small market that had been set up in the square, we decided to walk back towards La Caleta, the beach nearby to both our houses, when we unexpectedly found Dave sitting on the steps of the new cathedral. The three of us then convinced Elson and Robert to join us where we began playing cards intensely.

The bus packed with people heading to the game; somehow more people got on at the remaining stops.

We suspended our card games and returned home to pick up sandwiches for the night. Tyler and I set out to the modern city to meet up with the group for the soccer game. Unfortunately we had forgotten that the bus which goes directly to the meeting point from our houses had stopped running at 3:30 that afternoon. We decided to hop on another bus, one which neither of us had ever ridden, and see where it went. Needless to say, it quickly became apparent that every soccer game is a big deal for Cádiz. The bus was packed and at every stop more people crammed into the bus, which most certainly held more people than its occupancy limit. After a short run at the end, we arrived at our meeting point with ten minutes to spare.

The entire city comes together to support the team.

As a group we then trekked our way through the sea of yellow that was accumulating at the stadium and found our seats, which were surprisingly close to the field. The 90 minute game was fought intensely by both the players and the crowd. I think I speak for everyone when I say we were surprised by the incessant screaming of the crowds both for Cádiz and against the other team, Hercules. If you don’t know already, soccer is much more important in Europe than in the U.S., even more so in Spain. The game concluded with a game-winning goal by Cádiz and the resulting uproar from the crowd. We exited the stadium listening to the shouts of the entire city, most of whom had come to the game, and we were all dismissed for the night.

The crowd raises their Cádiz scarfs at the conclusion of the game.

I returned home and was immediately greeted by my mother who had kept dinner hot waiting for my return (she thinks I eat nothing, citing the fact that Raul “eats more than me”). On the topic of my family, I have seriously enjoyed getting to know them these past two weeks. My mother clearly cares about how I am doing each day and helps me improve my Spanish by talking at meals. The two kids love to play and we have had some great times together, excluding the days when they are sick. I can definitely tell that my Spanish has improved over this trip since it has become slightly easier and more natural to converse with my family. Unfortunately, half of this adventure has already passed and less than one week remains of our home stay here in Cádiz. I look forward with excitement to the upcoming week focused on the arts and then to our excursions in Granada and Madrid to finish this amazing experience!

–Zach Levin