Bernabeu

"En 1943, Chamartín ya había quedado pequeño de nuevo, y el club-presidente Santiago Bernabéu decidido que Madrid necesitaba un nuevo y moderno estadio que cabía 100,000 personas.

Este nuevo estadio quedó construido en el mismo lugar del Campo de Chamartín. La construcción comenzó en 1945, y en el 14 de diciembre 1947 Estadio Santiago Bernabéu se inauguró oficialmente con un partido contra el campeón portugués Os Belenenses (3-1).

El estadio fue inicialmente todavía se llama Nuevo Estadio Chamartín, pero recibió el nombre del club-presidente ocho años después.

Santiago Bernabéu fue un jugador por el equipo de Real Madrid en el año 1912 al año 1928. Bernabéu fue unos de los mejores jugadores, y era unos de los favoritos entre los espectadores. 

El Tour de Bernabéu nos llevó a casi todas las partes del estadio. Las taquillas de los jugadores, las duchas, donde se quedan los jugadores y entrenadores durante un partido, y a ver todos los trofeos del equipo.

A todos nos impresiono el estadio y nos gustó mucho ver toda la historia del equipo y el estadio. Yo también tuve la oportunidad y el placer de asistir un partido y me encanto el ambiente.

No soy fanático del equipo de Real Madrid porque me encanta el equipo de Barcelona, pero me encanto el estadio y le recomendaría a mis amigos que vayan." --Jorge

 

 

 

La comida en españa

"The meal schedule in Spain is very different than in the United States. They have toast, cookies, or pastries for breakfast and then have lunch at 2 or 3 in the afternoon. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day, and can include typical Spanish dishes such as paella, tortilla de patatas, or judías. Since they eat dinner around 9 pm, most Spaniards have a merienda, or snack, in the middle of the afternoon. " --Mercer

A lunch from the school cafeteria. Students aren’t allowed to bring food from home and have to eat the school’s lunch. 

Nutella gelato in Toledo.

Tortilla de Patatas (Tortilla Española) is made with scrambled eggs, onions, and potatoes that are cooked together in olive oil.

Churros con chocolate are a typical Spanish snack.

El Palacio Real

Palacio Real de Madrid

"The Royal Palace of Madrid (or Palacio Real de Madrid) is the official residence of the Spanish Royal Family located on Calle Bailén in downtown Madrid. Very close by are both a cathedral and a theater that were placed for the convenience of the Spanish Royal Family. A castle was first built there in the 1500s and then burned down. In the 1700s, King Philip V ordered a new one to be built, the start of the present day one. Today, the Spanish Royal Family choses to live in a more modest estate named Palacio de la Zarzuela in the outskirts of Madrid. Today, the Palace is open to public tours in limited sections of the grand building. Sometimes the Royal Palace will be closed or tours limited in the event of an official state event as they still take place in the Royal Palace. Today we were fortunate enough be there when there wasn't an official state event as was the case for the exchange group last year.

From when the Royal Alcazar was built to when it burned down, it underwent many renovations to update it with the current styles of architecture and to what
the king preferred. They were influenced by things such as the Renaissance and King Louis XIV's grand Palace of Versallies in France. It also housed a large number of famous paintings. When the fire occured on Christmas Eve of 1734, many of these paintings were lost. A precious few such as Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez survived the fire. The Royal Palace seen today was built on the ruins of the old Royal Alcazar.

The Palace itself was quite grand. The exterior was very elaborate, complete with a sizeable courtyard. One of the students remarked that it reminded them of Paris. The inside was one highly decorated room after the other. Señora Adair pointed out to us the stylistic differences from room to room as they've been renovated according to what the king liked. Overall, it was a very beautiful palace and I wish we had more time to tour more of it!

Catedral de Santa María La Real de La Almudena

When the capital of Spain was moved to Madrid in 1561, they needed a cathedral in the city as there wasn't one. However due to the large amount of cathedrals already present in the country and Spain spending a lot of money on other cities, the building of a new cathedral was postponed to until 1879 and wasn't concecrated by the Pope until 1993. Through it you can see the various architecture styles through the years they built it: Neo-Gothic, Neo-Romanesque, and Modern.

The inside was very beautiful as was the exterior. However it was odd to see a modern cathedral as it was a very different style and much more bland than lets say the Toledo Cathedral which we saw the week before. One of my favorite parts was seeing the elaborate sculpture of the Virgin of Almudena as that was very opulent. ¡Una catedral muy hermosa pero no es la más hermosa de España por mi! Pero todos de los estudiantes les gustaba la visita a la catedral, tiempo bien empleado. (A cathedral very beautiful but not the most beautiful one of Spain in my opinion! But all of then students liked the visit to the cathedral, time well spent.)

Fun Facts:

La Almudena is built on top of a medival mosque that was destroyed in about 1083.

The marriage of King Felipe VI to Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano took place in la Almudena in 2004.

The Royal Palaca had a square footage of 1,450,000 sq ft with 3,418 rooms.

By floor area, the Royal Palace is the largest palace in Europe. 

One of the Spanish Queens had nightmares about the statues on the top of the building falling in and on top of her so she had many removed from the roof and placed around the palace. Only few remain today." --Emily

 

Spanish teens’ music or dress lifestyle in Spain

Spanish and American teenagers have a very different in the lifestyle. Everything from when they eat to how school runs in completely different. They kids wake up and go to school at 8:15. Monday and Wednesday they go until 1:20 and leave for lunch and come back to school at 3:15 and dont end until 5:15. Aside from school they eat at very different times from us. Breakfast is around 7:45am lunch is at 2pm and dinner is at 9pm! Also none of them play any sports. After school they go out to lunch or go home for lunch and then go out again with their friends. They are all responsible kids and are allowed to be free and do what they please. They never have homework, unless it's before a test so it's okay for them to be out all afternoon. Another thing is because most kids live in apartments they normally don't go over to each others houses, they just endlessly walk around for hours. It's very different, but exciting to live in Spain!

-Jill

Mi familia español y el día del padre

Mi experiencia en España ha sido fenomenal gracias a mi familia española.Los padres de mi familia son abogados y trabajan mucho. La madre es abogada laboralista y el padre es abogado fiscal. En mi familia española, hay dos hermanos que tienen 19 y 17 años. Los dos viven en casa. El hermano que tiene 19 años va a la Universidad de Madrid y está estudiando para ser abogado. El hermano que tiene 17 va a San Agustín y quiere ser abogado también. Ellos viven en chalet que tiene cuatro pisos. Ellos tienen cuidadora que ayuda en la casa y cocina muy bien. Durante los fines de semana les gusta salir a comer todos juntos. Todos los veranos, van a la playa en agosto y pasan tiempo juntos. Normalmente, los domingos van a misa. Este jueves, celebramos el Día del Padre. Por la mañana, le dimos un regalo: una camiseta, ¡que le encantó! Después, fuimos a comer a un restuarante que se llamaba Lateral. Comimos muchas tapas como por ejemplo: tortilla de patatas, jamón serrano, y solomillo. ¡Fue fantástico y me encanta pasar tiempo con mi familia española! Recomendaría esta experiencia a todo el mundo porque conoces otra cultura distinta y aprendes otras tradiciones.
-Abigail Anderson

Esta es una fota de mi chica española y su madre cuando estábamos en el aeropuerto.

The Prado and the Reina Sofia

“El Prado and Reina Sofia are both incredible museums that contain amazing works of art from several different Artists. The Reina Sofia museum has more abstract artwork by artists such as Dali. Whereas El Prado has more classical artwork. El Prado has artwork from Francisco de Goya, Picasso, Diego Velazquez, Tiziano, and Jacopo Bassano. All of these artists  have different perspectives and emotions in which they put in their paintings. For example, Goya was depressed at one point of his life so he painted his dark and violent thoughts and expressed it in his artwork. He had a lot of artwork that showed war and how he believed that "war is blind". Also, many of these artists painted the Spanish civil war or the royalty and nobles of the time. While we were at the museums we also got the chance to see some new Picasso paintings which were only temporarily at the museum. One of the best paintings in the Prado called "Las Meninas" was done by Diego Velazquez and he used very unique techniques that gave the painting a 3D effect. It looked as if you could walk right into the painting and live in that moment. He created this fascinating effect using natural light, movement, realism, and color. Bassano's artwork typically was done by using geometrical techniques that looked surreal. These paintings all had different stories which helped you understand the meaning and purpose of the artwork. We all loved these fascinating museums!”

-Lucy

Segovia

“Cuando llegamos a Segovia vimos el acueducto. Era precioso! La guía habló sobre él unos minutos y nos explicó que había sido construido por los Romanos. Nosotros caminamos por las calles de Segovia y nos contaron que las fachadas de los edificios tenían diseños muy especiales. Fuimos a la Plaza Mayor, era muy bonita y tenía monumentos medievales. Finalmente fuimos al Alcázar, era un castillo muy bonito. Desde arriba del Alcázar podíamos ver toda la ciudad. El castillo servía para proteger la ciudad y como estaba en un valle, las montañas protegían Segovia y aprovechaban la naturaleza. “

-Christa