or how I learned to live on nutella
or my life in an ikea store
or where awkward is normal
or ...
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Saturday, July 11, 2009
Henceforth CTY shall be known by the following...
CTY...
CTY Madrid goes to... Madrid
Today, we took the children to the Parque to Madrid, a large and beautiful park similar to New York's Central Park. With typical perfect weather, it was a wonderful time to explore and a great opportunity for some group photos.
Above, is the group photo. I am only in this one version (I think) since I took the photos with everyone else's camera before handing it off and running into the photo, so hopefully there aren't any other copies of me sprawled out floating around on another's memory card.
I decided to ride the lion, much to the amusement of the others.
Above, is the group photo. I am only in this one version (I think) since I took the photos with everyone else's camera before handing it off and running into the photo, so hopefully there aren't any other copies of me sprawled out floating around on another's memory card.
I decided to ride the lion, much to the amusement of the others.
Can you read it?
-Your RA's
City planning
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Friday, July 10, 2009
Vampires
I have been having vivid dreams of vampires for the last few days. Usually I am one in the dreams. No, these are not daydreams - they come while I am napping. These are goth vampires and I seem to be part of their group in my dreams. We are about to go on stage for something and are in the wings of the stage. There are also impostor vampires and I am in general frustrated with them.
Then, I wake up. And I am sure there is a name for this - but I feel the "typical" effects of being a vampire. I am adverse to light, as I open the door my whole body contracts. Same as someone says a cough is going around, and you start coughing and believing you might be ill.
Then, I wake up. And I am sure there is a name for this - but I feel the "typical" effects of being a vampire. I am adverse to light, as I open the door my whole body contracts. Same as someone says a cough is going around, and you start coughing and believing you might be ill.
So, should I put two reddish dots on my neck before sharing this story with the kids?
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new ideas
I am thinking that doing southern spain and portugal is to much. Instead, I thought the following might be fun.
train to Valencia following the program (I did come here for the Paella, right?)
boat to Majorca (Ibiza...)
boat to barcelona
Andorra (maybe hike in if possible)
Train to Marseille / Nice
Italy (itinerary to be determined)
Albania, Macedonia, Greece - would like to be in Santorini for part of Greek adventure after checking out Athens . Potential of renting / chartering unskippered boat with friends would be ideal for some island exploration and relaxation.
End in Turkey
fly through amsterdam home (guaranteed to miss my flight with very fast connection!)
train to Valencia following the program (I did come here for the Paella, right?)
boat to Majorca (Ibiza...)
boat to barcelona
Andorra (maybe hike in if possible)
Train to Marseille / Nice
Italy (itinerary to be determined)
Albania, Macedonia, Greece - would like to be in Santorini for part of Greek adventure after checking out Athens . Potential of renting / chartering unskippered boat with friends would be ideal for some island exploration and relaxation.
End in Turkey
fly through amsterdam home (guaranteed to miss my flight with very fast connection!)
Breakfast crackers
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Breakfast
Today, I decided to sleep in a bit more. No reason to be awake and standing around the hall just waiting for kids to wake up.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
It´s Jenn, my director, telling me to check up on a student. Of all days I choose to get a little extra sleep, I get an AM visit from my boss.
Poor timing.
Rounded the kids up, and down to breakfast. But can I really call it that? Each setting had a package of 4 small crackers, that was it. 4 crackers does not constitute a meal, especially for growing kids. Where are the vegetables, where is the healthy stuff. We need to throw out the ham (almost in every meal) and eat something green! Something not processed, just once this month.
Yesterday, in Madrid, was the first time I felt full from a meal since arriving here. That is not a good thing - especially for growing bodies. (and grown ones)
Knock! Knock! Knock!
It´s Jenn, my director, telling me to check up on a student. Of all days I choose to get a little extra sleep, I get an AM visit from my boss.
Poor timing.
Rounded the kids up, and down to breakfast. But can I really call it that? Each setting had a package of 4 small crackers, that was it. 4 crackers does not constitute a meal, especially for growing kids. Where are the vegetables, where is the healthy stuff. We need to throw out the ham (almost in every meal) and eat something green! Something not processed, just once this month.
Yesterday, in Madrid, was the first time I felt full from a meal since arriving here. That is not a good thing - especially for growing bodies. (and grown ones)
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Another day at CTY
Lunch today was noodle soup. I should clarify, I am pretty sure it was noodles that were left in water all night, and called soup. It was beyond bland - the air was giving it flavor, in fact, it was kind of cool how little flavor they were able to put into it. Second plate was some sort of hamburger, except pork, of course, and very thin. Equally tasteless.
After lunch it was a sealed deal, and the RA's, and staff took off for the supermarket which is a few minutes walk. Ahh. Bliss. No sooner had I arrived back in my room than I opened up my can of Nutella, and dove in. What is unfortunate is that it is probably the healthiest thing I have had to eat all week - in fact, I am almost sure it is.
I am assisting in running the basketball activity today which should be interesting. The Rubik's cubes arrived for my decathlon, which is very exciting (pause for another nutella and cracker snack) and I have come up with some additional categories. I was thinking of a staff trivia section, who is from where, what school, etc.
After lunch it was a sealed deal, and the RA's, and staff took off for the supermarket which is a few minutes walk. Ahh. Bliss. No sooner had I arrived back in my room than I opened up my can of Nutella, and dove in. What is unfortunate is that it is probably the healthiest thing I have had to eat all week - in fact, I am almost sure it is.
I am assisting in running the basketball activity today which should be interesting. The Rubik's cubes arrived for my decathlon, which is very exciting (pause for another nutella and cracker snack) and I have come up with some additional categories. I was thinking of a staff trivia section, who is from where, what school, etc.
Planning for post CTY
I think there is way to much on here. I feel like I want to see a lot, and then come back and get to know different areas that interest me next trip.
Here it goes:
Portugal (2 days)
Sevilla (1)
Valencia (2)
Barcelona (4)
Andorra (1)
Marseille / Nice (1/2)
Venice (2)
Florence (2)
Rome (3)
Eastern Italy (1) just to catch boat
Tirane (2) or surrounding area
Bitola (1) or surrounding area
Athens (2)
Greek Isles (4)
South Turkey (1-2)
Istanbul (2)
Which gives me two extra days, assuming all night travel (saves on hotels / hostals)
I have approximately 33 days.
I just feel like it is a bit rushed, but am not sure where to cut it back.
There are 16 potential trips, including some ferries, so it seems like a railpass is the way to go.
thoughts anyone?
Here it goes:
Portugal (2 days)
Sevilla (1)
Valencia (2)
Barcelona (4)
Andorra (1)
Marseille / Nice (1/2)
Venice (2)
Florence (2)
Rome (3)
Eastern Italy (1) just to catch boat
Tirane (2) or surrounding area
Bitola (1) or surrounding area
Athens (2)
Greek Isles (4)
South Turkey (1-2)
Istanbul (2)
Which gives me two extra days, assuming all night travel (saves on hotels / hostals)
I have approximately 33 days.
I just feel like it is a bit rushed, but am not sure where to cut it back.
There are 16 potential trips, including some ferries, so it seems like a railpass is the way to go.
thoughts anyone?
Mail Delivery
Morning mail arrived. I know Jenn, the site director, went to bed before I did, she stopped at the lab and said good night to the remaining RA´s before midnight. I was up until around 2AM last night which means the note arrived sometime after:
Jonathan -
Please make sure _____ _____ is awake.
(Long story - I´ll explain later.)
-Jenn
it seems that his mother was freaking out after he didn´t pick up this morning for his wake up call, called the front desk at 6 AM, and then they called Jenn. She was not pleased.
In other news, Nick took off for the States. Unfortunate, he was growing on me. I think we found something to both put our efforts into changing (food) as opposed to arguing with each other regarding staffing policies for lunch.
With the students at class, I have the rest of the day to figure out now. I do want to start the LSAT book, and finish my other book I brought with me.
That´s all the news from Camp CTY!
Jonathan -
Please make sure _____ _____ is awake.
(Long story - I´ll explain later.)
-Jenn
it seems that his mother was freaking out after he didn´t pick up this morning for his wake up call, called the front desk at 6 AM, and then they called Jenn. She was not pleased.
In other news, Nick took off for the States. Unfortunate, he was growing on me. I think we found something to both put our efforts into changing (food) as opposed to arguing with each other regarding staffing policies for lunch.
With the students at class, I have the rest of the day to figure out now. I do want to start the LSAT book, and finish my other book I brought with me.
That´s all the news from Camp CTY!
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
ad sense - help jonathan out!
help cover the cost of my trip, click on some of the ads each time you visit. I have had 532 page views, and 11 ad clicks. just click, and move on. If all 532 page views had clicked an ad, that could have been a hostal stay right there!
Breakfast, RA meeting and Activity planning
Breakfast went smoothly - bad churros, and coffee. I found a banana and mixed it up with some yogurt for my own breakfast. They forgot to give the kids cereal bowls, but put out cereal, which I found to be very entertaining. It was off to the RA meeting afterwards where we learned what we are doing. I asked to do Salsa dancing taught by a fellow RA in the hopes of learning some basic steps.
I decided that I would try to plan an activity along the lines of a team based academic decathlon next week.
The ten events I am thinking at the moment would be:
1. Rubik's Cube. Team based, one member who doesn´t solve them, is blindfolded and the rest of the team (hyopefully containing a member who can solve them) directs them how to move it without touching it. There might a speed round as well. Points to the first team or two that solves the cube.
2. Trivia Round - History, Sports, etc.
3. Math Problems. A series of questions in increasing difficulty.
4. Riddles
5. Mensa warm up test. see mensa.org for an example.
6. Name that Painting / sculpture (verbal description for 5 art works, show them painting for 5 art works using projector)
7. What´s bigger, smaller, rounder, flatter, true, false
8. Music ID: play pieces, identify song for one point, composer/artist for another point
9. Translation
10. Zen Counting
Of course, I welcome suggestions. Any of these I would be up for replacing, adding to, or modifying.
Can´t wait to see everyone´s thoughts.
I decided that I would try to plan an activity along the lines of a team based academic decathlon next week.
The ten events I am thinking at the moment would be:
1. Rubik's Cube. Team based, one member who doesn´t solve them, is blindfolded and the rest of the team (hyopefully containing a member who can solve them) directs them how to move it without touching it. There might a speed round as well. Points to the first team or two that solves the cube.
2. Trivia Round - History, Sports, etc.
3. Math Problems. A series of questions in increasing difficulty.
4. Riddles
5. Mensa warm up test. see mensa.org for an example.
6. Name that Painting / sculpture (verbal description for 5 art works, show them painting for 5 art works using projector)
7. What´s bigger, smaller, rounder, flatter, true, false
8. Music ID: play pieces, identify song for one point, composer/artist for another point
9. Translation
10. Zen Counting
Of course, I welcome suggestions. Any of these I would be up for replacing, adding to, or modifying.
Can´t wait to see everyone´s thoughts.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Children arrival
Day 1 with the kids. Most of the disaster averted. It seems that we got the more subdued kids, I watched the CTY Espana students get into fist fights, try to turn over a soda machine and run chaotically around campus. Ours seem to have done CTY in the past, and know the rules, and how things work.
The food was terrible. It was cold, frozen, empanadas. The vegetarian option was a pancake like egg thing, folded with cheese in it. and ham. Vegetarian? When they explained to the kitchen, for the nth time, that vegetarians don't eat meat, they were given 4 thin slices of eggplant each. really small pieces. The kids were furious, the administrators were furious. Not enough food was cooked either, some kids never received any food.
I didn't eat - I was a little scared about the frozen and refrozen products. I satiated my appetite with two bananas and some awful soup.
Otherwise, things are ok. I put my foot down, and dealt with some issues - especially the racism of the kids towards the students in CTY espana.
We also put together a skit that I had a lot of fun with and really took a lot of control. We had to introduce ourselves while giving some rules. Jean, a swattie class of 2010, and fellow RA, started by interviewing me after we called her up on stage. She asked me questions and I established the separation of halls by gender.
Then I called up Ryan as if he were a boxer, "65 pounds soaking wet" (he's actually my height, and similar weight), and he acted dehydrated. So, I tossed the contents of a glass of water on his face much to the amusement of the kids.
During the administrator's welcome speeches, I set up some response words for the RA's and TA's.
Spain received an "Ole!"
Madrid, an applause
and Staff got the wave.
The kids loved it.
That and the RA meeting was probably the most fun, and best opportunity to interact with the kids and have their attention. I also had a winning 7-UP streak until I purposefully had Ryan replace me to get some variety. I wasn't able to return to the selection group before the game ends.
There are some spacey kids, some sassy kids, some annoying kids, and some down to earth ones who are alright. I can't say what to expect - but I can assure you that food is my priority at the moment outside of the typical (safety and fun), and clarifying many of the hanging questions regarding lunches, time off, etc.
The food was terrible. It was cold, frozen, empanadas. The vegetarian option was a pancake like egg thing, folded with cheese in it. and ham. Vegetarian? When they explained to the kitchen, for the nth time, that vegetarians don't eat meat, they were given 4 thin slices of eggplant each. really small pieces. The kids were furious, the administrators were furious. Not enough food was cooked either, some kids never received any food.
I didn't eat - I was a little scared about the frozen and refrozen products. I satiated my appetite with two bananas and some awful soup.
Otherwise, things are ok. I put my foot down, and dealt with some issues - especially the racism of the kids towards the students in CTY espana.
We also put together a skit that I had a lot of fun with and really took a lot of control. We had to introduce ourselves while giving some rules. Jean, a swattie class of 2010, and fellow RA, started by interviewing me after we called her up on stage. She asked me questions and I established the separation of halls by gender.
Then I called up Ryan as if he were a boxer, "65 pounds soaking wet" (he's actually my height, and similar weight), and he acted dehydrated. So, I tossed the contents of a glass of water on his face much to the amusement of the kids.
During the administrator's welcome speeches, I set up some response words for the RA's and TA's.
Spain received an "Ole!"
Madrid, an applause
and Staff got the wave.
The kids loved it.
That and the RA meeting was probably the most fun, and best opportunity to interact with the kids and have their attention. I also had a winning 7-UP streak until I purposefully had Ryan replace me to get some variety. I wasn't able to return to the selection group before the game ends.
There are some spacey kids, some sassy kids, some annoying kids, and some down to earth ones who are alright. I can't say what to expect - but I can assure you that food is my priority at the moment outside of the typical (safety and fun), and clarifying many of the hanging questions regarding lunches, time off, etc.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
CTY Begins
I arrived on July 2nd, as required, at CTY Madrid where I will be working for the next three weeks in the capacity of an RA. Let me start by saying that this program is wraught with misrepresentation. When I first was given an offer by CTY, I spoke at great length with Katherine Kidd, the director of CTY about the role in Hong Kong. Katherine spoke extensively about how as long as I was prepared, I would be able to spend a lot of time during the day, while classes were going on for the students, exploring the city. After Hong Kong was cancelled and I was switched to Baltimore and then Madrid at the last moment, I continued speaking with her regarding the opportunities to explore Madrid during my free time should it be possible.
The administrative staff here however are not so keen on us leaving the campus, at all. ever. They run a tight ship here, the students can't do anything without an adult present - not even go to a bathroom, an adult has to be outside. I would understand if we were in an urban area, but we aren't. We are in a rural area surrounded by nothing, there is nowhere for them to go - nothing mischevious that could happen. We might as well be in New Jersey. Some of these students are 16 years old. I was traveling alone to the city at that age. They are going with quite a literal translation of complete supervision. It's a recipe for disaster. It's the classic question for college students, if you are to vigilant, then they find alternative less safe means of doing the same things you are trying to prevent. Students who are smart will figure out ways to do things they want, but with the tight supervision, they may put themselves at risk and sneak around. We should be taking a much more hands off approach. oOne learns when every moment of their life is planned, they are just sheep being herded from place to place.
So, the first bit of misrepresentation comes from the website:
"Welcome to CTY’s program in Madrid, Spain—a three-week residential summer program for academically talented high school students in grades 7 and above. Housed at the Universidad Francisco de Vitoria, a beautiful, private university located on the outskirts of the city, CTY-Madrid combines the strength of CTY’s summer programs with the benefits of a studying and living in a historically rich and important European capital." - http://cty.jhu.edu/summer/spain/index.html
Already there is a bit of a discrepancy going on - "located on the outskirts of the city" and "studying and living in a historically rich and important european capital." We are on a bus route that comes very infrequently, and it's an hour bus ride to the metro station, plus more time to get from the farthest station into the city itself. This is not the outskirts of the city, it's the country, it is rural.
Second, the promise of opportunity to explore. Keep in mind that many of us paid additional funds out of pocket that will not be reimbursed for the plane ticket here. We wanted to be at CTY Madrid because we wanted to be in Madrid when not working with the students. As Katherine explained to me, it's a great opportunity for the students and the staff. Except, the staff has created a scenario in which the RA's are incapable of traveling into the city on a frequent basis. I have been discussing this at some length during the RA meetings, yet mine is pretty much the only voice to be heard on this matter. We all agree outside of the room that we were worked over, but no one else will say anything. It was drawn quite a bit of attention to myself in the course of these past few days, and I have had little success in changing things as I see reasonable. We are technically free from responsibility for the children directly between breakfast and late afternoon activities. However, they have placed a small task of eating lunch with the kids, not interacting otherwise in the exact middle, breaking a 9 hour exploring opportunity into two very small opportunities, and with the bus system, making it impossible to go off.
I have a sneaking sensation that the other RA's are frustrated at times with me because I am continuing to push this issue, and not cave in. I am Jewish, and I am a New Yorker, when I am told that I am to get something, I expect it to carry through - we are, after all, the generation known for having a sense of entitlement as so many of older generations have pointed out in various instances to myself and others of my generation (we are also the instant gratification generation, which I think is incredibly interesting). Today, one of the administrators accused me of coming to CTY just to explore Spain, that I don't care about the children, and never gave me a chance to let him know that isn't true. Rather, I chose to do CTY because I think it would be a great way to do something great for students, and I chose Spain because I think kids learn best in new places when all their senses are awakened. And I would also of course like to do some exploration.
We will see what happens with the proposed plan that would give us each a day off. Falls short of expectations, and limits our ability to explore together. In my opinion, the program doesn't respect these students at all. Rather, it treats them like babies. If you desire people to respond in an adult manner, you need to give them the chance to and treat them as adults which may include things such as giving them some responsibility. This program doesn't seem to further them in that capacity. I question the pedagogical methods used on the residential side for the students sake.
So, what has happened. Since arriving I have been spending my time mostly in very poorly run meetings. They like to give us sheets of paper, and then read them to us, very slowly. And painfully. Questions aren't generally answered, and there is a loquacious tendency to repeat things that makes it at time excruciating. I don't feel like I know that much more than I did upon arrival having read the RA handbook.
I went out one night in the local area to find somewhere to sit down and get to know my coworkers. The solution we were able to find in walking distance was a chinese restaurant. Not very exciting. Possibly the only summer solution. Then, we had more meetings, and nothing interesting happened until Saturday, when we went to Madrid as a group. The ideas was to familiarize ourselves with the areas that we would be leading tours around. How exciting. We went to the outside of the prada museum, outside of reina sophia, were given some basic information and herded through the city.
After the tour, we could stay in Madrid and so in a moment of brilliance, I invited the two site directors to join us for tapas. I do mean brilliance here in the traditional form, as a positive thing. They accepted and we were off. What a night of fun, sharing stories, drinking wine together, getting plates of different things. We went from cafe to cafe, witnessing Madrid, doing Madrid. For about 7 hours we enjoyed their company, we being Diogo Shiva and myself and Ryan and Nick for the earlier hour or two.
At some point I went to the toilette, and when I returned, they had launched into Never Have I Ever while I was gone. I wasn't expecting to learn so much about my site directors, and the conversation turned to stories of past travels and other experiences.
At around 11:30, the two directors caught a taxi home and Diogo, Shiva and I went to find a pub or something for a bit more. We ran into some friends of Shiva that he met in Prague, and bumped into a group that does pub crawls in various cities around the country. Not my thing, it was mostly Americans at it. I would prefer to meet locales, practice my spanish and enjoy it. Sadly, I was probably the most qualified spanish speaker at that point. Diogo can speak some and understand, but he grew up with Portugues. Shiva's spanish has become a sort of project for the group, as he quickly learns to put together sentences and build his vocabulary. I successfully returned us home around 3, and promptly fell asleep after making a phone call on skype.
More meetings today, and preparation. CTY Espana, run here as well, just had their students arrive.
The administrative staff here however are not so keen on us leaving the campus, at all. ever. They run a tight ship here, the students can't do anything without an adult present - not even go to a bathroom, an adult has to be outside. I would understand if we were in an urban area, but we aren't. We are in a rural area surrounded by nothing, there is nowhere for them to go - nothing mischevious that could happen. We might as well be in New Jersey. Some of these students are 16 years old. I was traveling alone to the city at that age. They are going with quite a literal translation of complete supervision. It's a recipe for disaster. It's the classic question for college students, if you are to vigilant, then they find alternative less safe means of doing the same things you are trying to prevent. Students who are smart will figure out ways to do things they want, but with the tight supervision, they may put themselves at risk and sneak around. We should be taking a much more hands off approach. oOne learns when every moment of their life is planned, they are just sheep being herded from place to place.
So, the first bit of misrepresentation comes from the website:
"Welcome to CTY’s program in Madrid, Spain—a three-week residential summer program for academically talented high school students in grades 7 and above. Housed at the Universidad Francisco de Vitoria, a beautiful, private university located on the outskirts of the city, CTY-Madrid combines the strength of CTY’s summer programs with the benefits of a studying and living in a historically rich and important European capital." - http://cty.jhu.edu/summer/spain/index.html
Already there is a bit of a discrepancy going on - "located on the outskirts of the city" and "studying and living in a historically rich and important european capital." We are on a bus route that comes very infrequently, and it's an hour bus ride to the metro station, plus more time to get from the farthest station into the city itself. This is not the outskirts of the city, it's the country, it is rural.
Second, the promise of opportunity to explore. Keep in mind that many of us paid additional funds out of pocket that will not be reimbursed for the plane ticket here. We wanted to be at CTY Madrid because we wanted to be in Madrid when not working with the students. As Katherine explained to me, it's a great opportunity for the students and the staff. Except, the staff has created a scenario in which the RA's are incapable of traveling into the city on a frequent basis. I have been discussing this at some length during the RA meetings, yet mine is pretty much the only voice to be heard on this matter. We all agree outside of the room that we were worked over, but no one else will say anything. It was drawn quite a bit of attention to myself in the course of these past few days, and I have had little success in changing things as I see reasonable. We are technically free from responsibility for the children directly between breakfast and late afternoon activities. However, they have placed a small task of eating lunch with the kids, not interacting otherwise in the exact middle, breaking a 9 hour exploring opportunity into two very small opportunities, and with the bus system, making it impossible to go off.
I have a sneaking sensation that the other RA's are frustrated at times with me because I am continuing to push this issue, and not cave in. I am Jewish, and I am a New Yorker, when I am told that I am to get something, I expect it to carry through - we are, after all, the generation known for having a sense of entitlement as so many of older generations have pointed out in various instances to myself and others of my generation (we are also the instant gratification generation, which I think is incredibly interesting). Today, one of the administrators accused me of coming to CTY just to explore Spain, that I don't care about the children, and never gave me a chance to let him know that isn't true. Rather, I chose to do CTY because I think it would be a great way to do something great for students, and I chose Spain because I think kids learn best in new places when all their senses are awakened. And I would also of course like to do some exploration.
We will see what happens with the proposed plan that would give us each a day off. Falls short of expectations, and limits our ability to explore together. In my opinion, the program doesn't respect these students at all. Rather, it treats them like babies. If you desire people to respond in an adult manner, you need to give them the chance to and treat them as adults which may include things such as giving them some responsibility. This program doesn't seem to further them in that capacity. I question the pedagogical methods used on the residential side for the students sake.
So, what has happened. Since arriving I have been spending my time mostly in very poorly run meetings. They like to give us sheets of paper, and then read them to us, very slowly. And painfully. Questions aren't generally answered, and there is a loquacious tendency to repeat things that makes it at time excruciating. I don't feel like I know that much more than I did upon arrival having read the RA handbook.
I went out one night in the local area to find somewhere to sit down and get to know my coworkers. The solution we were able to find in walking distance was a chinese restaurant. Not very exciting. Possibly the only summer solution. Then, we had more meetings, and nothing interesting happened until Saturday, when we went to Madrid as a group. The ideas was to familiarize ourselves with the areas that we would be leading tours around. How exciting. We went to the outside of the prada museum, outside of reina sophia, were given some basic information and herded through the city.
After the tour, we could stay in Madrid and so in a moment of brilliance, I invited the two site directors to join us for tapas. I do mean brilliance here in the traditional form, as a positive thing. They accepted and we were off. What a night of fun, sharing stories, drinking wine together, getting plates of different things. We went from cafe to cafe, witnessing Madrid, doing Madrid. For about 7 hours we enjoyed their company, we being Diogo Shiva and myself and Ryan and Nick for the earlier hour or two.
At some point I went to the toilette, and when I returned, they had launched into Never Have I Ever while I was gone. I wasn't expecting to learn so much about my site directors, and the conversation turned to stories of past travels and other experiences.
At around 11:30, the two directors caught a taxi home and Diogo, Shiva and I went to find a pub or something for a bit more. We ran into some friends of Shiva that he met in Prague, and bumped into a group that does pub crawls in various cities around the country. Not my thing, it was mostly Americans at it. I would prefer to meet locales, practice my spanish and enjoy it. Sadly, I was probably the most qualified spanish speaker at that point. Diogo can speak some and understand, but he grew up with Portugues. Shiva's spanish has become a sort of project for the group, as he quickly learns to put together sentences and build his vocabulary. I successfully returned us home around 3, and promptly fell asleep after making a phone call on skype.
More meetings today, and preparation. CTY Espana, run here as well, just had their students arrive.
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