Excursion numero 1 - Retiro y Prado

Las excursiones

A little cafe in Parque de buen retiro, where I passed an hour or two with a cafe con leche. Ah the Spanish way of life.

I must tell the truth, this weekend stressed me out a bit. 1. Because I always have a bit of anxiety when taking field trips, but more so when none of the students involved can speak the language should they get into a sticky situation. 2. Because everything thus far seems a bit last minute and un-organized.

Saturday we started our day off at the university for breakfast, then we headed by a shuttle bus into the city to be dropped off at Retiro, where the kids had a few hours of free time. The kids went to the lake and rented the paddle boats and they walked around, and a few got caricatures done.

The adults went in a group, for the most part, Jenn and I went to a cafe by the lake and had a cafe con leche. We wanted to stay with in proximity to the children as they were walking around the park. Eventually, Maureen joined us for a Fanta. At 1:00, Jenn and I found a shady spot in the grass to eat our bocadillos. The entire group met up at 1:30 at our designated meeting spot and we marched onward to el Prado.

Our appt time for our two group entrances to el Prado were 2:30pm and 2:45 pm. The walk to the museum took less than 20 minutes, so the kids had about a half an hour or so to shop at the little kiosks outside of the museum.

While they shopped Jenn and I tried to get our affairs in order for our group entrances, and we got it all taken care of. My group went in first with no issues, we checked our bags and went for a bathroom break. Jenn's group was missing a few passports and ended up with one person extra, so luckily she had the cash card to pay for the necessary entries. Her group came in checked their bags and went for a bathroom break as well. Then we let them loose with their RA's in the museum with a rendezvous time of 4:45 to meet the bus at 5pm out on el Paseo del Prado.

Jenn, Maureen and I wandered through the museum. I of course had to see Las Meninas by Velazquez, it is my favorite painting. I am in awe of it everytime I see it and I think its my favorite because I know the most about it. Museums are hard for me unless I have someone who can tell me exactly what is going on in the paintings. We also saw alot by Goya, Velazquez, Ribero, and Murillo.

The strangest one for me is called "la mujer barbadura" (SP?) which translates to the bearded woman. And it's really weird, there are 2 people in the painting one in the background looking forward and another in the foreground that is holding a baby and is breastfeeding. The one in the foreground looks completely like a man, aside from the boob. According to the placard next to the painting, the woman had some kind of hormonal defect that made her grow facial hair and she looked like a man by the time she was 37.

Another one was of La princesa Carlota. It was painted when she was 10 years old, the same year that she was married off to the King of Portugal. She ruled as queen of Portugal for about 20 years before she died. Craziness. Could you imagine that happening today?!?! I think not, but it was so commonplace during those times.

We got everyone back at the meeting spot at the appointed time and we made it to the bus successfully. I felt much better once we were all on the bus and on our way home.

The kids had a lot of free time once we got back but I didn't care because once they are on the home turf of the university, my direct responsibility for them is done. Then it's the RA and Jenn. Not me. :)

I briefly toyed with the idea of going the el Pato Laqueado (the Lacquered Duck), a Spanish - Chinese restaurant/bar for a sangria with Maureen, but then decided against it due to being tired and not wanting to walk the 15 minutes to and 15 minutes back from it.

I slept in Sunday, I don't think I was supposed to but I did anyway, and I loved everyminute of it!

Sunday was more low-key, the CTY Espana kids went to El bosque, a pool and sports fields area, after breakfast and stayed all day. Our kids however, stayed on campus for the morning, to do laundry, call their parents, sleep in, etc. and then went to El bosque after lunch. We only stayed 3 hours but that was plenty of time. The kids had to have swim caps on in order to go into the pool, which only about 10 of our 56 kids had. But luckily the pool had a few extras (gross I know, but the water is chlorinated so that kills germs, right?!?!). The kids enjoyed being outside in the shade, they played cards, listened to music, they played basketball, volleyball and soccer.

It was relaxing to say the least. Meanwhile other issues were brewing back on campus, but that story will have to wait until I see you all in person. The suspense is killing you isn't it?!

Below are a few pictures from our Saturday journey. Note, I am not putting up pictures that have our kids in them because of a few reasons, one being I am not sure what JHU's policy is on that and secondly, I want to protect the campers privacy. But once I get the pictures developed and in an album, then you can see them.

Statue near the lago in Retiro

El lago y la estatua de Retiro

And again....

Happy July 13th!