Spanish Exchange- First Day of School

Some games with the 5th graders

Sam cheated!

Yesterday, we got to accompany our Spanish students to their school. Despite being on spring break, going to school always seems inevitable. I'm joking of course! The Colegio Villa de Griñón, despite being very different than SSSAS, is a charming school filled with delightful students and rigorous academics (from what I understood in class). After a speeding, heart clenching car ride to get to the school, my host family and I were running a little late, our group left our exchange students and went off on our own tour. Colegio Villa de Griñón has the equivalent of American grades K-12 and also a daycare center for young babies and toddlers similar to that of St. Stephen's. Our first stop on the tour was to the nursery to visit all the small children. Let's just say there was a lot of squealing and awing over the cuties that were there. We continued touring their facilities from the gymnasium, to their swimming pool, to their science classrooms, their jujitsu and dance rooms, and their tech lab. After our tour, we joined our Spanish students in their classroom. Unlike SSSAS they do not switch classrooms, only their teachers do. Anyways, I sat through physics class, history class, and English class that day. My favorite class out of the three was definitely history. Despite speaking a different language than I did, their teacher was very charismatic and passionate about the topic he was teaching. They were reviewing notes about the Spanish War of Independence in the late 1800's. It was quite interesting for I got to learn history of the world from a different perspective. I didn't pick up everything that he said, but I am proud to say that I am more knowledgable about the history of Spain than I was before this trip. Before lunch we got to participate in their foreign physical education class: swimming. While the Spanish students swam some swim test, Mede, Jared, Aron, Helen, and I got to mess around in the water with water polos balls in our, dare I say, attractive swim caps. We also had free time with the Spaniards in the pool which was spent laughing, tossing around the water polo ball, and splashing. Overall, the day we spent at Colegio Villa de Griñón was a fun experience that's am very glad I got to have.

Sam Kadlec