Kate has written about her trip to Mostoles
My visit to Spain by Kate.
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Wednesday
At six o'clock in the morning me, Alex, Isabella, Harry, Mr Mason, Mrs Sharp and Mrs Duroe set off to Manchester airport to fly to Brussels. At Manchester the flight went smoothly, except the landing at the end, but I sucked on a Starburst so my ears were fine.
When we got to Brussels we found out that our flight was delayed so we sat in a restaurant eating chicken and chips, then we set off to Madrid.
When we got to Madrid, Jesus who was the sports teacher, and the head teacher
of one the schools, were there to meet us. While we were in the mini van,
I was nervous about meeting people I had never met before, but I was sure
they would be kind. When I heard someone call "KATE" I was
scared. It was a calm happy voice, but you could tell they didn't
know much English. I was right, everywhere they went they brought a dictionario
or dictionary. When we got to the block of flats I thought that the flats
would be small but once you got inside they were quite big. My host was
Lucia and Elena with the dad a mum and the cat there was also a budgie
he was nice but squawked through the night. In Spain they have late
dinners, and late bed times, so I said No Thank You to dinner
and went straight to bed. I was shattered.
Thursday
In the morning I had a Spanish toast. It was cooked with vegetable oil and sugar on it. It was really sweet.
The family were very friendly and made me feel welcome. After breakfast I went to the Leon Felipe School it was quite a big school with three floors. The Sports events was at the local leisure centre, and all travelled there by bus. We got split up into five groups and went to play lots of different sports. The sports we played were football, tennis, squash, badminton and climbing. My favourite was the climbing. In a large room, was a big rock climbing wall, sectioned into parts. There was a big wall outside that only the teachers could go on. The only one I saw get to the top was a Spanish teacher, who was from the leisure centre, so I wasn't surprised. There was another teacher who nearly got to the top but didn't.
After that we went back to the school to have lunch. For lunch we had paella, a seafood dish with salad, bread and fish sticks. At first I didn't like the squid, it was all rubbery, but I did quite like it in the end.
After lunch we gathered in the main hall for our goodbye assembly. Lucky
for us the main languages they spoke, were English and Spanish. There was
years 5 and 6 had their own little performance at the end we got given
a bag with English training disks in, with a pen a mouse mat for the computer,
books and a CD ROM. Then children in year 1 and 2 gave us things that they
had made, involving sports and games. Then school finished. At 7 o'clock
we had an evening, where we listened to some Spanish songs and then tasted
Spanish food from a lovely buffet. We had a good dance, and lots took photographs.
Mrs Sharp and I did the Macarena!! It was so funny. There was only one
song I understood as all the music was Spanish. The song I knew was by
the Beetles. It was a great night finished by a flamenco dance. It was
so much fun especially when Alex and I tried to join in. Then I got tired
and we went back to the flat.
Friday
On Friday we ate cereal for breakfast and made our way to Leon Felipe School to catch a bus to the other school in Mosteles. When we got the there we got numbered into 9 groups I was in group number 6. I got split up into a group with a girl I already knew her name was Silvia and she was from Italy. We went around the natural park playing games from different countries. First we went to the Slovakian game that was really complicated to understand, but in the end I got the hang of it. The next game I moved onto was the horseshoe one were you had to throw the horse shoe, so it fitted onto the metal stick. The game was Spanish. The object of the next game we played was to flick bottle-tops around the course in the sand, until they got all the way round.
The owner of the first coin to arrive wins. The next game we moved onto was another Spanish game were you had to line up and someone stood in the middle of the two lines with handkerchief and the first one to grab the handkerchief and get back to the line with it wins. Even if you don't grab it you can still get it back by tagging the other person then there is a point automatically to you.
The next game we played was a bit like block and you had to hide and if you got to the middle without anyone noticing and kick the can you win. Then we finished the games and went to lunch.
For lunch we had a salami sandwich with two different types of fruit I had an orange and a pear. Lunch went wrong when all the wasps came after our fruit and everyone screamed and ran away. After lunch we had to go to the last game for me it was Finnish baseball it was like rounders but you hit the ball and had to run differently to the bases across the whole pitch and then round. We had to meet up with the teachers to get our money for the visit to Madrid. When we got back to the flat we went to meet my host family. We went to see the host dads mum and their cousin Ricardo. They had a dog called Duke that was really friendly. We were aloud to go out to the shops and the park with Ricardo and the hosts. First we went to the sweet shop I got some liquorice and some marshmallows. Then we went to the park it was really fun me and Lucia got swung and spun everywhere it was brill. On our way home we went through an assault course and I fell over into some sand when we got home pizza was there waiting for us.
Everyone was crowding around the table with drinks poured out and everything it was set out really nicely. At 10 o'clock we made our journey back to the flat. I went into the bathroom took a shower did my teeth and face and went to bed.
Saturday
At 7 o'clock we got up and ate our breakfast which was a flaky kind of bread which you had to break up into bits and dip in hot chocolate. Then we caught our bus to Madrid.
When we got to Madrid we went straight to the art gallery Del Prado with original art in it, some pieces were amazing I really enjoyed going. Then we went to fountains the middle of Spain which felt so good to step in the middle of any country would be good. We went to go and get these almond honey croissants they were gorgeous. Then we got some lavenders made from lavender they were nice as well. Madrid is full of beggars and street performers and if they were not meant to be somewhere they got a yellow ticket which forced them to pay money. Next we went to the main square were there was artists willing to paint a portrait of you for a couple of euros. There was this magnificent wall painted all around of pictures of different people. We walked down towards the largest fish market in the world which you could see was very big from the outside. Then we walked down to the bridge where you could see the real differences between the old Madrid and the new one the old Madrid reminded me about Italy absolutely beautiful. The cathedral and the royal palace was right in front of us we only had to walk a few metres. The palace was massive so the king and queen of Spain didn't live there. Then we went to the statue of the bears and the trees. We had to quickly run to catch the bus. I loved it in Madrid and took loads of amazing photos.
When we got home Isabella and her host Marta came to the flat to play for a bit. After that we all drove off towards the same place it was a complete surprise to Isabella and me and they bought us a little present Isabella got play mobile horses and I got some make-up and a lovely make-up bag. As we walked into the supermarket we went right to the seafood section at the back and the crabs there weren't dead they were alive. For tea we had a Mediterranean dish with seafood and rice. I needed an early start so I went straight to bed.
Sunday
I had to get up at 5 o'clock I said my goodbyes had a quick tear and drove to the other school in Mostoles. We drove to the airport and every host parent squeezed their Childs cheeks and sent us off into the airport. We had a sleep on the plane and soon enough we had landed in Brussels. We hadn't had any lunch so we went to pizza hut. We also had a quick look at shops and we had to get going again. When we flew to Manchester airport we got a toasted sandwich that I didn't eat because I tried it and it wasn't very nice. When we got to Manchester airport Alex's mum and dad were there to pick us up. In the car we watched Harry potter and the goblet of fire. When I saw my mum and dad I was overwhelmed with joy I knew my trip to Spain would be in my mind forever.
