Waka Waka ehhh ahhh ehhh

These past couple of weeks have been absolutely fabulous. I am currently in a pueblo 30 minutes outside of Leon. Despite what our program told us, we are not in Leon but rather in the middle of nowhere. I wake up to the bells around the mountain goats necks. The views are phenomenal and it is difficult to concentrate in class with such pretty views. The past week, we had a busy schedule working with 105 ten-year old kids from Madrid. They had an excellent level of English which made our job easy. They came on Monday afternoon and we played games with them. On Tuesday, we did a triple excursion day which was fun despite the horrible rainy weather. We went splunking in the caves, rock climbing (indoors), and played games in a gym.
One night was Night of Terror and we dressed up and turned the electricity off in the camp. The kids played Clue and had to find clues around camp while the teachers were dressed up, scaring them and giving them challenges and hints. The last night, Thursday, we had a disco party and danced with the kids in the game room. On Friday, we went for a hike to the Refugio and went swimming. They left at 2pm and we had class afterwards. I've found that Spanish children are much different than American children. They are extremely affectionate and in Spain, there is no red tape. The teachers can touch the kids without facing lawsuits. The Spanish kids, although they stay with their families through their 20's, are often very independent. It's hard to explain, but I see so many differences between American and Spanish kids.
On Saturday, Sarah, Valerie, Brittni and I went to Gijon. It took us a little more than 2 hours by train to reach Gijon which is in the north of Spain. We spent the day walking around the city, going to the beach, the boat marina, and stopped in at a Sidreria. Sidra is a famous drink that Asturias is known for. It is a cold cider and served in a special way. The waiter pours the cider from above his head into a glass he holds down by his waist. When he gave me the glass, he told me I had to drink it all right away. I hadn't expected it at all. Later in the evening, we went for churros con chocolate. Overall, we had a great weekend away from camp. I leave for Barcelona on Tuesday morning. The train is 8 hours so I hope to get some lesson plans done in that time. Until then, I am enjoying my last few days with my friends in my program.