Corrie Story #8

Apparently Corrie decided that Brian could use a little help in the romance department. We found this forged love note on the chalkboard in the hall. Thanks for lending a hand, Cupid!

An American Holiday Comes to Spain

Today is a special day. April 29th is "Free Cone Day," and this year's celebration commemorates the 30th Anniversary of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream. Just got back from the shop in Alcalá, where pretty much the entire school stood in line (several times) to get their free ice cream scoops and enjoy their American-ness. All of the Ben & Jerry's flavor names remain in English, but they provide a pronunciation guide for Spaniards. See if you can figure out these flavors:

• Chocoleit Fach Brauni Lau Fat
• Cuqui Daug
• Fanila Tofi Cranch
• Cofi Bas Bas
• Niu York Super Fach Chank
• Chanki Manki
• Uán Chisqueik Brauni
• Lemoneid Estand

Sounds like the phenomenon is worldwide, so if you read this early enough, get on down to your local scoop shop and get yourself some free goods.

Best Friends...

The Haircut

After nearly 5 months of growing his hair out, Brian just couldn't take it anymore. Maybe it was because it tickled his ears and itched his neck. Or perhaps it is beacuse the long hair seemed to emphasize the male pattern baldness that has initiated his thirties. Or it might be because his wife likened him unto Larry Fine of The Three Stooges. Or it could be because the librarian at school asked if he got a perm. At any rate, the curls have been shorn.

Messy Math

This is how homeschoolers study fractions.

Valencia

About four hours from Madrid is Valencia, Spain's third largest city. We spent two days seeing the sights and enjoying the coast. Here is a slideshow of the pictures we took.

Segobriga

Not to be confused with Segovia, Segobriga is a (relatively) recently excavated Roman city. It's pretty extensive and very fascinating. Out in the middle of rolling hills and farmland, it was important in the days of the Romans for mining a particular type of transparent stone which they shipped around the empire for use as windows among other things. After several days of rain, the weather was perfect on the day we visited. The ruins include:

an outdoor ampitheater

(from below)

(from above)

(to the side)

an arena:

(from above)

(gladiators competing)

a public building/city hall and courtyard

baths, drains, and other miscellaneous rooms.

Not to mention the ruins of a Roman piano and an extremeley good-looking statue or two.

Visitors

We've been busy pretending to be tour guides these past few weeks. Andrea's mom and some of her sisters came to visit. We all had a great time and, of course, the kids loved the extra attention. We packed several cities and monuments into our short time with them. I won't bore you with the places we've already blogged about, but will post pictures of the new stuff in the next few entries. Meanwhile here is a good picture of Andrea and her mama.

Corrie Story #7

Corrie's latest motto is:





"You know I can't resist an open armpit."



Catchy, huh? It's been used at least 5 times this past week as an excuse to tickle at random.

Field Trip

Mrs. Jackson's 2nd/3rd Grade Class went to Parque O'Donnell in nearby Alcalá de Henares to study plant life, under the direction of Andrea's student teacher, Ms. Kline. We homeschoolers tagged along. It was a nice day and the kids had fun. Looks like they may have done some learning in the process.