Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Back to School in Guadalajara, Spain


Tuesday, 8 November, 2016:

Another early morning wake up as I had to travel the 45 minutes by Land Rover to Guadalupe to help teach five classes of 14 to 17 year olds in the finer points of the great game of American flag football from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

We would be dealing with about 150 boys and girls on the day so I definitely needed some sustenance before starting.

A Porra and a cafe con leche
should do the trick

Arriving at Guadalajara's
Instituto Brianda de Mendoza
Period 1 Warming Up

YOU GO GIRL!

A large Period 1 class

Period 2 game

Period 2 was smaller and fun

Period 3 got after it!

Andrea scored Period 3's winning TD

Period 3 was happy too

Period 4 only had 10 kids

All of them were special in their own ways.

GOAL LINE FADE!

Period 5 was a huge one

Our two goals were to have fun playing the games and to get kids interested enough to join the Guadalajara Stings new flag football team for children their ages.

I think we accomplished both today thanks to the school's three helpful P.E. teachers and Stings players Borja and Bastiand who were of great help!

Jesús and I agreed that he should stay home to work and be with his family today and that it would be both foolish and expensive for me to return to Arganda del Rey just to turn again for our Stings practice from 9:15 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.

Thus I had just 15 minutes less than seven hours to kill.

Time to explore.

The Pantheon in the distance

A tree covered walking path

Nice band stand

That mustache alone merits
a statue as fine as this one

Time for a late lunch

Are those baby eels I'm eating
on the left?

I pray not!

Orange Sealant

Buildings in Spain are constructed with zero space between them. When an old one is torn down, they slather this bright orange sealant on the remaining building for protection from the elements.

This bank looks strong

Who stole Neptune's Trident?

Mike Moon, was it one of your Pacifica H.S. players?

Nice church entry way

Nicer pastries

LOVE BREAD!

Brightly colored housing

Great old doors

Competition for El Corte Inglés?

Nice shapes

The Palacio del Infantada
from the 15th century

Powerfully re-built after a bombing
in 1936 during the Spanish Civil War

Outer Courtyard

Diamonds

Inner Courtyard

Today the Palacio del Infantada houses two museums. Let's take a look.

Headless but fine

Who are these guys?

Solid masonry work

A Guadalajara Stings helmet

Jewish Art

No shoes, no shirt, no service

Christ I believe

Serene in death

The Palacio has great ceiling murals

Like . . .

. . . all three of these examples

More of the Inner Courtyard

Cardinal Mendoza's Family
owned the Palacio back in the day

Tenorio Mendocino was a
great gentleman from Guadalajara

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire

It was getting really cold but our practice time was nearly at hand thank goodness!

Stings Pursuit Drill

The team gave us another great effort tonight, and I was off to a warm bed after a looooong day in Guadalajara.

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