In early February, over twenty Foxcroft girls and three chaperones are heading to Roatan, Honduras for a one-week trip as part of the Winermission term. Our trip focuses on three distinct areas. With the reefs and crystal blue water, we will snorkel and take advantage of this beautiful bay on the Caribbean Sea. Those who would like to learn to dive may do the work for the Open Water Certification in advance and finish it with expert divers in Honduras. We will also spend time learning about this amazing natural ecosystem, both underwater and on the land. Our second focus will be working with the Roatan Bilingual School. We will gather supplies to take with us and, while there, will help the teachers and get to know the students as we provide assistance in the classroom and elsewhere. Roatan is noted for its Dolphin Research Center, so our third focus will not only provide us with the opportunity to swim with dolphins, but to learn about and build a new understanding of them, their habits, and their shrinking habitat.

The overarching component of the trip is photography — each participant will take photos underwater and on land, and become a better photographer while considering the subject, place, and composition of each picture-taking opportunity. This trip will provide myriad possibilities for growth by giving back to children, having personal experiences with dolphins, and seeing and documenting a truly spectacular tropical environment and its awesome underwater world.

On Tuesday, March 15, the Foxcroft girls had their second day of classes at Jesús María de Juan Bravo. They all loved the experience of sitting in a class and speaking only Spanish, and instantly became the stars of the school. By lunchtime, they were begging me to arrange our schedule so that they could spend as much time as possible in the classroom with their host sisters!

Nonetheless, after lunch we went out on an excursion to the old city center of Madrid. Juan Bravo let us borrow our usual guide, Asunción, as well as Luisa, a teacher of both history and art, to tour us around the section of Madrid that was built primarily during the reign of the Hapsburgs. Because of their influence, this area of the city is known as Madrid de los Austrias, or The Austrians’ Madrid. We set out on the Metro and arrived at the city’s famous opera house. The theater’s main facade faces onto a gorgeous courtyard, filled with flowers and fountains and bounded by colorful apartment houses.

Most impressive of all, though, was the royal palace directly across from us. It is an immense structure built between 1738 and 1755 on the site of a previous castle founded by the old Muslim kings of Spain. The palace sits on the crest of a hill, so the courtyards and gardens offered us incredible views of the whole city of Madrid and its outskirts. We walked down into the Gardens of Sabatini just alongside the palace to enjoy the view while strolling through boxwood mazes or appreciating statues and fountains. From the gardens, we walked over to the palace’s main courtyard, which has been the site of several royal weddings and coronations. Directly across from the courtyard is Madrid’s main cathedral, a huge and impressive edifice in the Gothic style.

We continued to wind through the old city as Luisa pointed out interesting or historic sights–churches, parade routes, and even the old marriage registry! Before heading back to school, we all made a stop at a somewhat peculiar little shop. “El Jardin del Convento” sells exclusively goods made in local monasteries and convents. We were surprised and impressed by the huge assortment of wines and liqueurs, cookies, sweets, jellies and textiles available from the local religious orders. Asunción and Luisa recommended to us some almond cookies and a box of “polvorones,” a bizzare kind of sweet that puffs into a sort of chocolate dust when you smash it inside its wrapping.

The Foxcroft girls were very appreciative of the tour, and surprised to see a part of the city so very different from where we are staying just a couple of metro stops away!

The plaza and apartments across from the Palacio Real

Today was the first full day in Madrid, and the Foxcroft students shadowed their Juan Bravo “twins” through a full day of classes. They were all very excited to participate, and the Spanish teachers and students alike were impressed with their ability to understand and communicate! The classes at Juan Bravo are much larger than at Foxcroft (each subject has about thirty students), but the ladies adjusted with great aplomb.

Avery Finkel and Catherine Reynolds, who were placed with younger students, arrived to school earlier than the rest to discover that they were scheduled for an outing with their twins’ English class to see a production of “The Picture of Dorian Gray” as a musical. It was very interesting for them to be on the other side of things, watching a play that they understood and explaining some of the expressions to their hosts.

At the end of the day, the Foxcroft girls participated in a cooking class with Juan Bravo’s head chef, Ricardo, and girls from Madiera and a Canadian school. They learned to make gazpacho, a cold tomato and pepper soup, and the “tortilla de patatas,” a type of Spanish omelette with potatoes and onion.

Catherine Reynolds intently cuts a potato

Jae helps to prepare the tortilla

Catherine, Luisa and Jae enjoy prepping the vegetables

Faith gets intense about gazpacho...

...and is very happy with the results!

We made it! This morning around 7:00 a.m. local time (that’s 2:00 body-clock time, for those of you who are rapidly trying to calculate), our wheels touched down at Madrid/Barajas airport. Although our eyes may have been a little rosier than our cheeks after just a few hours of airplane sleep, we nonetheless disembarked happily and quickly made the switch to full Spanish speaking! Foxcroft’s explorers quickly had their first vocab lesson of the trip–that in Spain, bathrooms are called “aseos” rather than “baños.”

We were all warmly welcomed by Asunción Beltran, our coordinator here in Spain, and by all of our host families. After a flurry of introductions and double-cheek-kisses, the girls all headed home to get acquainted and rest a bit while Ms. Steinke and I made our way with Asunción to the Colegio Juan Bravo. It’s certainly a lot bigger than Foxcroft, and very stately and imposing, but extremely beautiful. I have no doubt that the girls will be delighted to find a Starbucks right across the street.

It’s a little bit rainy and chilly in Madrid right now, but spring is just starting and we’ve seen a few trees starting to put out blossoms. I have a premonition that our visit to the Parque de Retiro is going to be pretty sensational!

Hasta luego,
Archer Davis

This March, six Foxcroft girls and seven girls from Madeira will embark on an exchange program to Madrid. Our partner school in Madrid is Jesús-María de Juan Bravo. It’s a well-known coeducational Catholic Day school in the center of Madrid, grades K-12. Students will stay with host families, take classes in the mornings, and spend the afternoons and evenings soaking up all of the exciting cultural experiences that this huge, historic city has to offer. Aside from brushing up on their Spanish, the girls will get to see a live flamenco show with music and dancing, visit a late-night “churrería” for churros and chocolate, and visit the famed Prado museum with some of Juan Bravo’s art history teachers. We will also make a quick trip out Segovia, a small medieval town in the heart of Spain with a Roman aqueduct and an enormous hilltop palace.

Michelle swinging a monkey

Monkey Island

On the Way to Monkey Island

Dancing

Bienvenidos a Iquitos

Craziness in Centro Unido

Hola  Everyone!

We had an incredible last day in Peru, we went to Monkey Island! It was a fifteen minuite boat ride to Monkey Island from Cieba Tops and when the boat pulled up to the dock were were greeted by a very friendly spider monkey. we started getting off the boat and this monkey went right up to Bebe and grabbed her hand and led her up the stairs.  A very unique welcoming committee but we all though it was hilarious. There were all kinds of monkey on monkey island. There were Wooly Monkeys, Spider Monkeys, Titi Monkeys, Red Howler Monkeys and Tamerin Monkeys. All of these monkeys were really friendly they jumped on us, climbed on us and, in Miss Bowser’s case groomed us. Everyone got the chance to hold and play with the monkeys. Michelle and the spidermonkeys became best friends. She would swing him around and he would climb on her he would not leave her side, it was really cute.

Monkeys are now protected in Peru because they used to be considered a delicacy in Peru. Our tour guides, Percy and Ricardo, told us that when they were kids they used to have monkey soup.

We got back to Cieba Tops and then hiked a little trail to see the big Ceiba tree. This tree was HUGE, it was over 150 feet tall and was said to be over 200 years old. There were a lot of  epiphytes on the tree and the roots came to the ground. These roots were really strong and we got to swing on them!

We left Cieba Tops and got on the boat for the last time with Capitan Pedro and headed into Iquitos. We walked through the Belen Market which really interesting. It was cool seeing all the medicinal plants we saw and learned about in the botanical garden being sold in the market. After the market we went to dinner in Iquitos. While we were eating dinner a parade came down the street because everyone was celebrating National Womens Day. For dessert we all got ice cream. I have never been so happy to have ice cream in my life!

We were all very sad driving to the airport because we have all had such a great time on this trip and we didn’t want it to end.  This trip has really made an impact on all of our lives, and I know many of us will be going back to Peru as soon as possible.

Final Group Photo

Abby and buddy

Grace acquires a new accessory

Michelle was the top Monkey wrangler…

Olivia and friend

We arrived in Atlanta this morning after a busy day yesterday. We left Iquitos at around 7:30 pm, and our flight out of Lima left at 1:30 am! We actually got on an earlier flight to Dulles, and will be there around 2 pm.

It was a tearful farewell to Iquitos and our guides Percy, Ricardo, and Megan. We are happy to be back in the states, but sad to leave this wonderful part of the world behind. I’ll post some pictures from yesterday and then try to round up a guest blogger…