Cordoba

Today I went on a daytrip to Cordoba. Although the weather was quite cold, the city is beautiful.  Cordoba is best known for its Mosque/Cathedral. It's a unique building: it started out as a large Islamic mosque in the 9th century, and then the Catholic Church built a cathedral right in the center of the mosque in the 16th century. It's a surprising sight! Cordoba is also known for its Jewish Quarter, which has one of the few historic synagogues still standing in Spain.  The palace - Alcazar de los Reyes Cristianos - is also really beautiful. It was a great trip!

The Mezquita-Catedral.

The Jewish Quarter.

Aranoa and I in the Alcazar gardens.

Inside the Mezquita - a view of the arches.

Here I tried to capture the dichotomy of the Cathedral and the Mosque...

Inma, Carlos, Aranoa, and Maria doing the "Fraggle Rock" - one of our favorite moves!

Dia de la Paz

Today in Andalucia, all the schools celebrated Dia de la Paz.  So in my English classes, we did a few activities to celebrate Peace Day.  First, I had all my classes make a Paloma de la Paz, or Peace Dove.  The students then decorated their peace doves with phrases in English about peace.  We hung the doves in the main lobby of the school, around the Tree of Love (see photo above).  The students also had to learn the song "Imagine" by John Lennon...in English.  This was pretty interesting, and luckily they had the printed lyrics to sing along! It was really precious.

A few Palomas de la Paz.

Good wishes for Peace Day.

A Picasso copy, done by Pepe and the students.

Students making banners for Dia de la Paz.