Today, we took a day trip to Ronda. Ronda is known for being the second last city to fall to Christian rule seven years before Granada. Its tactical and beautiful position set on a cliff made it difficult for the Christians to attack. The views from the Puente Nuevo bridge were impressive with all of the white houses and steep slope down to the river below. It was a rainy day so as we looked at the gorge it quickly filled up with fog to the point where we could no longer see the bottom. Some of us ventured down toward the river near the end of the gorge for a nice view of the gorge from below. 

Another big sight in Ronda is the Bull Ring, known as the Plaza de Toros. Having been constructed in 1785, it’s not the oldest ring in Spain, but still holds lots of history. For example, two of the most famous bullfighting dynastic families, the Romeros and the Ordóñezes, have bronze statues to their patriarchs, Pedro and Cayetano respectively, standing outside the gift shop.

Our guide was also very insightful in telling us about how in touch residents of Ronda are with their cultural hub, from how sought after oxtails from Ronda are, how intelligent bulls actually are when it comes to their spars with matadores, and even that our own SAIIE leader Sean’s father was an amateur bullfighter! Because of the size of the stadium, Ronda only hosts bullfights one weekend per year, typically in mid-September, which has its cheapest ticket price at 130 euros! Our visit to Ronda was incredible. We loved the beautiful natural sights and hope to be able to visit the town again one day.

For our second week at Lora Tomayo we coached 4th and 3rd graders as well as went to the high school in Bellavista to listen to a presentation put on by some of the students. In this blog post we each offer our experience we had throughout the week and reflect on how we can improve for the next week.

Justin:

Working with younger kids this week definitely was a new challenge for all of us. Personally, I think that kids in the 3rd/4th grade range bring a ton of energy and excitement. All of the kids were excited for every station and were patient with the language barrier. As a group leader with the 4th graders, I was able to become friends with most of the students throughout the day which was awesome! You could tell they really enjoyed spending the day with us and looked up to the group leaders. I think it was awesome to bring such enjoyment to the kids the whole day. As an activity leader with the 3rd graders it definitely brought some challenges. Having younger kids be structured all day is difficult enough but when you add a language barrier it becomes quite difficult. The kids would often not even listen as we explained the station but it ended up working out. I learned quickly to go with the flow and alter the station based on what the kids seemed to want. Being able to work on my feet and change quickly was quite fun and it led to the day flying by. Overall, the camp was super fun this week and I look forward to coaching even younger kids. We came to the executive decision to shorten the camp for the younger ones which should help with keeping them focused the entire time. I can’t wait for the new challenges and fun next week! On top of the camp this week we also went to the highschool to hear an English presentation from some of the students. That experience was actually quite fun. We were able to relate a lot more to the kids and also watch them practice their English. I was surprised at how well some of them could speak! Learning the cultural celebrations and dances from the students was amazing. Then, after the presentations, getting to talk to the students made the experience even better. All of the students were eager to talk and outgoing which was very cool to see. Both the high school visit and coaching at Lora Tomayo this week brought amazing experiences and lessons.

Kenta:

4th graders are the best! They’re the right balance between being eager and excited to run around without trying to seem “cool” and participate and mature and old enough to understand and stay attentive. While there were definitely one or two trouble makers from these two age groups, it was a pleasure to coach them. As we continue to progress into the younger age groups, I fear that it will become increasingly more challenging to explain exercises and communicate with them due to the shortening attention spans and less maturity in trying to speak to us slowly and understand our broken Spanish. It’s a worthy challenge for us to adapt our explanations and complexity of our activities we set up for them. Visiting the high school exceeded my expectations. I was worried we wouldn’t have any chances to interact with the high schoolers, but it was refreshing to have more intelligible conversations with Spanish students closer in age to us and get to know the environments that they grow up in. If only we had more time to interact with them or other local Spanish university students! Regardless, this past week felt quite rewarding in our interactions. One thing to note: running the parachute activity, while seemingly fun especially amongst the younger age groups, is absolutely brutal. Running stations has definitely been a trial-and-error learning experience, figuring out which drills are worth keeping and which ones have to be tweaked. Looking forward to our final week!

Paul:

Week 2 at Lora Tomayo exceeded my expectations following  an already excellent week one! As the kids have gotten younger, they’ve become more enthusiastic and easier to work with. They seem to cast less judgment on our Spanish skills- or lack thereof. I formed more bonds with the kids this week than I did the previous one. The younger ages have and certainly will continue to present challenges for us as activity leaders, as our explanations and games will need to become increasingly simpler each time around. Then again, maybe many of our elementary Spanish vocabularies will work in our favor! I’m looking forward to another week at Lora Tomayo and expect our last to be our best one yet. Sad to see the program is coming to a close already!!

Harper:

Although I came into week one feeling worried about how my lack of Spanish skills may impact my ability to coach the kids, I left week two feeling much better about the situation. Although I couldn’t talk to them and explain how to do each activity, I was able to learn other ways of communicating with them and how important it is just to be positive. I enjoyed working with the younger age groups more than I did the older kids because the younger groups are more excited to just hang out with us and get to know us. They are more willing to put up with our limited Spanish knowledge and put in more effort in the sports camp. 

This week was my first time being an activity leader and I think I liked it better than being a group leader. I liked being able to teach kids about something I was really passionate about and see them feel passionate about it as well. I think this felt a bit easier as a non-Spanish speaker as I could rely on my co-leaders to explain the drills and still participate in demonstrations and the actual drills themselves. I also found it interesting just to watch the kids at different sports because while one may excel at baseball, there were others who couldn’t hit the ball but were absolutely amazing at reading the frisbee. It is cool to bring those sports that they may not have as much familiarity with and see them excel at something brand new. 

This week we also visited the Bellavista High School to learn about some of the holidays here in Sevilla and to talk with the kids. It was cool to see how important their unique culture was to their way of life and that it expanded across every age group. I was also very impressed and surprised at how willing and able the students were to speak to us in English. The one thing that stood out to me most about visiting the school was the difference in involvement in sports between the girls and boys. While I only talked to a small portion of the Bellavista High students I noticed that in those I did speak to, none of the girls were actively involved in sports. Some played when they had to for school but weren’t on any actual teams. Comparatively, there were multiple young men who were playing basketball at a very competitive level with Real Betis. Potentially this was just a unique grouping of students but it does make me sad to see that there are far fewer young women staying involved in sports as I think it is hugely beneficial to be involved in sports activities. It makes me want to be more engaged in helping make sure that the girls at Lora Tamayo are enjoying themselves and finding an activity that they really enjoy.

Owen:

All in all, this was a great week at Lora Tamayo. It has taught me something new and made me more excited about the different levels that exist in the world of sports. Next week, I am really looking forward to working with the younger kids too, if not a little nervous about their attention. Being a group leader was a little bit of a challenge, because my Spanish is not the greatest, but my Carleton peers helped me a lot by conversing with the children. There were multiple times the kids gave me soccer or Pokemon cards and I really appreciated it. There is obviously a language barrier, even when I have people like Elena and Ben in my group who speak extremely well, but the students are observant, helpful and patient with us. I like working with the 9 and 10 year olds the most. It reminded me of my job as a YMCA camp counselor this past summer, 2021. At the High School, Trevor, Justin, Kenta, Ben and I all played soccer with the kids there, and that was a lot of fun. Those kids were extremely outgoing and respectful towards each other and us. I don’t think I would have been that extroverted and interested if the roles were reversed, with Spanish university students visiting my High School when I was 16. This summer, I am going to coach a 9 and 10 year old soccer team in Minnesota, and it is reassuring to know that I think I will be ready for it due to the fact that we played so much soccer at LT the past couple weeks. Spanish kids love playing soccer, and their ball skills are better than mine in some cases, even though they are only ten years old. I think it is because football or soccer is ingrained into their cultures from such a young age. Even though this is the case, the kids are excited to play foreign games, like American football and kickball. All in all, it was a good experience this week.

We started the tour by going to the Plaza de España which was located right next to the Maria Luisa Park. The tour guide explained to us that there is a mural to represent each of the 26 provinces of Spain. The murals are ceramic tiles with intricate designs that represent each province. They are all very colorful. The murals were ordered by alphabetical order from one end of the plaza to the other. Sevilla was the very last mural and was not as decorated as the other murals. We were able to climb up the stairs and see the view of the plaza from a balcony. We could see the big fountain and Maria Luisa Park in the background from the balcony. The tour guide also explained that the ceiling is made of wood and it was astonishing to see how the carved wooden ceiling looked like new throughout all the years. There was also a flamenco show with a guitar player, a flamenco dancer, and a vocalist. The tour guide explained that various artists come to perform Flamenco at the Plaza for free for the public to watch. She also explained that many children are often signed up to take classes at schools that specialize in Flamenco dance or music. There are many different genres of Flamenco dance, each with their own rhythm and unique characteristics. We then were able to walk around the Plaza de España and explore the buildings and murals closely. We learned that several movies have been filmed or have had buildings inspired by the plaza’s architecture, including Star Wars with the palace in Naboo. It was truly surreal to see such a historic landmark up close, and all of us enjoyed the Plaza de España thoroughly. 

The tour then shifted over to Maria Luisa Park. We were not able to tour the whole park because it was so large. The park contained many gardens and fountains and other plazas too, such as the Plaza de America. We saw that there were a lot of horse carriage rides and orange trees, which are key features of Sevilla. The tour guide told us that the oranges are not meant to 

be eaten because they are very bitter, which is why people do not pick them from the trees. Instead, thes oranges are used to make perfumes or marmalade because they are very aromatic. She recommended that we revisit the park after the tour, since there is so much to do there. There was plenty of nightlife surrounding Maria Luisa Park, and as we were leaving around 9pm we saw and heard several nearby clubs opening up for the night with blue lights, flames, and reggaeton pop beats which we’ve heard a lot of during our time in Sevilla. Reggaeton on the Plaza Steps: 

Tonight we attended another Betis game at Estadio Benito Villamarín. Both games we’ve attended have seen high attendances in the 60,720 capacity stadium. All Betis fans begin the game holding their scarves up and singing their team’s song. Luckily for us, the words were on the screen so we were able to sing along. There is no better way to learn a language and get acquainted with a city’s culture than to attend a football match! 

This game also served as a pertinent demonstration of current global events because Zenit is from Russia. The tension in the stadium as fans waited to see if Zenit’s goal would be overturned (for a second time in this game) was palpable. Once the goal was overturned, Betis fans turned to shout at the small away section situated behind plexiglass walls and a row of police officers. The shouting felt like it went beyond the typical dislike of another team and was more a display of the disgust and disapproval fans felt towards Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Notably, a Ukrainian flag could be seen flying in the Betis fan section. 

This soccer match more than any that we have been to felt like a classroom outside of the classroom with the combination of language learning, cultural experience, interacting with locals, and international and regional politics playing out on the pitch. 

This game was important because it was the second leg in a series between Betis and Zenit in the round of 32 for the Europa League. Betis was up 3 – 2, so if Zenit scored one more goal than Betis on the day, the game would have gone into overtime. 

Since the games don’t start until 9 PM here, all of our fingers were crossed Zenit would not score for not only the obvious reasons, but also so as to avoid overtime and have an earlier bedtime to prepare for the day trip to Cordoba and pizza night at Bob and Cathy’s house the following day. Luckily, Zenit’s late goal was overturned by VAR due to a foul earlier in the goal sequence. The goal scored in the 89th minute was especially stressful due to the proximity to the end of the game and because the referee had to step off the field to watch the replay himself. 

The tie and consequent Betis win was a happy birthday present to Harper and Trevor who both turned 21 today. We celebrated earlier in the day with the kids at Lora Tamayo and concluded the day with a victory. We have many more birthdays coming up on the trip, but I don’t know if we can come up with a birthday plan better than the dramatic Betis win Harper and Trevor got tonight!

To top off our first week in Seville, we all trekked out to Benito Villamarín Stadium and the neighborhood of Héliopolis for an evening of football and exploring. Most of the group met Stuart, from SAIIE, in the early afternoon in the city center before heading out to Héliopolis where all of the Real Betis fans were preparing for the exciting La Liga match up that was to come between #3 Betis and #16 Real Mallorca. 

We all split off for a few hours to grab some food, check out the Betis shop, and explore the area before reconvening before the match to find our seats. Benito Villamarín is an open top stadium which meant in the back of the stadium, where we were sitting, we could stand on our seats and see the whole city of Seville as well as the beautiful sunset that washed over us later in the evening. 

At the start of the game, the Betis fans sang their team song and held up their green and white scarves. We tried our best to sing along using the lyrics provided on the jumbotrons. The fan energy was great with everyone jumping and cheering after every Betis goal, and swinging their scarves around in the air. It was a little more difficult to hear the large fan section (Supporters Gol Sur) compared to when we were at the Seville match due to our location higher up in the stadium. But we were located right next to the small contingent of visiting Mallorca fans and could see how their cheers differed from Betis’, as well as the fan sections of Sevilla and Zagreb that we experienced earlier in the week. 

Post Match Review

Despite a close 55% – 45% possession split, Betis were the stronger team from the beginning in this matchup and the results showed this as the home team came away with the win, outscoring Mallorca 2-1. 

The first and only goal of the first half came in the 25 minute when Álex Moreno headed the ball into the bottom right corner of the net from the center of the box. The assist came from Sergio Canales with a through ball. 

Betis continued to hold this lead for the next 50 minutes, until Vedat Muriqi leveled in the 75th minute for Mallorca with a header from the center of the box into the top right corner. The assist came in the form of a Jaume Costa cross. 

Less than 10 minutes later a penalty was conceded by Rodrigo Battaglia in the 82nd minute, who received a yellow card for his handball, and gave Betis the chance to regain the lead. Willian José converts with a right footed shot into the bottom left corner. Betis took the game, providing them with some momentum going into the important second leg of their Europa league match up with Russian side Zenit St. Petersburg.

We started the day off by learning how to get to Lora Tamayo via public transport. Each of us
was assigned a group number, 1, 2, or 3 depending on our location from Lora Tamayo. Group 2
met up with Stuart just outside of the Plaza de Cuba Station and from there we took a metro to a
train station to meet the rest of the groups. We then took a train to get to Lora Tamayo. Upon
arriving, we noticed that the school was gated and we had to do temperature checks, wear our
masks, and sanitize our hands before entering. There was a big open space for the kids to play
sports, hang out, and have recess in. There was also a small garden where the school grew its
own crops. There was also a smaller gated section for the youngest students (3-5 years old) to
play in safely.
We noticed that it was difficult to communicate with the kids because of the language barrier but
we soon figured out that an effective way to communicate with them was through games. The
kids liked to play “Red Light, Green Light,” basketball, soccer, and they also liked to race. There
was also a small climbing wall and the kids wanted some of us to try and climb the wall.
Part way through the day at Lora Tamayo, the school was generous enough to provide us
breakfast, consisting of pastries, cookies, juice, and milk. As we spent some time away from the
kids and ate our breakfast, we were able to spend quality time with each other and hear about
interactions people had with the students. Many noted the energy the kids had. Their excitement
was contagious and getting the opportunity to talk and play was no doubt a positive experience
for everybody. Others reflected upon how great it is that sports were able to bridge gaps created
by language barriers. As the day went on and more time was spent playing, conversations were
easier, communication was improved, and a lot was learned.
We are excited to continue our work with Lora Tomayo, and are excited to see the energy the
kids bring each and every day we see them. Here are some pictures that recap our day at Lora
Tomayo.

In London, our residence is at Ability Towers in the Angel-Islington area of London. We are about a 10 minute walk from Angel Station (London Underground) and have several bus stops around our building. The location is conveniently located near the Angel neighborhood with several grocery stores and many restaurants. We are also within walking distance of Shoreditch, another busy neighborhood with lots of restaurants to choose from. One more perk about our location is the mini-market in the first floor of our building that carries basic groceries and living supplies with easy access to Ability Towers. 

The flats are also surrounded by great walking and running areas such as the canal and the parks along the canal. Many students have been attending a gym that is a short walk from Ability Towers. Our flats have 3-5 people living in each apartment and have living rooms, bedrooms, and bathrooms. There is more than enough space for residents to relax, do work, and live comfortably. Each flat has a full kitchen and a washer-dryer too. 

Additionally, we have had a lot of fun meeting other American college students studying abroad in London that are also staying in Ability Towers. These residents come from all over the US and have actually introduced us to other parts of our own country as well. Spending time with other students has helped us explore a new culture while still giving us a sense of being at home with others from the United States. We’ll be able to keep in touch with these students even when we return to the US. 

Today’s adventure had us traveling out to the West London borough of Richmond Upon Thames for a visit to Twickenham and the Harlequin Rugby Union. The group assembled outside of Twickenham Stoop Stadium around noon to meet some of the coaches on the Harlequin staff. It was really cool to see players already showing up to the stadium to stretch, get treated, and prepare for the 3:00 pm game. From here we were led through the stadium to some nearby practice fields where we began our clinic.

For all but one of us, this was our first experience playing rugby. We started off with some quick warm-up drills, focusing on passing the ball and communicating with our teammates. Every couple of minutes our coaches would introduce us to a new rule, slowly giving us a better understanding of the sport. After this, we had a friendly competition of bear crawl and wheelbarrow racing. Due to the muddiness of the field, every single one of us came out of it covered in mud.

Some people were already breaking a sweat from the passing and upper body warm-up they had us do but were eager to learn more and continue. They next split us into 4 teams and had 2 different games of handball going where you score a try (point) by grounding the ball on the opponent’s goal-line. At first, there were no rules to get us started but then the coaches slowly started introducing rules to make the game harder. One being all passes had to stay below head-level while another made it so a team can only force a turnover by making the other team drop it or by intercepting a pass (swatting down a pass resulted in the passing team keeping the ball). Even though we hadn’t played rugby yet, the Harlequin players and staff tried to apply rugby knowledge to the handball game to help us understand the strategy behind a lot of it.

Now moving towards rugby-based drills, we got into lines of 4 people and practiced passing the ball from person to person while throwing the ball slightly backward each time as that is the only legal throw in rugby. At the start, most of us struggled to quickly catch and throw the ball to the next person, but over the next 10 minutes, there was an exponential improvement. Once we had passing the ball nailed down, we progressed to 2v1s where we learned to draw in the defender and passing the ball right before contact. Therefore, you allow space for your teammate to get the ball and run. 

We then progressed to a friendly 11v11 rugby match. At first, it was quite a mess… people running all over chasing the ball kind of like when kids are first learning a sport when they are young. Throughout the match, the coaches continued to stop and give us advice. One thing we learned was that both offensively and defensively your team wants to be positioned in a horizontal line across the field. Offensively, this gives you the ability to pass side to side with support players while slowly progressing the ball forward. Defensively, this allows there to be no gap in your defense where players can run or pass through. As we got more and more tips, the game got a lot smoother and faster. By the end, it was starting to look like a rugby match (except we were playing touch and not tackle). At the end of the day, everyone greatly improved and always had a smile on their face. The scrimmage was a great way to end this action-packed clinic.

Overall, the rugby clinic was a great way to learn another popular sport here in the UK and was a great workout as well! We learned how to play and communicate as a team to achieve success on the field. It was also just a great opportunity to meet some new people and have some fun together. Starting out the day with the rugby clinic prior to the match we later attended was a great introduction to the culture, atmosphere, and knowledge of rugby. Many students expressed interest to play rugby again on the trip and even back at Carleton!

We took a bus from Ability Towers directly to Burton-on-Trent, where the St. George’s Pitch Park is. It was about a three and a half hour trip to the midlands of England, passing near major cities like Leicester and Sheffield. 

A few things stood out immediately as we arrived at the campus. Firstly, the complex is located in an isolated location away from any major cities and towns. To exemplify this, there were sheep grazing in a field right next to the entrance sign. Then as we got closer to the main area we could easily see the neatly kept pitches and sporting areas as well as the large, state-of-the-art training buildings. There was also a Hilton hotel on site that we later learned was for the players and the teams that visited to practice and play. The layout of the park seemed very well laid out as there were many training and playing grounds but they were not that far from each other.

One of the surprising aspects of the indoor portion of the tour was that there was a big room with a large swimming pool, a smaller semicircle-shaped pool, both filled with cold water, and an underwater treadmill. The standard rectangular pool as well as the semicircle pool were meant as places for rehabilitation either after an arduous training session or for those unfit to play due to injury. The underwater treadmill was particularly interesting as the treadmill could go up to 20km per hour and there were fans on one end that could push the player, adding resistance to their exercise and making it seem like they are running uphill. The locker room was replicated to be like the locker room in Wembley Stadium in London, where the national teams play, so that the players had a sense of familiarity with the facilities. There are two cold bath machines for post-practice muscle rejuvenation and the showers have sensors built in so that the players do not have to turn knobs like the rest of us. Overall, the interior of the facilities were fantastic and it seemed like the player was put at the forefront of the construction. 

We visited the pitch that the English national teams, as well as teams from other countries such as Barcelona, practice and play on, which was made to replicate the pitch of Wembley so that there is a sense of familiarity for when the national team plays in the big international tournaments. The tour guide explained to us that a couple of the pitches on the complex are used for the U14, U16, and U18 teams that are closer to the front. Burton FC, a league one team, also uses a couple of fields of the ground to practice. Even the local pub team uses a pitch at the St. George’s park. Presumably all of their games are at home as they have world groundskeepers to maintain their pitch. We went on a beautiful day with temperatures in the low 50s degree Fahrenheit, perfect for playing football. 

Getting to work with the coaches was a blast, as they clearly had a certain love for the game that they wanted to share, both through the jokes that they were making about American and other sports, as well as their joy of seeing us running around and having fun playing the sport that they were passionate about. They understood that there was a variety of skill in the group, as well as the understanding that some of us loved the game, while others had never experienced it before. Under their guidance, we were able to have a fun day out, getting to play some football at one of the nicest, if not the nicest, complexes in the country.

Today we journeyed up north to Watford for an exciting relegation match up between Watford and Norwich at Vicarage Road Stadium. Watford was coming in ranked 17th and Norwich currently sat in 18th meaning that a win by Norwich would see Watford fall into the relegation zone.

Post-Match Review:

The young American, Josh Sargent, proved himself to be the star of the show tonight as he powered home two brilliant goals for Norwich City in this important game. A scorpion kick from Sargent off of a Teemu Pukki cross started the scoring for the Canaries. His goals today marked his first career Premier League goals scored. The 21 year-old joined Norwich in August 2021 on a four-year deal from German side Werder Bremen.

In unusual fashion, a floodlight failure on the pitch resulted in a delay that lasted over 10 minutes. Referee Mike Dean had deemed it unsafe to play to the bemusement of the players as the failure had not affected the field visibility. Moments after play resumed, Sargent headed in his second goal of the match.

Things only got worse for Watford as the top goal scorer for the Hornets, Emmanuel Dennis, received his second yellow card of the match and was consequently sent off in the 78th minute. Watford’s closest chance came in the 90th minute when a goal from Moussa Sissoko was ruled out by an offsides call. A calamitous own-goal from Watford’s Juraj Kucka, just minutes after he was subbed on, in the early stages of the 15 minutes of added time sealed both teams’ fates, sending Watford (14 points) into the relegation zone and giving Norwich (16 points) a bit of breathing room for the time being.

The atmosphere of the game, somewhat ironically due to the sudden power outage, was electric. Our seats were up close in the lower stands of Vicarage Road, and we could see every physical battle and sudden movement of the players on the pitch up close. Linked below, we could even observe the warmups of the teams in close proximity. During the match, it was impressive how easily and smoothly each attacker glided on the ball, glued to the foot as they dribbled and passed with ease. Both of Sargent’s goals were well-worked team goals as Norwich worked the ball around the pitch to the byline for a cross. It was a wonderful premier league relegation game and an enthralling display of professionalism, sportsmanship, and competitive football.

Norwich Possession Game Warmup: