The Return to Alcalá de Henares

I returned to Spain from my two spring break trips and went straight back to my normal schedule of teaching and tutoring. The kids were excited to hear about my trips, and many of them did not know where Stockholm was. We had two student teachers begin at the school after spring break, Alba and Charo. They were both very nice and hung out with all the language assistants in the breakroom.

In the first week of April, we celebrated Kelsey's birthday. We started the celebration with some wine and food at Parque O'Donnell in Alcalá. This eventually turned into a very disorganized, but fun game of American football followed by my failed attempt to play a game of soccer with Jeff, James, and Kevin:

Afterwards we went to Kevin, Jeff, and James' apartment for a surprise party. We all pitched in for cupcakes and ice cream. Here's Kelsey soon after the surprise:

There were a lot of us at the party and Kelsey's friend, Sarah, who teaches in El Escorial, came to visit. Here Kevin, Sarah, and Lindsay enjoy the birthday cupcakes:

We then spent the night wandering through Alcalá from tapas bar to tapas bar, and then from club to club. The next day I introduced Kelsey and Lindsay to this movie:

The Room is definitely the worst movie ever made, but it is so bad that you cannot look away and find yourself laughing constantly at its misinterpretation of human nature. Both Kelsey and Lindsay were so entranced by the movie that we ended up inviting Jeff, James, and Kevin over to watch it again that night. Several other viewings have followed since then.

We also visited the Henares River on several occasions. On the second weekend of April we visited the river on both Saturday and Sunday. Sarah had come down to visit us again that weekend. We bought Turkish döner kebabs on Saturday and ate them beside the river, taking some time to relax. In this picture Lindsay, Kevin, Sarah, James, and I siesta by the river along with some Spaniards:

After our period of relaxation, James and I crossed the cold river to visit the ruins of the Muslim castle which Cody, Kevin, and I had visited last fall. The next day we returned to the river for another picnic. James and I went across the river again, this time with Jeff and Kelsey. We spent quite a bit of time exploring the ruins and admiring the view of Alcalá.