SALAMAZING 2014

The 18th Annual D-E in Spain Trip!
June 27th to July 27th, 2014

The adventure begins here. Guess where this is.

This year we have 18 D-E students going with 4 chaperones. Also, some of my cousins will be joining us for the first quarter of the trip. For the first time ever we are staying in a USAL 'residencia' (dorm). What a pre-college experience it will be!

Here's the student group:
Noah Erni, Andre Festekjian (brother of Artoun Festekjian, Salamazing 2012), Max Gordon, Sam Garden, Sam Golub (brother of Noah Golub, Salamazing 2012), Wendy Gonzalez, Wendy Grullon, Elliot Jennis, Pryor Kahn, Matthew Petti (repeat from Salamazing 2013!), Leah Primak, Benjamin Sacks, Daria Shvetsov, Jacob Snyder, Matthew Waltman, Jacob Waxman, Amani Wynter, and Aiien Xie.

Here are my cousins:
Diane Brassell, Joe Brassell, Frank Murphy, Chris Ryan, Sr., Chris Ryan, Jr., and Kevin Ryan.

Chaperones:
Maya Gunaseharan (Salamazing 2006), Frank Murphy (Salamazing 2013), José Luis Murphy (aka Sr. Murphy, aka Joe Murphy), and Carmen Julia Rodriguez (M.A. USAL).

The students will study at the famous Universidad de Salamanca founded in 1218! That's a little older than their High School in the USA. They will study Spanish language and culture as well as one of the following optional courses.

Conversación y redacción / Conversation and Composition

Cultura española / Spanish Culture

Historia de la España contemporánea / Contemporary Spanish History

Español de los negocios / Business Spanish

Comentario de textos literarios / Analysis of Literary Texts

Traducción al español del Inglés / Translation into Spanish from English

Ah, what a great night. ¡Flamenco! ¡Olé!

 There will be a whole set of new experiences to document in writing and with photos this year from the Salamazing 2014 group. Perhaps even a video or two. Parents, family and friends of our 2014 travelers can follow us here throughout our trip. Stay tuned.

Salamanca: Just Knock!

Mid-February is the deadline to sign up for the amazing Salamanca 2012 trip. All you have to do is knock on the door. Last year 35 students and chaperones had the time of their lives on this trip. Just imagine five weeks in Spain that feels like one week. How could that be? We spend a week traveling in Barcelona, Madrid and Segovia. Then we live in Salamanca for a month studying, dancing, horseback riding, touring, speaking a lot of Spanish with people from all over the world, going to films twice a week, meeting new people, deepening friendships, learning new things about ourselves, reading, going to bullfights, eating with Spanish families and going out for tapas and to dinners with the whole group, seeing things we've never seen before, wondering about life in a new way, gaining a perspective we've never had before, taking time to be lazy, taking time to be really active, lingering over a coffee or a coke in La Plaza Mayor, people-watching, playing soccer, ... phew, that's how five weeks feel like one!

You may join us if you want to. We leave for Spain on June 22nd from JFK. We come back to the USA on July 29th. You have the whole month of August to do the things you need to do at home. But by then you'll be a new and improved you who now speaks Spanish, too. Are you ready? ¡Vamos a España!

Here's your link. Just Click!

http://www.d-e.org/ftpimages/434/download/DE%20in%20Spain%20Brochure%202011-12.pdf

Salamanca 2012 Trip!

Salamanca 2012

Information Meeting Nov. 19th & 20th

Bring one or both of your parents.

This is it!

The Salamanca 2012 Trip is coming together. The Family Info Meetings will be held on Nov. 19th and 20^th at Dwight-Englewood School. On Saturday at 10:00 a.m. in Leggett Hall on the first floor in the Gelman room. The meeting is repeated on Sunday Nov 20th at 9:00 a.m. at the same place. Come to either meeting, whichever one is more convenient for you. If you're curious, come to the meeting. We’ll have time to talk and ask any questions you’d like. Joe Murphy will describe the entire trip to you at the meeting.

French and Latin students are more than welcome to do this trip.

You don’t have to speak Spanish to go. You’ll learn it there.

Three D-E credits as a Major Elective.

Docs to apply for US college credits.

Sign up right at the meeting.

June 22 to July 27.

                                                       Salamazing!


To see our Brochure and Application form, click on the following link or copy it into your browser and open it that way.   https://www.d-e.org/ftpimages/434/misc/misc_87497.pdf


Here's a link to the University of Salamanca, where you could become a student this summer. It's one of the oldest and best universities in the World! www.usal.es

Midway Through Salamazing 2011

Through an historic Roman arch we see the Spanish countryside. Welcome to Spain!

We’ve been in Spain for just over three weeks. Our first week traveling in Barcelona, Madrid and Segovia was as varied as these three cities. In Barcelona, we saw some of the city, Parque Güell, La Sagrada Familia and Las Ramblas , but our hotel was right across the street from the beach on the Mediterranean Sea. So we had a beach holiday too!

In Madrid, we went to the Palacio Real and El Museo de la Reina Sofía and explored Spain’s largest city. When we got to Segovia, we were ready for a small city we could ‘navigate’ well with our budding understanding of Spanish life and our growing confidence and ‘sea legs’. So, we wandered the city, wondering about Spanish life, the history of the structures we saw and our upcoming experience in Salamanca.

After a wonderful flamenco show, a great group picture 

Now that we’re here in Salamanca, we’ve been going to classes and learning to live with a ‘strange’ family – in the sense that they are different from the real strangers here - us. We are learning to ‘read’ them through their gestures, tone, intonation, voicing, language, customs and culture. They must find us to be very odd, too! In many ways, we are all becoming self aware because we are learning to see ourselves as we are reflected in them. The way our host families respond to what we say and do makes us understand how what we think is “normal” changes when the cultural context changes.

We meet in La Plaza Mayor everyday at a quarter past noon, after our morning classes. All 34 of us seem to be bonding in many ways. It’s fun to see how this group of people – some of whom didn’t even know each other before the trip – are becoming close, because we are all experiencing Salamanca together.

La Plaza Mayor de Salamanca!

We’re visiting museums, seeing Spanish films, going to el rastro – the Sunday morning flee market – eating Spanish snacks and meals, buying Spanish clothes and souvenirs, playing guitar, dancing and getting ready for the big challenge of the trip – going 24 and 48 hours without speaking, listening, reading or writing any English at all! That’s going to be really hard for us, but it’s an amazing and invaluable experience, if we sincerely try.

There have been a lot of pictures swimming around on Facebook, Twitter and in email. Our Twitter account (http://www.twitter.com/Salamazing) seems to be turning yours truly (Mr Murphy / Señor / Murph) into a bird – at least that’s the silly - no - corny joke that I made one day. The pictures give you a slice of our life here, as we are living it by capturing the moment, a cultural artifact or a fun new experience. Check it out and come along with us as we open the door to Spanish culture. It’s Salamazing!!!

¡A por ello! Yo soy español,  español, español. Yo soy español, español. Yo soy....

We're leaving on June 24th

La Plaza Mayor de Salamanca -- our meeting spot "debajo del reloj."

Thirty-seven people are leaving from the Dwight-Englewood School campus on Friday June 24th at 2:00 p.m. We're going to Spain for five weeks. We'll travel in Barcelona, Madrid and Segovia for a week. Then we arrive in Salamanca on Saturday July 2nd at noon. That's when we meet our host families.

This is our 16th consecutive annual trip to Salamanca from D-E. But this is the first time that a blog will be written about the trip. Families and friends will be able to follow our travels as we go. We'll upload pictures and some short stories about what we're doing. You'll be able to follow us as we travel. And you'll be able to make comments for us to hear from you, too.

Since we won't be texting, emailing or calling home so much, because we want to have an immersion experience in the culture and language of Spain, you'll be able to keep track of us anyway by reading our Salamazing blog. So become a follower and enjoy!