Longwood University Education Practicum

Longwood University Education Practicum

in Valencia, Spain

Tentative Itinerary 2011

Friday
May 20 / Departure from Washington-Dulles to Paris and on to Valencia. Meet at Air France check-in area at 1:00pm. ¡No later! After check-in and going through security, we will meet in the gate area for our homework session. After boarding our flight, we will have dinner, movies and breakfast before arriving in Paris. The best advice is to eat the dinner, but sleep during the movies. It’s morning when we arrive in Paris (5:50 AM).
Saturday,
May 21 / Arrival in Paris; follow signs to change from Terminal 2E to Terminal 2D. Once we have located the departure gate, we will have some free time. You may use the ATM machines to withdraw some Euros from your debit account, and look in the shops. Sample an authentic croissant.
Meet at the departure gate by 9:15 am for the 2-hour flight to Valencia. We will arrive in Valencia at 12:10 pm. We will be met at the airport and taken by private bus to the Institute of Spanish Studies to meet our host families. Go home with host families; have lunch, un pack, rest. Ask your host family for the best way to get to the Plaza del Ayuntamiento, where you will need to meet the group the next morning.
Afternoon options: Beach, explore, rest.
9:00 pm (ask to make sure what time dinner will be): Be home for dinner. Then get a good night’s sleep!
Sunday,
May 22 / 11:00 Meet at the Plaza del Ayuntamiento, in the large square where there are many flower kiosks. We’ll begin our city orientation walking tour: Main Square (Plaza del Ayuntamiento), Post Office Palace, Town Hall; then we will walk to the Plaza de la Reina, Cathedral, Plaza de la Virgen, “Calle de los Caramelos” (“Candy Street”), and finally Serranos Towers. For 2 euros you may climb up to the top of the towers overlooking the river and the city.
Option: 12:00 Mass in Valencia Cathedral
1:30 (ask what time): Go home for Sunday Dinner. Don’t miss Sunday dinner if you can help it: they will normally have a very good dinner, sometimes Paella, Valencia’s famous rice dish.
Free Afternoon: you can begin your “Individual Activities” for History and/or Spanish class / or go to the beach / or explore the river parks. 9:00 pm: Be home for dinner and get a good night’s sleep!
Monday,
May 23 / 9:30 "Orientatión" at Institute of Spanish Studies. Your host mom will take you to the Institute, so that you can see (and remember) how to get there. The Institute has a computer lab and wireless that you may use in the afternoons after you get home from school on weekdays, if you like.
10:30 Leave for Caxton School (metro to train station, train to Caxton), with Dr. Lily Goetz and the Director of the Institute, Carmen Sancho. Meet teachers, tour school, begin Practicum. Ride school bus home.
7:00 pm: ¡Tapas! Meet in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento. Sample a variety of typical “tapas” for dinner. No dinner at home this evening.
May 23-
June 17 / Ride school bus to and from school; Practicum.
Friday, May 27 / 9:00 We are skipping school! Excursion to Granada (Activities for History, English, and Español).
Meet at corner of Jaime Roig and Calle El Bachiller. Bring lunch from home.
We will travel by private motorcoach through the beautiful countryside and mountains to arrive in about 8 hours in Granada. This afternoon we will visit the Catedral de Granada and the tombs of the Reyes Católicos, their daughter Juana la Loca and her husband Felipe el Hermoso; then stroll through theAlcaicería, a silk market in Moorish times, and now a kind of oriental bazaar with craft and souvenir shops. Dinner on your own. Hotel curfew: 12:00.
Sat., May 28 / 9:00 am (time may be adjusted; profs will announce any change): Visit to La Alhambra y El Generalife.
Our own private guide will accompany us on a tour of the Alhambra, Spain’s finest display of Moorish architecture. Set high upon a hill overlooking the city and shadowed by the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the Moors built this city within a fortress as a symbol of power and strength on the outside, and of “Paradise on Earth” on the inside. Our visit will also include the Generalife, the country estate of the Nasrid Kings, where they could enjoy tranquility high above the city, a little closer to heaven. In addition to our guide, our professors will explain what you are seeing and how this palace and gardens fit into Spain’s history.
2:00 Lunch on your own.
7:00 Our Flamenco evening begins: we will be met by our own transport to take us to a Tapas dinner followed by aspectacular Flamenco show at 9:30. At 10:45 we will visit the Albaicín, overlooking the city for an evening view of the Alhambra from the Iglesia de San Nicolás. At 11:30 we return to the hotel.
Sunday, May 29 / 9:00 am Departure from Granada. Visit to the birthplace of the poet and playwright Federico García Lorca, then back to Valencia.
Lunch on your own at a stop on the way. Arrival in Valencia about 6pm.
June 4 / 10:00 Excursion to Sagunto. Bring bocadillo lunch from home or eat in restaurants. Meet at corner of Calles El Bachiller y Jaime Roig at 10:00 am.
6:00 return to Valencia. Free Sunday.
Saturday,
June 11 / 10:00 Excursion to Peñíscola. Bring lunch to eat at the beach, or plan to eat in beach restaurant.
Meet at corner of Jaime Roig and El Bachiller at 10:00am.
Visit to Castillo de Peñíscola; see the interior of the castle that belonged to the “Papa Luna” and was used in the filming of themovie El Cid. Hear about the stories of intrigue, murder, and the ghost that still haunts the castle. Afternoon at the beach. 7:00 return to Valencia.
Sunday,
June 12 / 10:30 Churros y chocolate en Casa Valor, Plaza de la Reina
11:00 (optional): visit to the Roman Ruins, behind the Catedral
12:00 (optional): mass in the Catedral Afternoon: Beach!
Tuesday, June 14 / Last day at school.
June 15-17 / Free days.
Friday, June 17 / 2:00 Farewell lunch at Restaurante La Clemencia. Afternoon: pack.
Tonight: Ask your host mom to call a taxi tonight, to arrange for you and your roommates to be picked up at (TIME TBA) to go to the airport. Remind her to ask them to send a taxi that can accommodate suitcases. If there are 3 of you, you may need 2 taxis. Plan your money accordingly.
Early to bed!
Saturday,
June 18 / Returning home: You will take a taxi to the airport at 4:00 am (keep enough money to pay for this—between 20-30 euros). Be at the Valencia airport by 4:30am. Your profs will be there to get you checked in and see you through security. You will change flights in Paris(follow the same instructions as arrival, but backwards) and you will arrive at Washington-Dulles Airport at 12:55 pm on June 18.

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