vlog_schuelerAfter an exhausting arrival yesterday, we were introduced to the school our beloved guest colleague Felipe Mendez Perez works in – IES Villalba Hervás in La Orotava.
In the beginning, one student guided us around the school and introduced us to the life as a Spanish student. He also explained how the Spanish mark system works or at what times you can go to the toilet. Unexpectedly, there is no bell ringing sound whenever a break starts or ends and instead, it plays music. (will we also see this at NPG some day?) The IES also has a beatififul architechture and stunned all of us! They have also got a small basketball as well as a soccer court in their ownership which is a great way for the local students to spend their time. Felipe then decided to play some name-games with us and – after a tiny break – taught us a religion quiz. Overall we managed to gather some extraordinary impressions.
Unfortunately, the school laws strictly forbid the usage if mobile phones which consequently crushed our dreams of interviewing a member of the school staff.
Our first two periods consisted of a little sightseeing tour around La Orotava. Jorge who picked us up at the foyer accompanied us and showed us around the area.
During our La Orotava tour, we gained a lot of new knowledge : Surprisingly, the island of Tenerife used to be a place that served as a punishment place with deportations in its early days. Additionally, La Orotava is divided into a richer lower part with stunning buildings and a poorer upper part (where our hostel is located) Moreover he told us a lot about the importance of Corpus Christi day in Spain, showed us a cemetery where the graves are located on the walls instead of the ground or informed us the beautiful Dragon Trees which are difficult to find elsewhere.
Most of us spent the rest of the day on the beach in Puerto de la Cruz, watching a georgeous sunset and gathered in a traditional Spanish restaurant called Taperia which focuses on small plates of food everyone can eat from. (In case you didn’t know : the beach we went to has black sand – a result of the geographical origin of Tenerife)
Your NPG Tenerife blog team🙂
