Written by Sarah Keenan ’17 to recount Friday, March 11, 2016:

Today started out as normal as every other day. It began by waking up, having breakfast, et cetera, but the fun part came after the hour bus ride to the Guadarrama Mountains. Now, we were told we were going to be hiking, but hiking to me is like a flat mapped out trail in nature. If you were like me and thought it would be a nice stroll, you were wrong. The rocky mountain terrain stretched 7,965 ft high and our two hour trek up the rocks made this seem much higher. Our two guides, Felix and Guillermo, led our group of 20 up through the sometimes challenging routes, and back down with only minor scrapes and bumps along the way. After we had reached the top, our journey down was much easier. Following brooks and paths made by the multitudes of people who had trekked the mountain before us, we found ourselves in a small village and only had another “20” minute walk that actually took about 40 minutes for our group to get back to the bus. We stopped for lunch which was nice, and many people made a B-line to the small store there for more water.

After the hour ride back to the school and the naps many of us took, we were ready for the Poetry and Music concert the school set up. One of the teachers that had earlier joined us at an art museum played a major role in the production, and even sang in the performance. Although only few of us could understand what was being said, it was still a very cool experience to watch and see as the performers took pride in what they had prepared. After the show, many people and their hosts were ready to go home while others still had another class or two left in their day.

The Friday vibe was all around! What a fun day!