School Blog

The end of the winter season does not mean that there is no life in Sierra Nevada. The National Park and its ski resort offer a wide variety of activities with which to continue discovering this unique landscape during the summer. From taking a dip at an altitude of over 2,000 metres, enjoying the sunshine of the mountains, to entertaining the little ones, not forgetting the hiking and cycling routes with ascents to the main peaks during the months of July and August.

In summer, the peaks of the Sierra Nevada national park change colour from white to green, brown and blue. This is the time to discover its fauna and flora, see its lagoons, walk through the lofty places of these spectacular mountains, and enjoy their tranquillity at the end of the ski season.

If what you like is hiking, you can explore the Sulayr trail, which crosses the Sierra Nevada. This route is divided into 19 sections which can be covered over several days, although there are other, smaller paths that you can cover in a single day. You can also do horse-riding and mountain biking.

We recommend visiting the Dornajo visitor centre, where you can obtain information on many different footpaths, and on accommodation and restaurants in the area. There you can also take a leaflet or route map of the Sierra Nevada.

Beginners can rent their material from Borreguiles, located at the top of the Sierra Nevada, adjacent to the beginners' area.

The Sierra Nevada never sleeps. At night, the atmosphere is impressive in the tapas bars, pubs and clubs. There are activities throughout the year, even when there is no snow. Don't miss it!

Completing the PRUEBA CCSE tests of constitutional and sociocultural knowledge of Spain is one of the essential requirements for applying for Spanish nationality. The absence of an adaptation of the nationality tests so that people who suffer from illiteracy have reasonable support in the procedure for acquiring Spanish nationality by residence entails a violation of the constitutional principles of equality and non-discrimination.

But, what happens if the person who wants to acquire Spanish nationality has difficulty carrying out these mandatory tests?

The reasons may be several, one may be due to lack of basic studies, which implies illiteracy of different types:

Total illiteracy, when the person cannot read or write in his mother tongue.
Functional illiteracy, when the person, despite not knowing how to read or write in Spanish, does understand it.

Therefore, the Instituto Cervantes can facilitate access to the PRUEBA CCSE under special conditions.

Since May 2022 our school is a recognized examination centre for illiterate candidates. The exam is carried out in an individual tutorial and only orally.

Check here all the special examination dates for 2022!

Saturday, 02.07.2022 / 08.45-20.00 h
Day trip to the Tropical Coast
Guide: Juan / Price: 55 €*
* includes transport, guide and insurance

Saturday, 09.07.2022 / 07.45-20.00 h
Day trip to Córdoba
Guide: Juan / Price: 70 €*
* includes transport, guide, entrance fees and insurance

Saturday, 16.07.2022 / 08.45-20.00 h
Day trip to the Alpujarra Mountains
Guide: Juan / Price: 55 €*
* includes transport, guide, ham tasting and insurance

Saturday, 23.07.2022 / 08.45-20.00 h
Day trip to the Tropical Coast
Guide: Juan / Price: 55 €*
* includes transport, guide and insurance

Saturday, 30.07.2022/ 08.45-20.00 h
Day trip to the Alpujarra Mountains
Guide: Juan / Price: 55 €*
* includes transport, guide, ham tasting and insurance
Meeting point: Congress Palace

RESERVATIONS AT THE OFFICE
Hammam Al-Andalus
C/ Santa Ana, nº 16 - 18009 Granada
For more than eight centuries of Muslim customs the Arab baths have been part of the culture in Granada. Price: 55 € (90 minutes; includes 15 minutes massage)

Enjoy a Flamenco show at any time during the week! We can inform you about availibility and prices at different places!

This week we have visitid the Bernarda Alba's house in Valderrubio village. The house where Francisca Alba Sierra lived with her family and where Frederico García Lorca drew inspiration for his famous tragedy Bernarda Alba's house, premiered in 1945 in Buenos Aires by the Margarita Xirgu company, is located on Calle Real (before Calle Ancha) in Valderrubio and the taboo of fiction and truth has weighed on it for many decades. The building was converted into a museum in December 2018.

Francisca Alba's house had a well shared with the house of Federico's aunt, Matilde García Rodríguez. From the well they could see and hear those on the other side. It was through this aunt that Federico and his family found out about what was happening at the Alba house. But not everything that appears in Federico's drama has the same source. The rigorous mourning comes from a relative named Paca Mazuecos, whose house, after the death of her daughter, was completely in mourning, dressed in rigorous black, with a headscarf, no flowers in the patio because they were colored, black curtains on the windows, on the skirt of the stretcher table ...

Apart from visiting the Lorca museum in Fuentevaqueros, a visit to the Valderrubio museum is worthwhile,

The celebration of the centenary of the first Cante Jondo Flamenco contest will have a key presence in the 71st edition of the Granada Festival. Under the heading #granada1922, the historic contest held in Granada will be this year's Festival's main theme. Legendary flamenco artists such as Rancapino, Juan Villar, Vicente Soto, José de la Tomasa or Pepe Habichuela will visit the Festival together with very well known flamenco singers such as Marina Heredia, Mayte Martín, Jesús Méndez, Rafael de Utrera, Pedro El Granaíno or the youngest Kiki Morente. The Malandain Ballet Biarritz will recall with its choreographies the premieres of the ballets of The Firebird and The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky.

We will enjoy some current Spanish and flamenco dance performances that the Ballet Nacional de España will put on the stage of the Teatro del Generalife, or the flamenco companies of María Pagés (De Sheherazade) and Patricia Guerrero (Deliranza).

This year's resident artist will be the German violist Tabea Zimmermann without a doubt the best current performer of this instrument.

Between June 13 and July 10, over 28 days, the Granada Festival will offer a total of 96 music and dance shows (50 in the general program and 46 in the Fex).

in the dance section the festival will be present for the first time one of the most solid European companies, the Slovenian National ballet Ljubljana, with a production of Le Corsaire, choreography by José Carlos Martínez.

Bach modern, another of this year's thematic cycles, will include four artists of great international prominence who will establish a dialogue between the timeless musical universe of J.S. Bach and the contemporary scores of three seminal composers of the 20th century: György Kurtág, Olivier Messiaen and Dmitri Shostakovich.

#Brahms125 will pay a small tribute to the brilliant Hamburg composer Johannes Brahms (1833–1897), whose 125th anniversary of his death in Viena is commemorated this year.

Among the great performers who will come to Granada this year, we highlight the first of two enormous Russian talents, despite their youth: the pianist Daniil Trifonov, who has just turned 30; and the incredibly young Alexandra Dovgan, who at just 14, has captivated the most demanding audiences in Europe.

For further information visit: https://granadafestival.org/

The SEMANA DIGITAL DEL ESPAÑOL is a new event developed by FEDELE SPAIN.

It is a hybrid physical-digital event that will take place on 17th and 18th October in digital format and from 19th to 22nd October 2022 in Madrid with the aim of bringing together language and tourism agencies, federated centres, students, teachers and management teams.

THERE ARE DIFFERENT FORMS OF PARTICIPATION
This event will have two main themes: training sessions and commercial activities to close deals between participating schools, agencies and institutions. It is an event with different agendas and forms of participation, depending on the profile of the participant, and open to all professionals worldwide. Management teams will be able to participate in all activities, including the private session on Wednesday 19th October. Federated centres will have preference in activities and agendas.

• Digital-only assistants
  Under this modality, users will be able to follow all the digital activities planned from 1st July to 22nd October, including all training activities.
  
  
• Non-federated centres
  The event is open to the participation of non-federated centres. They will be able to take part in dozens of activities.
  
  
• Spanish teachersTeachers can access to training pills and sessions and develop their abilities and knowledges.
  
  
• Agencies and schools
  During business meetings international professionals can expand their commercialisation channels.
  
  
• Students
• For the first time, we will have an event for students of Spanish as a foreign language in our country with a big party in Madrid.
  
  

Click here to see the whole programme:
https://fedele.org/en/semana-del-espanol-2022/

Wednesday, 08.06.2022
20.30 h
Tapa Tour with our teacher Marisa
* students pay their own consumptions.
Meeting point: School

Saturday, 11.06.2022
08.45-20.00 h
Day trip to the Tropical Coast
Guide: Juan / Price: 55 €*
* includes transport, guide and insurance

Saturday, 18.06.2022
08.45-20.00 h
Day trip to the Alpujarra Mountains
Guide: Juan / Price: 55 €*
* includes transport, guide, ham tasting and insurance

Saturday, 25.06.2022
07.45-20.00 h
Day trip to Córdoba
Guide: Juan / Price: 70 €*
* includes transport, guide, entrance fees and insurance

Meeting point: Congress Palace

RESERVATIONS AT THE OFFICE:
Hammam Al-Andalus
C/ Santa Ana, nº 16 - 18009 Granada
For more than eight centuries of Muslim customs the Arab baths have been part of the culture in Granada. Price: 55 € (90 minutes; includes 15 minutes massage)

Enjoy a Flamenco show at any time during the week! We can inform you about availibility and prices at different places!

Saturday, 07.05.2022
08.45-20.00 h
Day trip to the Alpujarra Mountains
Guide: Juan
Price: 55 €*
* includes transport, guide, ham tasting and insurance

Saturday, 14.05.2022
08.45-20.00 h
Day trip to the Tropical Coast
Guide: Juan
Price: 55 €*
* includes transport, guide and insurance

Saturday, 28.05.2022
07.45-20.00 h
Day trip to Cordoba
Guide: Juan
Price: 70 €*
* includes transport, guide, entrance fees and insurance

Meeting point: Congress Palace

RESERVATIONS AT THE OFFICE:

Hammam Al-Andalus
C/ Santa Ana, nº 16 - 18009 Granada
For more than eight centuries of Muslim customs the Arab baths have been part of the culture in Granada.
Price: 55 €*
* 90 minutes; includes 15 minutes massage

Enjoy a Flamenco show at any time during the week! We can inform you about availibility and prices at different places!

• Activities are organized for all Spanish levels
• Dates and activities may be subject to change
• Students enroll and pay for all activities at the school
• The school may cancel activities in case there is not a minimum of participants.

During the course week from 25 to 29 de april 2022 a group of young portuguese students from the Escola Secundária Luis de Freitas Branco in Paço de Arcos, participated in a Spanish language programme at our school.

They combined 4 Spanish lessons of 45 minutes per day at our school with cultural activities organized by their tutors.

Daily programme from Monday to Friday:
08.00 h
Breakfast
09.00-12.15 h
Spanish course
12.30-19.00 h
Cultural activites
20.00 h
Dinner

Our school hosted the students with local host families who live in our neighbourhood and in walking distance to the school.

Paseo de los Tristes literally means Promenade of the Sad. This square runs parallel to the River Darro and owes its name to the fact that funeral corteges used to pass through here on their way up to the cemetery behind the Alhambra.

Both the square and the original fountain were built in 1609 when the area was redesigned and it has always been a very lively place. In times gone by, fiestas and celebrations would be held here and at one time the River Darro itself was covered over with boards to act as a stage for small bullfights.

The first bridge you reach is called "Puente de las Chirimias" or the "Pipers' Bridge" and although there may have originally been an Arab bridge in this same spot, the bridge you can see today was rebuilt in 1882.

Next to it is a small, three-storey square house (also built in 1609) which sheltered the musicians who played at the various celebrations. The bottom floor was used by bailiffs and minor officials, and the town council would occupy the second floor, with the musicians on the top floor. It was later sold in the 18th century, and used for accommodation. It has now been restored and is the headquarters for the Historical and Cultural Association of Granada.

At the end of the square there is another bridge: the Puente del Aljibillo and refers to the aljibe or water cistern that used to exist on the promenade on the other side of the river.

If you cross over the bridge you can take a left and go for a walk along the Camino del Avellano to the Fuente del Avellano. This walk offers some magnificent views of the Sacromonte and Albaicín areas. The fountain was also the meeting place for a literary group headed by Angel Ganivet.