We Have to Go
Sadly because of covid we have to leave without any goodbyes. Which is really sad and disappointing but we have to because of covid.
Hopefully we can go back to spain to revisit our friends and do some of the things that I love again like eating patatas bravas and hanging out with my best friends. Right now we have to take 4 plane rides to get out of Spain and back to Canada.
I’m excited to get home but also sad to leave
-Elliott
Madi - Seeing Wren
I got to see Wren for a few days! I missed her so much. We didn’t go many places because everything was closed because of the coronavirus. We went to a lot of restaurants to have tapas and we were able to see the Alhambra. They had a beautiful AirBNB with a garden.
We got to spend so much time with them because school and basketball were cancelled. I am so happy that Wren, Eamon and Joss came, it had been forever since we had seen them and their parents, six whole months! When I saw them I got so excited the first thing I did was run to Wren and hug her.
But the time went by so fast and suddenly I had to say goodbye, again! It was so sudden I thought we had at least 30min more but didn’t. We had no more time left. It was time to say goodbye.
-Madi
Madi - The egg drop
On Easter, my family had a challenge. Everyone in the family had to make protection over an egg. We then dropped the eggs from our top balcony. The challenge was to stop the eggs from breaking.
It was pretty hard to do. What I was planning to do was put my egg in a container inside a balloon because when you let go of a balloon it just bounces up and down when it hits the ground. But, I didn’t have a balloon. So instead I used a bag full of air and it worked just fine. When I dropped mine it didn’t break!
Ellie put a cushion on the bottom of hers and put boxes inside of boxes and put a container with a bit of water underneath her egg. She then taped the egg to the top of the container so that if the egg fell from it’s place it would fall into water. Her’s worked too. It didn’t break!
Lolo’s was a container full of water with an egg in it. Just a container full of water with an egg in it. It obviously broke because it was full of water, and really heavy. It exploded when it hit the ground!
Mom’s was a parachute attached to a container by strings. In the container was a toilet paper roll with the egg in it. Hers soared down. It flew. Hers worked perfectly.
Dads was a egg container stuffed inside an oven mitt, his worked too. Simple. Brilliant.
All of ours worked except Lolo’s! But she was okay with it. She thought it was pretty exciting.
It was a really fun day!
-Madi
Pulling an "Ellie"
After I finish basketball practice I usually want to keep playing for awhile. When I started I just wanted to do one basketball drill but then I kept doing more drills, and before I knew it I had been playing for 4 hours. I kept working because it made me feel proud of myself. Playing for four hours a day made me feel more confident in basketball. My dad calls this “Pulling an Ellie”. Originally the name was “Pulling a Seppi” because someone on my soccer team, Seppi, worked so hard and played soccer so much that he got REALLY good. But after I started working that hard Dad changed the name.
-Ellie
Pulling an Ellie
Elliott - Quarantine
Right now we are going through the Covid 19 Pandemic. I don’t really know what’s going on but I do know that I can’t leave the house unless it is to go to the doctor. And here we don’t even have a backyard so we have been running up and down the stairs for exercise. I haven’t been able to do play any sports with my team or see any of my friends.
I have to do my school online right now which is annoying but my teacher is awesome and were getting through this together. But I can’t wait until we can go back to normal.
-Elliott
Madi - Quarantine
Kids are not allowed outside here and my parents can only go outside to get food and they are only allowed to go to grocery stores of a certain distance, but we are all fine and none of us are sick.
During the quarantine we have lots of stuff we can do: we do our homework, do exercises like basketball workouts, watch my past basketball games and correct the little mistakes, run up and down the stairs, pushups, wall sits and planks, we also draw, read, do blog posts and sometimes watch the Cosby Show. And Ellie is enjoying cooking for me and my family, we are very lucky!
Each night at 8 o’clock the whole city goes out on their balconies and claps, we do this to show that we are all in this together and also to show support and gratitude for the front line workers! Also every kid in the whole city is also making rainbow drawings that say ‘‘ Todo va a salir bien!’’ which means ‘‘Everything is going to be alright!’’
I wish I was able to go back to school and play basketball but I’m not able to yet, but my teachers and coaches say it’s just for two months, I hope so, but we’re all fine here. Todo va a salir bien!
- Madi
Madi - Hammam Baths
The hammam baths in Granada are incredibly relaxing. They have baths of all different temperatures: one cold, one medium, and two hot. They were super romantic, with dim lighting. The only way you could see was by candlelight. One of the baths had a tunnel of darkness that you couldn’t see until the water ran into the bath. There were two small arches carved with different Arabic designs. The ceiling was also painted with geometric designs.
We didn’t spend much time in the cold pool because it felt like ice. We were in it for two seconds and then out. The other hot bath was ankle deep, so you could lay on your back without drowning. We stepped out for a few seconds to go to another bath and when we came back, one of the attendants had lit all of the candles for us. In the medium bath there were pillars that you could stand up and lean on. There was also a fountain where the water came out to fill the pool.
Ellie and I also had a massage. We were able to choose a scent for the massage oil. The choices were rose, lavender, red amber, and Granada. I chose red amber. The massage was a gentle relaxing massage. They did not push very hard. It went for about fifteen minutes. I was so calm and relaxed by the end of it. There was also a heated stone circular bench that you could lie on before your massage. It was nice because then you didn’t have to be wet for your massage.
Throughout the hammam you could have Granadina teas. One of the teas was very sweet and the other was regular sweet. It was really nice. We spoke in quiet voices and it was nice to relax.
-Madi
LoLo - Olímpicas de las Igualdad
The Olímpicas de las Igualdad is where you show everybody a song. The song is about being fair.
I was standing beside my friends. They are nice. Everybody danced.
Madi - Camel Rides
As you people may know, I am scared of all animals big and small. So when our family decided to ride camels on the beach I freaked out a little. Our car pulled up in front of the camels on the side of the road. There was a beach in view, but the camel ride was really on the side of the road. There were blankets on the camels humps, all checkered and ready to be ridden. We were with our grandparents, and I think Grandma was as scared as I was.
A stranger, the owner of the camels, propped me up on the kneeling camel’s hump. The camel was about to get up. It tilted forward as his back legs arose. Then his front legs straightened and I looked down and saw how far it was down. It would not be fun to fall off this thing.
Once I was up, the rest of process was pretty easy. The camel did all the work. Strangely, we had to cross a road. All the cars stopped, because they would have hit us if they didn’t. I think they took a few photos of the camels crossing the road with humans on their backs. It was a strange sight.
Unfortunately, I had a “different” kind of handle than everyone else. Everyone else had circular handles but I had a triangular one. It was harder to hold onto. Why me?
The ride was actually pretty nice once you got into it. By the end I was leaning into the rhythm of the camel’s jerky walk. Getting on the camel was difficult, but getting off was a whole different level. You were supposed to lean back, so you wouldn’t fall over, but even doing that I thought I was going to topple over the camel’s head onto the ground. Thankfully, that didn’t happen and I lived to tell the tale.
-Madi
Madi - Moroccan Markets
There are lots of super interesting things in morocco but one of the most interesting parts of Morocco is their markets. They have tons of markets - food markets, markets for objects and tools, even markets for shoes. They had lots food, tools and artistique drawings.
Elliott Morocco
Morocco is amazing, we got to do so much. Like riding camels, walking through the market and eating delicious food. But my favourite part was the food, first we had a Moroccan soup with tomatoes and vegetables, and then a chicken skewer and rice dish. Then we had a sweet pastry called baklava with mint tea. One of the servers poured it between two glasses to cool it off for me, that was a neat trick. At the restaurant there were windy stairs to reach a big balcony where you could view the beach where we rode camels. After the servers brought us strawberry ice cream in a beautiful glass.
Before we went into the restaurant we saw a snake charmer. Our guide said that the snakes were plastic but they were not. They were real grass snakes. He controlled them by holding them but he had to avoid their bites by moving his head around. I don’t know how he avoided the bites. I touched the snake quickly with my grandma, and it was super cool. In the end we almost missed the ferry, which was kind of scary. But we got on in the end.
This day was super awesome and exciting
-Elliott
Ellie - Gibraltar
‘allo
We went to Gibraltar. Gibraltar is a little piece of England in the middle of Spain. In Gibraltar there is a huge rock. I call it the mystery rock. We took a Gondola up to the top of the rock. On our way up we saw a monkey right in front of our Gondola car. At the top, we started started walking very carefully (because we didn’t want to get jumped on by a monkey). We came to a busy path where a tour guide knew the monkeys. He would cross people’s hands and let them hold the monkeys. One of the monkeys tried to steal something from one of the tourist’s backpacks. He was trying to take a photo of the beautiful city. The monkey noticed that he wasn't looking and jumped on his back, unzipped the backpack and stuck his hand inside. Another tourist yelled stop. ….and he stopped.
From there we went over to the glass floors. One of the glass floors was broken. When I was looking at the broken glass floor, one of the monkeys jumped on my head and tried to climb me. He took off my hood. Luckily, mommy scared him away.
After that we went to the caves dug into the rocks. Inside the caves there were tunnels. The tunnels were filled with army equipment. The rock used to be a military base. In one of the tunnels I flexed and pretended I was a warrior.
After we got off the rock we went for fish and chips. There were enormous, and delicious. Grampa also bought us ice-cream.
The next day we ate pizza and pasta. It was amazing!
Ellie - The Hammam Baths
When Grandma and Grandpa Meagher were visiting Granada we visited the Hammam baths. When we came in to the Hammam baths we had to put on theese plastic socks that go over your shoes so that the building where the Hammam baths are does not get dirty. Then the people who work at the Hammam baths served us tea. There was a mint tea and a sweet fruit tea. They where both very good. Then we put on our swimsuits. Then we went into the baths. There was a cold bath, a warm bath, a really cold bath, and a hot bath. My favourite baths were the hot bath and the cold bath. After we had a shower, the water was warm. Then we put on some creams. After that we walked home.
Hammam al Andalus
Grandma and Grandpa Meagher
When Grandma and Grandpa Meagher arrived I was so excited to show them everything. One of the things I showed them was my favourite restaurant in Granada. We never had time to go inside of that restaurant but we walked by it almost every day that they where visiting Granda. My favourite food that they sold at that restaurant was called patatas baravas (brave potatoes). It is potatoes with tomato sauce and aioli sauce. Grandma and Grandpa also went to a couple of my soccer practices and my basketball practices. We showed them some of our favourite churches in Granada and lots of other things. We also went to Morocco together when Grandma and Grandpa visited us.
Madi - Pádel
I have played pádel twice in all of my life. But it is like tennis except your in a cage and if the ball hits the cage before it hits the ground it’s your point and you can also run out of the cage and hit it back in to the court and it will still count as long as the ball didn’t touch the ground.
It’s a really fun game to play, even though I am not very good at it. The times I have played pádel I have played it with my friend, Gabriel.
-Madi
Madi - Churros
If you think churros are good in Canada, well they are awesome in Spain! In Spain they are called “chocolate con churros!” Because they have a big cup of melted chocolate to go with the churros. It tastes amazing!
I am trying to be serious and not eat it all really quickly, but I am dying to eat that Churro in front of me. In the end I eat it all in one bite.
-Madi
LoLo - AutoCut
Daddy was cutting my hair, and then I had a idea. …but I didn’t now it would look like this.
I thought it would look cool but it didn’t look cool.
I see’d it in the mirror. It wasn’t my daddy’s fault.
I didn’t like it.
I’ll wait until I see Grayson, and then it will get longer.
Visit from the Demong-Cooks
This week the Demong-Cooks are visiting us, they are our family friends from Calgary. So far we have done and are doing so much. We made lemonade with fresh lemons, had a huge pillow fight, Went on walks through the Albaicín and we saw the Alhambra together. And one day late at night we played zombie tag in the front yard of their rental house.
They rented a carmen which is a kind of house with a huge garden in the front. This week has been so fun.
-Elliott