On December 3, our don Quijote school in Madrid moves to a new location! We've moved the school to the same building as our student residence to facilitate access to our Spanish classes and to add to the general comfort of our students.

The building, located right in the center of Madrid has been completely renovated on this inside, while the charm of its typical Madrileño architecture has been faithfully maintained on the outside. It is surrounded by shopping and is just 5 minutes from Spain’s largest department store El Corte Ingles.

For entertainment, just cross the street to find a variety of bars and restaurants, from typical tapas bars to international cuisine. There is also a metro station right at the school's front door for easy access to the rest of the city.

Every month I surf my way across the web and through the refraneros we keep around the office, searching for the "expression of the month" to be published in don Quijote's monthly newsletter.

Today I stumbled upon a fabulous resource: a blog of Spanish expressions and commonly heard idioms, entirely in Spanish.

The writing is clear and down-to-earth and, with archives from as far back as January 2007, the site offers an extensive library of Spanish expressions.

Another great online learning resource:

The blog: Expresiones españolas para Erasmus en apuros

URL: http://erasmusv.wordpress.com/

One of our interns prepared this article about bullfighting for the English language press in Spain. Much of the vocabulary of the corrida has made its way into everyday Spanish converasation, as colorful metaphor. The article explains the corrida, without condoning or condemning it, and gives you some of that corrida-inspired vocabulary, so you'll know  recognize it when you hear it!

Bullfighting

Few modern day spectator sports provoke quite as much controversy as bullfighting and yet it would be difficult to imagine Spanish identity without it. To its supporters it is a way of life, an art form involving ceremony and ritual. To its detractors it amounts to little more than barbaric torture and slaughter. Yet to many foreigners, for whom the killing of an animal for sport in a ring is a totally alien concept, Spanish bullfighting is a complex tradition to understand or accept – both in physical and moral terms.

A bullfight it about many things – performance, bravery, skill and death. No doubt it is also bloody and shocking, but its supporters argue that a bull is better off dying on the point of a matador´s sword than in the abbatoir (matadero). To witness a bullfight might not necessarily mean to condone it, but it may provide an insight into this Spanish tradition and make parts of Spanish identity a little easier to understand.

Bullfighting's origins

Bullfighting of one form or another has been around for centuries and its precise..    more »