Upper School Spanish Students Visit Puerto Rico

During spring break, 22 Spanish students and three3 teachers visited Puerto Rico for one week. From learning how to make the Puerto Rican dish “mofongo” to sliding down natural waterfalls, we covered a lot of ground! Each day was a different adventure!

One of my favorite parts of the trip was when we visited Escuela Centro San Francisco, a K-12 school in the southwestern town of Ponce. At the school, Winsor students were able to meet and talk in Spanish with other students our age. A really impactful experience that I will never forget was when both schools sang their school songs back and forth. Through music, we were able to share a part of our culture with one another.
 

We also had two wonderful dance lessons on our trip. We took a salsa class on a beach in Santurce. The weather in Puerto Rico was so beautiful, and it was so much fun to learn more about the history and steps of the salsa. I had taken a few salsa lessons with the Winsor Spanish Club during my time in Upper School, so it was so exciting to learn more about the Latin dance. Another one of our activities was a Bomba dance class at the African-heritage coastal town of Piñones. Bomba is a dance that originated in Puerto Rico and has origins in representing the resistance and empowerment of Afro-Puerto Ricans. The dance is a conversation between the dancer and the drummer.
 

Another amazing part of our trip was when we visited La Parguera and went on a sunset boat cruise, jumping offon the boat and swimming as the sun went down. Then at night, our boat went to La Pargueraa Bioluminescent Bay where we swam with tons of dinoflagellates. Whenever we moved in the water, the tiny organisms around us would glow, emanating a blue light in the dark water.
 

I am so lucky to have had such amazing faculty who worked to organize this trip for us. Ms. Bravo, Ms. Gangi, and Ms. Mauge did so much to ensure that everyone had a safe and fun experience! I learned so much about Puerto Rican culture, grew closer with my classmates, and met so many amazing people along the way.