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March 2004

In this issue:

• Spring Promotional Offer for Agents
• Upcoming festivals and fiestas of note
• Nightlife in Málaga, Spain – An insider’s guide

Spring Promotional Offer for Escuela Internacional Agents 

To encourage more students to enroll early in the year, we are offering the discount of the inscription fee of 65 euros for each student from our agency partners enrolled and beginning their course by May 3, 2004.

Conditions:

• Available to students that begin their course on or before May 3, 2004.
• Applicable for courses in the three Escuela Internacional centers in Spain only.
• Effective immediately and lasting until May 3, 2004.
• It is not applicable for students previously registered.
• Agent’s must remember to mention this offer at the time of enrolment. If not mentioned when enrolling the student, we will assume the offer was not made to the student in question, and process the enrolment as normal to include the inscription fee and not modify our invoice to you to include this discount.

During this same period we will offer a 40 euro discount to students enrolling with us directly. This does give you a slight advantage that we hope you will take advantage of. Good luck!

Please note: You can simply use our online enrolment form for agents at:
http://www.escuelai.com/ficheros/agentes/inscripcion/inscr-in.htm
Don’t forget to mention this promotion in the field for “Comments”.

Upcoming Festivals and Fiestas

These events are very much worth attending and keeping in mind when talking with students:

March

• March 19 – “Las Fallas” in Valencia. Enormous wood and paper figures up to 10 meters tall are burnt in the streets at night. The figures are often political caricatures.

April

• Semana Santa, Easter Week – the most pious and spectacular of Spanish fiestas. There are religious processions throughout Spain, the most famous being those in Seville, Valladolid, Toledo, Murcia y Cuenca. Those in Málaga are quite impressive as well.
• Moors & Christians in Alcoy (Alicante) – it represents the battle of 1275 when the Catholic “caballeros” and the patron saint, San Jorge, re-conquered the city and expulsed the Moorish invaders.
• Feria de Abril (Seville) – features the hospitality of Seville. The biggest city fair and fiestas of its kind anywhere. Many people out in the traditional costumes and finery of Andalusia, dancing of sevillanas and flamenco, beautiful horses.  This fair is unique for its explosion of color, music and dance.

May

• Feria del Caballo en Jerez (Horse Fair) – Equestrian competitions, bull fights, flamenco and dances.
• San Isidro, 15 May – The most important 2 weeks of bull fights of the year during the fiestas for the patron saint of Madrid.

Nightlife in Málaga, Spain – An insider’s guide

Whilst Escuela Internacional offers a full program of afternoon activities, students do like to get out and about on their own and with friends as well. The secretaries at each of the Escuela Internacional schools are often the best place to seek advise and good information. Málaga native, Pilar Alvarez (in picture above), offers a week's entertainment possibilities around her hometown.

Mondays are perfect to go to "La Tortuga", which is a coffee bar located in the "Paseo Marítimo" (boardwalk) close by the school in Pedregalejo. There are many bars close by, but students especially gather in this one on Mondays. It's like a "nonofficial" welcome day. There they get to know students from different schools, talk about where to go, which are the fashionable bars ...

Tuesdays are calm, but in the center (calle Granada) there is a bar called "La Campana" very well known because you can have a beer and "tapitas" very cheaply, and later opposite is the "Sound", where they offer free Salsa lessons (although they are not very formal, a single instructor for all). Later people stay around to dance Salsa.

Wednesday Bar Bretania organizes the "Día de la Gamba" (shrimp day). Recently tried and strongly recommended. For 5€ you can have all the shrimp you can eat, plus they put out cheese, bread, salad and olives. Drinks are extra. When it's on they also show the football games and the students love it. Later, the Sound also offers salsa classes on Wednesdays (this is a better day than Tuesday). The "Quiriquá", another coffee bar, in calle Santa Lucia that give free Flamenco lessons (sevillanas, rumbas and alegrías) at 21:00.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday

People go to the bars in the center of town such as:

• Morriseys (C/ Granada)
• O'Neills (close to la Plaza Mitjana)
• La Latina (Corner in Plaza de la Merced)
• Treinta y tantos (C/ Beatas)
• Toulouse Latrec (C/ Echegaray)

They go for tapas in the afternoons at:

• Lo Güeño (Near c Larios): This tapería is 36 years old and is a little more expensive than normal, but it has very interesting tapas like "pajaritos fritos" and "calamaritos rellenos".
• Tobalo's in Avda. Salvador Allende (in El Palo - close to Escuela Internacional)
• La Abuela María (right next to Tobalo's)
• La Beata (C/ Beatas)

Cafes:

• Cafe con libros (C/ Granada)
• La Oficina (Avda. Juan Sebastián Elcano - close to the school)
• The cafes along the Paseo Marítimo - they love Pedregalejo. Having a coffee while sitting in the outdoor terraces in the sun, listening to music in front of the sea (who wouldn't like that?).
• Pilí especially recommends the cafe in the Hotel Cohiba, also on the Marítimo, and El Pedregal, because they play good Salsa.

Students also enjoy going out to "el Plaza Mayor", a leisure center near the airport where there are all types of bars, taparías, restaurants, cinemas and bowling. When they feel like venturing a bit farther from Málaga another area she recommends is the "Puerto Marina" in nearby Benalmadena where there are many discos and music bars.

Sunday there are still fiestas in Málaga. At "el Pícaro de la Habana" in "el Plaza Mayor" they have free Salsa lessons on Sundays, and it's also a great place on Saturday nights.

Well, we hope this whets your appetite for enjoying Málaga by night as much as enjoying the beaches by day, and that this will assist you in describing the flavor of Málaga to potential students.

Thanks as always for your support of Escuela Internacional.