Spain Day 3 – Arriving at Vaughan Town in Gredos

*Please note I wrote this while traveling a few weeks ago on February 17th, 2013

Its 9:30 in the morning here in Madrid and I am on the bus on my way to the Vaughan Town program in Gredos.

I woke up this morning after 5 hours of sleep, I’m finding the midnight dinners followed almost immediately by sleeping pretty challenging. But I’m awake, showered and had time to have some toast with cream cheese and jam, with a tangerine on the side. My cousin kindly got up at this early Sunday morning hour and drove me to the meeting point for the bus, about a 5 minute drive from his apartment, it was very convenient and saved me walking for 20 minutes with my luggage.

I got to the bus, said hello to a few people I met last night and introduced myself to some of the Spaniards, then got my bag on the bus. I asked one of the other “Anglos” (as us English speaking peeps are called) to watch the bags on the bottom of the bus while I went to the washroom, we were warned last night that they’ve had a lot of theft from the bus lately. I returned to the bus, luggage was fine, boarded and was lucky to get a seat to myself. I should have been excited to start talking to a Spaniard, but to be honest I was pretty tired. There are more Anglos than Spaniards on the bus so I don’t have to sit with anyone right away. I’m sure I’ll do a lot of talking and interacting this afternoon and this week. So for now I will kick back and absorb the Spanish countryside as we drive three hours outside of Madrid and head to the Gredos mountains in the province of Avila.

After about an hour and a half of watching the countryside and a bit of dozing, the bus stopped at a rest station and lookout point for the famous walled city of Avila (within the province of Avila). I wish we would have had the opportunity to have gone into the city to explore, instead I took a bunch of photos from the rest stop of the beautiful city and the incredible walls surrounding Avila, then got back on the bus. Once on the bus the program instructors told everyone to switch who they were sitting with so I was about to get to know my first Spaniard. I ended up sitting and talking with a Spaniard for the remainder of the bus ride, his name was Sergio and he was from Madrid. I was really nervous at first and didn’t really know what to talk about. After a few common “get to know you” questions, we ended up on the topic of traveling. Sergio has been to many places and I had a great conversation with him. I’ll admit I was a little disappointed that I missed seeing a lot of the Spanish countryside and the small towns we drove through, but getting to know Sergio was worth it. He is a lot of fun and was easier to talk to then I had expected. His English is actually quite fluent.

Once we arrived at Gredos we did an introduction exercise where we met all of the Spaniards and fellow Anglo volunteers. We then had a delicious lunch in the basement restaurant of the hotel. After lunch we checked into our rooms. We had our first siesta, two hours to spend how we wished, then we would meet at 5pm for the first set of the program activities.

Once I checked into my very nice room, I dropped off my bags and wasted no time in grabbing my camera gear and took myself on a tour of the grounds. Its about 10 degrees cooler here in the Gredos mountain range then in Madrid and I am thankful that I packed some sweaters. It was a little drizzly outside but not enough to need an umbrella. I explored and took photos of the buildings, the snowcapped mountains and some horses that where on the property. A lady named Carmen who is originally from Scotland offers horse rides for the people staying at the resort, for a fee of course. We had a nice chat as she was getting the horses ready for two people to ride. I hope with my free time this week that I might be able to take a horse ride, I think it would be a great way to see our surroundings.

At 5pm we all met in a conference room and received the Vaughan Town program rules and instructions on what we would be doing for the week. As I am here learning more about this program it’s really sinking in what a fantastic opportunity this is for both the Spaniards and the volunteers. I’m really excited!

At 6pm we began the first of three one-on-one chat sessions. My first one-on-one chat experience was with a 27 year old Spaniard named Alex. His English was actually really good. We decided to walk out to the main road to explore while we were talking. Conversation came a lot easier than I thought it would. It helps that the program gives us two expressions to teach the Spaniards and to use as an icebreaker. Something like ” let bygones be bygones” or “in the dog house”. After 50 fun minutes of conversation we returned to the main building to find out who we would be paired up with next.

My second one-on-one was with Maria Jose. A very sweet, soft spoken woman, who in my opinion will really benefit from this program by practicing listening and conversational English. Her written English was excellent, but keeping up with a conversation was a bit challenging for her. I can’t wait to talk to her again and help her practice, maybe at dinner or in another exercise.

For my third one-on-one I lucked out and got some free time, 50 minutes to do as I pleased. There are more Anglos than Spaniards in this particular program so free time may happen once in a while throughout the week. It’s given me some time to unpack and settle into my room and catch up on writing my experiences while I wait for dinner at 9pm.

Overall I am exhausted. My eyes are tired, my feet are tired, my legs ache and I’m constantly parched, wishing right now that I had brought some fresh minty gum. But I am having fun!

I wonder what exciting adventures are in store for tomorrow?