Spain Day 4 – My first full day at Gredos

*Please note I wrote this while traveling a few weeks ago on February 18th, 2013

I woke up at 7am this morning feeling rested. The bed here in my room at the Gredos hotel is very nice and firm. My stomach isn’t feeling so great today, I think it might be from how much food we eat at dinner and from eating so late at night. I’m definitely having a hard time with that. I showered, got dressed and went downstairs to the restaurant for some breakfast. It was a buffet of assorted breads, meats, veggies, fruit and eggs cooked various ways. All of it was very delicious.

At 10am we began our one-on-one sessions. Surprisingly I had Sergio scheduled for two sessions in a row. We found this funny because we also had breakfast at the same table this morning. Since we had such a big block of time we decided to walk into the small town nearby named Barco de Avila. It was only about a 20 minute walk and was a cute place, quiet at first but then the traffic picked up. It was exactly what you would expect to find in a small European town. Skinny roads, tiny stone walkways, bright coloured buildings in various states of repair and a small castle! I took lots of photos while Sergio and I talked, thankfully he was super easygoing and didn’t mine me stopping often to take photos.

After exploring the town we walked back to the hotel and started our next one-on-one. This time I met with Qui-qui (sounds like key-key) a nick name for Enrique I believe. He was very nice and I really enjoyed our conversation about sports, running and such while we walked around the resort grounds. I’ve done so much walking this morning that I have a cramp in my glute! I’d better do some stretches.

After the one-on-ones it was time for lunch, yummy as always. Although some of the other Anglos are only choosing 2 out of the 3 available courses for lunch and dinner and I think I’ll need to do the same. The portions are huge and the food is so delicious that you can’t help but eat it all and then feel too full after. One interesting part of our lunch hours is that the restaurant has all the tables setup for four people. The idea is that there should be two Spaniards and two Anglos at every table. The Spaniards sit directly across from one another and as do the Anglos. This is to encourage conversation between everyone at the table. There were two tables of 5 due to the numbers in our group. So in this program we talk all day long, then at every meal, and if we are not tired then most people go to the bar after dinner for more socializing. This program really is an amazing oppourtunity for Spaniards to practice their English all day and night.

At 5pm we did our first group activity. We were put into groups of five or six and given a list of things to photograph. Whichever group had the best photos would win a prize. My group won although it was a close competition. We won the prize of being the first group to do an improve sketch tomorrow night, yay? I was hoping we’d win some Spanish chocolates or something ;)

After the group activity we had time for more one-on-ones. I was chosen to participate in a comedy sketch tonight so I had 1 hour of rehearsal instead of a one-on-one. At eight pm we all met in the conference room to watch three sketches / plays. The two I watched were really funny, and the one I participated in was so much fun. Every time I hear someone say “50%” I will picture a very humorous Spaniard named Jose doing a chicken dance… you had to be there ;)

After the evening entertainment we had dinner at 9pm. At dinner the conversation continued as always, and the people at my table started talking about marriage and were surprised to hear I am married because they all thought I was 25 years old, love it!! It must be the Spanish wine making me look so young.

After dinner I joined a group of Anglos and Spaniards at the bar for a drink and some deep conversation about the state of the world etc. At 1:30am I called it a night. I’m going to be a little tired tomorrow I think.