Spain Day 7 – Countryside, Presentations & Party
*Please note I wrote this while traveling a few weeks ago on February 21st, 2013
It’s the final full day here in the Vaughan Town program at Gredos. Tomorrow afternoon we will return to Madrid. I woke up, had some breakfast and for my first one-on-one of the day I had Miguel. He’s a younger guy only 24 (turning 25 in two days) and I’m guessing he’s the youngest of the program. It’s raining today so we hung out in the reception area. Interestingly enough we had a conversation about politics and he wanted to know the differences between Canada, USA and Spain. I probably wasn’t the best person for him to talk to about politics, but I did my best.
At 11 am I had an hour of free time. Sadly it’s raining pretty hard outside so I stayed in and caught up on emails in the cozy reception area of the hotel. I hope it stops raining because I want to take more photos of the beautiful mountains and scenery before the end of the program.
As I sit here waiting for my next one-on-one too start, I can’t help but reflect on what an amazing and interesting experience this week has been. I have met so many incredible and interesting people, both Spanish and English, with a wide variety of professions and personalities. Everyone is very friendly and always willing to have a conversation. The Spanish have been really thankful towards me for coming from such a far distance with just the intention to help them practice their English in this program. The majority of Anglos here this week have come from England and using up holidays or are teachers on a school break. Others are traveling from the U.S., Australia and other areas of Europe and this is a stop over or break in their travels before the continue on to the next place. It’s such a wonderful oppourtunity to help Spaniards and meet people from all over the world.
I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to travel all they way to Spain from Canada just for this experience. I am proud of myself for volunteering my limited vacation time to help others, because I am really seeing a difference in the level of confidence in the Spaniards that I have been talking to everyday. I think more English speaking people should participate in this program, it’s really fantastic!
At noon I had a one-on-one with a Spaniard named Xavi, sounds like Chavi. He is a really nice man from an area closer to Barcelona and is a wine maker. It stopped raining long enough for us to have a nice walk towards the mountains. I took lots of photos along the walk and we had a great conversation. I also learned about Spanish wine that he makes and asked about a few that they export to Canada, I can’t wait to look for it in the shops when I get home.
At 1pm I had a one-on-one with Carlos, another wonderful Spaniard who has a wife and three children. We walked while we talked and we actually found the river that Mayra and I had tried to find the other day. We also met up with Georgie and Jose who were on their one-on-one chat and were also at the river. I’m happy to say that at some point that day Mayra was on a one-on-one and found the river with another Anglo too! Maybe next time we can see the river together.
At 2pm it was time for lunch and I can honestly say that it’s the first time all week that I didn’t like the food. I barely ate any of the main courses; instead I made a big salad from the buffet. But I am glad I took this opportunity to try something new, even if I didn’t like it.
From 3-5pm was our siesta. It’s raining again so I did a Skype call with my mom and it was so wonderful to talk to and see someone from home. Afterwards I met up with another Anglo named Richard and he showed me some of his travel photos from previous trips.
From 5pm until 7pm I attended 6 of the Spaniards final program presentations. There was Nuria, Carlos, Marisol then Xavi, Mayra, Sergio. The presentations were 10 minutes each and completely in English. Each of them were really well done and I enjoyed learning more about each. I was really impressed with the increased confidence in each of the Spaniards, such a difference from the beginning of the week.
Marisol’s presentation will always stand out to me because of what she said at the very beginning of her presentation, “this is my first presentation in English in my entire life”. I’m not sure how old she is but I would guess mid 30’s. I realized right at that moment how much I take my ability to speak and understand English for granted. Sure there are many languages that I don’t understand, but I really appreciate that English is my first language. I don’t need to learn a language in order to be able to communicate with clients at work. I only need to learn another language by choice, if I want to travel or live in another country where English isn’t the first language. I feel very fortunate to be Canadian by birth.
After the presentations at 7pm I had a phone call scheduled with Marisol. On this telephone session I was an employee at a tourist office for a place called Hastings in the UK. Marisol was to call me and ask me questions to determine if she wanted to travel to Hastings.
At 8pm we were allowed free time to pack our things because we have to check out of our rooms and be ready for our first one on one session at 10am tomorrow. I chose to pack because tonight is a party to celebrate the end of the program and I think its going to be a very late night.
At 9pm we had dinner. Like lunch it was OK but again the meat wasn’t great. The meals earlier this week were much better. Overall I’d give the food here an 8.5 out of 10, there is definitely something here for everyone.
At 11pm we participated in a Spanish tradition with a drink that gets set on fire called Queimada. It’s a spirit distilled from wine and flavoured with special herbs or coffee, plus sugar, lemon peel, coffee beans and cinnamon. Typically, while preparing the punch a spell or incantation is recited, so that special powers are conferred to the queimada and those drinking it. Then the queimada is set alight, and slowly burns as more brandy is added. The particular spell other volunteers performed tonight was to wash away any evil that is holding you back from achieving good things in your life. After the queimada the dancing started and went into the early hours. I had a wonderful time and the Spaniards and Anglos all showed they really know how to party. I think I’m really going to miss this place when we leave tomorrow. Goodnight Gredos!
