Hotel Conde Rodrigo I Ciudad Rodrigo

Saturday marked the beginning of an important festival here in Spain: Carnival. With Carnival comes four days of festivities, some of which are better in certain cities than others. In Castilla y Leon, Ciudad Rodrigo is the place to go. SO. We woke very early Saturday morning to get on buses (along with the ENTIRE city of Salamanca) and traveled the hour to Rodrigo. The town was absolutely packed. Of course, everyone immediately rushed to buy return ...

... program brings together 25 native English speakers and 25 Spaniards with intermediate and advanced English skills for a week of conversation and fun. They put the English speakers up for free in a fabulous hotel in exchange for our jabber. Based on the more that 15 hours a day Casey and I spent chatting, eating, debating, and dancing with our new Spanish friends, "from lost to the river" is not only a Spanish saying, it is also a way of life here in Spain. A typical day ...

... like this: 8:00am to 8:45, Yoga and/or get ready for the day (one of the English volunteers is a certified yoga instructor) 9:00am to 10:00, Breakfast buffet and dining at tables of 4 (2 English speakers and 2 Spaniards at each table) 11:00am to 1:00pm, One on Ones in 50 minutes sessions (for every 50 minute slot I was paired up with a different Spaniard. We could discuss everything and anything so long as we are mindful of controversial subjects like American ...

... pain in his eyes at first but the conversation flows easily and I think he soon has a change of heart. I´m suprised how fast the days go by. The master of ceremonies, Jez, keeps things amusing and laid-back. The theater hour is brilliant thanks to all the eccentric people including a mental woman from Oz (in a good way) who use to be on a show called ¨Neighbors,¨ which no American has every heard of. I soon realized that if you want ...

Sunday, February 2, we went to Ciudad Rodrigo to celebrate the Carnaval (Carnival). Carnaval is the four days; Saturday through Tuesday (Mardi Gras), before Ash Wednesday and the Cuaresma (Lent) begins. Since most people in Spain are Catholic, it is also a time to celebrate before Lent begins, where they are not allowed to eat meat on Fridays. Ciudad Rodrigo is the city that has been celebrating the tradition of the Carnaval ...

On Thursday Alicia took a group of us girls up to see the Peña de Francia again....this time I went in to the monastery, where you can see one of only 2 black virgins in Spain (I think!). AS we were driving up the peak was socked in with clouds, and we thought we wouldn't be able to see anything. By the time we made our way up the winding road to the top, it had cleared off quite nicely, and had a great view. Again we only had a few minutes to look around ...

Wednesday during a O2O Miguel took a few of us up to the Peña de Francia, a nearby mountain with a monastery and hotel on its' peak. Though we only had a few minutes to look around, the view was spectacular, aided by a bright sunny day. The peak sits above the treeline, and you can see for miles in all directions, including our hotel off in the distance! In the evening our group ...

Monday morning started out as a downer with "the talk"....it seems some of the Spaniards are still speaking Spanish a whole bunch, and not so much with the English. Which, since this is an English program, is a bad thing! So Marta had to have a chat with the Spaniards, telling them basically to stop speaking Spanish or else they would be sent home...well, as you can imagine it didn't go over well! Arguing and yelling ensued, as well as ...

Friday began with a 4 hour bus ride from Madrid...on the way I sat with Pablo, who kept me fascinated with stories of when he was the national champion of mountain biking in Spain, his terrible accident that left him with 2 broken collar bones, a broken wrist, and various other injuries that cut his career short, his family military history and having to change their name when the dictatorship ended ...

And so, the end of another week at Pueblo Ingles! A lot of laughing, meeting some great people, relaxing in the sun, what more can you ask for? Some of the things I will remember are Alex, Mark and I bonding over being the young ones of the group, having some great laughs, and trying not to make eye contact at certain points (enough said, right guys?). Anglicized names of the Spaniards: Esteban-Steve, Vicente-Vincent ...