Parador de Ciudad Rodrigo

... so far in Spain. Correction: SEEN....since I was talked out of DOING it (probably rightly so, seeing as Rosario made mention that someone gets hurt every year, and last year at Rodrigo someone died). SO we staked a spot out on the massive wooden bleachers that they erected in their Plaza Mayor (which, by the way, did NOT look sturdy at all!!) and waited an hour or so while the city gathered (all in costume of course, I forgot to mention that ...

... you do with 5 million Euros?" Mom and Dad, you will be happy to hear I allocated at least 1 million of those Euros to you, which won me some major points with the moms in my group) 2:00pm to 3:00pm, Plated lunch at tables of 4 3:00pm to 5:00pm, Siesta (while this is typically a time for napping or resting, Casey and I often used it to venture to the nearby village, La Alberca, just a short walk from the isolated hotel. La Alberca is a world heritage sight and it looks ...

... same as it did 800 years ago. The town's citizens have maintained the old village tradition of caring for a community pig. It lives in the town square where it is fed by benevolent villagers throughout the day, then sleeps in one of their homes each night. It is big and black and very friendly.) 5:00pm to 6:00pm, Group activity (in random group of 6 or 7, we are presented with a challenge that we must discuss and present to the larger group at the end of the hour ...

Pueblo Ingles is a week long intensive conversational course for Spanish people. The Anglos volunteer for accommodation, Spanish cuisine, Spanish wine, and a unique way to met the locals. Gina found the website about three years ago and suggested we try it out while passing through Spain. I was somewhat reluctant to take part. I just have this vision in my head of people starring at me, expecting me to keep this amazing conversation ...

... dart out of the middle of the street when the bell would sound or when people would try to scare others by yelling or whistling. There were gates up to stand behind, or if you were daring, you could run in the streets. The part of the running we saw was smaller and the bulls were not as aggressive as during the bullfight. However, I still did not try to run! Haha. The bullfight was really interesting. It was definitely ...

... For dinner we all went in to town to have a medieval dinner...as per the rest of the week it was me sitting with 8 Spanish! Obviously I drank too much wine at dinner though, because I actually got up to sing afterward with Katherine while she played guitar, to a song I barely know! The crazy things it turns out you will do in life. I have never even sang karaoke in my life, so what posessed me I have no idea! After was the awards ceremony, for ...

... but I just had to take a pic ;) Once back at the hotel we gathered at Alicia's villa for the after party, thereby waking up her sleeping roommate Audrey in the dead of night (sorry Audrey!!). The rest of the evening consisted of running interference, and some covert spy operations. Which in the end were fruitless as we discovered the next morning, but funny as hell at the time!

... gather at one of our villas (usually mine & Cristina's) and continue chatting till all hours. But it was catching up though, so our table decided to leave right after lunch and walk back to the hotel rather than wait for the vans. This way we managed to get about 15 extra minutes for a siesta! So then last night everyone decided to make an early night of it, despite Jose Luis's efforts to round up a party....there's always tomorrow!

... piled in to cars and headed in to town to a bar to watch the game and play some pool. Outside we ran in to the town pig, and so had to have a bit of a photo shoot of course. Later we all moved on to the disco, where the owner was so happy to have a group of us get the dancing started he gave us free shots! Tonight was the Queimada, and after a bit of dancing in preparation for the fiesta tomorrow :)

... kept up entertained all week. And group 7 got a 3rd place vote for improv, much to our surprise (right Sally?)! This morning we said our goodbyes, took some last minute pictures, and greeted the new group to arrive. Hard to believe that one week ago we were in their same shoes, not knowing each other or what exactly to expect! Here's to another great week, and the hope that I will be back one day soon to do it again!