Pueblo Ingles

I’m knackered.

I’m currenty sat in an internet cafe in Madrid after last night arriving back from my week spent in the Salamanca countryside near a very nice small village called La Alberca taking part in what is best described as a language immersion programme. My week was spent speaking to Spaniards in a variety of situations, usually on a 1 to 1 basis but also in group activities and around the dinner table, with the odd visit to the bar! Very little teaching was involved, apart from the odd explanation and correction, but it did give me a bit of an insight into the processes of teaching and learning languages and I was suprised by the patience, understanding and tolerance I showed – as no doubt anyone who knows me would be!

I’m not completely sure I would do it again, although rewarding it was hard work, and maybe a day or two too long for me, but as an experience I am very glad that I chose to do it. In particular the one on one sessions were a great way of getting an insight into the lives of the Spaniards and something you don’t really get to do simply by spending time in a country, I’ve learned a few things that will help me get by while I am here, and maybe even made a few contacts that can help me in various ways, who knows. A wide range of subjects were discussed and it’s always interesting to get a fresh perspective on issues and, as those who know me will testify, impart my knowledge of matters onto others!

The English speaking people were, on the whole, great as well and there was a small core of people in particular who I got on very well with and we shared some great times. Everyone was very open, down to earth and easy to get along with – and, all in all, it was a great mix of nationalities, age groups and lifestyles, I’m sure there are few folk that I’ll keep in touch with and as we speak an American girl has taken my dirty washing to the launderette for me, which is nice, and I’ll even forgive her the fact she pronounces my name ‘awesome’ – not that I mind that too much anyway – folk have called me worse.

The one thing I will say is that it is suprisingly hard work talking practically non-stop for a full day, and my throat is in need of a nice long period of recovery and my head is a bit all over the place too, but it wasn’t all work, in fact fun is a word I’d use to describe the overall experience.

As well as taking part in a (wooden) sword fight in the streets of La Alberca, and being taken up to the top of a mountain by two members of the Spanish civil guard, alcohol figured strongly in the fun element and the earliest I got to bed during the week was 3.10 the latest 6 am and the norm somewhere between 4 and 5. As the day started at 8 it made things hard come the end of the week and is the reason I am so tired now, and maybe why I thought the programme was too long! Don’t believe all you hear about these Spaniards being wild party animals though. Yours truly was the last to bed each and every night, and I made it to breakfast every day too – I have to say I am delighted, and suprised, because I didn’t think I still had it in me, he says as he can barely keep his eyes open at the computer screen, the biggest bonus is I don’t think I did anything too embarassing although I best wait for the photos before I announce that as gospel.

So now, I’m free again which is just how I like it after being restricted to a schedule for seven whole days. I’ve scrapped the trip to Valencia this weekend because I am so shattered and I’ll spend the next few days relaxing in Madrid, meeting up with some of the people from the course and catching up on a few things. I head to Lisbon on Wednesday for a few days which should be fun, but after then who really knows….

Please accept my apologies if lots of this hasn´t made sense – the english of the Spaniards on the course may have improved, but I´m pretty sure it´s at the expense of mine!

Settling in…..

Well so far I´ve eaten a lot of paella, drunk a lot of sangria and red wine, and done very little else. Which all sounds good to me, the six red wines I enjoyed with my lunch today haven´t gone down too well with my head, but since when did I ever use that?

The plan always was to potter around for these few days before heading off to the hills, and that´s exactly what I´ve been doing. Well that and going on a mad night out which ended with me finally crawling into bed at 615 this morning, but when in Rome and all that, I´ve also had the pleasure of the company of a couple of Aussie RL fans, so I´ve had plenty of opportunities to mention last Saturday, which has been a nice little bonus.

It was chucking it down when I arrived on Tuesday, and it seemed like it was never going to stop, I wasn´t properly prepared for the situation and came sin raincoat, so I set out yesterday aiming to rectify it. Buying a nice thin raincoat would surely be a simple enough task? Of course not.

The tendency of the Spanish to over-exaggerate things is perfectly summed up by the trouble I had trying to buy something to keep me dry. The temperature at the moment is hovering between 15 and 20 degrees during the day, warm enough? Not for the locals, who are out in their woolies and big winter coats even at the height of the day. It would seem wet is automatically corresponded with cold, and everywhere I went raincoats would automatically come with a thick lining. A trip down to the Vicente Calderon to buy an Atletico one proved fruitless, I had learnt the vocab, a raincoat is an “impermeable” but this didn´t stop the assistant trying to sell me a big trenchcoat, a winter bench jacket and then a tracksuit top before I eventually gave up. Six stores later I eventually found something that wouldn´t cause me to bake, then came the problem of buying it, I was queued for 45 minutes, which isn´t comfortable due to the locals strange concept of personal space (or lack of it) – the queue was so vast that people coming into the store in pairs were splitting up, one immediately queueing, while the other went round the store picking out what they wanted then coming into the line and swapping places. On numerous occassions I was tempted to forget it, but the lack of alternatives and the prospect of being soaked wasn´t appealing.

After finally buying it, then coming to the internet cafe sending emails and messages to folk whinging about the weather, the rain stopped and hasn´t been seen since. I´m not sure whether to laugh or cry. Still at least I´ve been able to indulge in my usual Madrid pastime of wandering around the Retiro

I´ve just been to an introductory lunch ahead of the programme I start tommorrow, everyone seems fine and it all seems simple enough. Some of the younger element of the participants are meeting up again later to eat and drink, so tonight should be fun as well, though I think I´ll lay off the sangria this time. It´s up bright an early for a 9 o´clock departure in the morning, then I´ll be oblivious to the outside world for a whole week, unless it all gets too much for me and I do a runner.

Find out more next week……