August 7
Up bright and early on the train and a short walk and we were at the meeting place for the bus to take us to Pueblo Ingles.
A week before we checked out the website to see what we were in for:
http://www.morethanenglish.com/anglos/index.asp
and were reasonably excited, however now the day was upon us, we were questioning whether we should actually run away and not go...imagine having to talk to somebody with limited english for 50 mins and not just once, but for 4 hours in a row! But too late now, we had been spotted by another Anglo and we were about to find out just what was in store for us.
The bus ride took about four hours, the first 2 hours i sat next to a nice Spanish fellow named Pedro (no joking!). To my suprise we actually spoke for nearly the 2 hours without any trouble, although could have been because he had to ask me to repeat nearly every sentence...apparently Australians are hard to understand! hhahahaha...a pit stop for a sandwich, then back on the bus for the next 2 hours in which i sat next to a girl about my age, Silvia. Clearly we had no troubles chatting and she had quite good English.
Finally we arrive at La Alberca and are pleasantly surprised to see that we will be staying in Chalet style apartments! For lunch we have a 3 course meal - this is the usual for the next week...a buffet breakfast, 3 course meal for lunch, and 3 course meal for dinner, i could get used to this!
A siesta after lunch - typically the Spaniards actually siesta, while the Anglo's head down to the Pool. A Englishman Bob, pulls out some juggling balls, and Lisa jumps right in...think i'll give a go tomoz...too busy tanning myself! lol...after this first day, am quite excited for the rest of the week...everyone is really nice and am sure it will be a blast!
August 8
WOW! what a massive day...4 x 50min one to ones, lunch, siesta - by the pool of course, group activity for an hour (come up with two truths and one lie about yourself and the other people in your group have to guess correctly the lie), 2 more one to ones, and then Theatre time for an hour, and then finally tea! And now i'm exhausted!
Starting to make some really good friends and don't think we could have asked for a better group of people. Everyone is getting on well and there are no separate little groups forming which is amazing for a group of 48 people!
After dinner about 15 of us continued the party by playing quite a few rounds of Uno, and it was quite a late night.
August 9
Today's program was exactly the same as yesterday, except different Spaniards for the one on ones of course. During siesta time we talked some Spaniards into coming down to the pool, and not only did we have the juggling going (i am actually quite good at it!) but an American lady brought down 3 hoola-hoops! Had a ball, and was really exhausting exercise though!
For the group activity today, we had to choose 2 items that would represent the world. Theatre was great again, and we learnt from 60 year Pat and Bill how to Shag! Minds out of the gutter, it is a dance they do in America, and was very entertaining. Alberto was an absolute superstar in the Theatre production acting as a dumb tourist being pickpocketed in Madrid, very, very funny!
After dinner we had a ceremony called a Quemada which is of Celtic origins from when they were in Spain way back when, that drives away the evil spirits and welcomes the good spirits. Amelia instead said that it would drive away the bad english and bring in the good! haha. After this we all had to get in our country groups and sing a song that represents our country. Lisa and i chose 'Tie me Kangaroo Down Sport', with accompanyment by Bob & Richard on the didgeridoo (rolled up map) and the wobble board (ice cream advertisement). Was absolutely hilarious, and everybody got right into joining in the chorus, def a crowd favourite!!! Again another late night, these 9am starts are killing me, think i'm turning into a Spaniard!
August 10
More one to ones...am quite glad i came here...have learnt soooooo much about Spain, and how there are actually 2 'countries' in Spain, Basque and Catalan, as well as Spain, and all about the Spanish Civil War that only ended about 30 years ago...is truly amazing stuff!
After lunch the group activity was to choose a world leader...we were given four choices and they all had about 8 comments and we had to choose the best option...we chose number 1, and in the end it turned out that they were all based on real people...the first one was Roosevelt, the second Wiston Churchill, the third Adolf Hitler (some groups actually chose this one!), and then Mother Theresa was the fourth. Most of the groups chose number 1.
Instead of Theatre we all had time to get dressed pretty for the party tonight, yay! Was one on the best nights ever! Everybody and i mean everybody was up dancing and singing and was just pure fun! We were shown the Sevillana, the Shag again, and Lisa and i taught everyone the Nutbush, pisser! At about 4am, we all ended up at the swimming pool to cool off...much fun!
August 11
Ouch! Partying until 6am and then being at breakfast at 9am hurts! Luckily everyone else was feeling/looking very similar to me, and i can now understand why we have an excursion set for this morning into La Alberca instead of one to ones, thank goodness!
La Alberca was really nice...we saw a church and then outside it was a stature of a pig that apparently if you touch it's balls you will become pregnant...think Lisa and i walked about a 100m circle around the pig to get to the other side, haha! We then stopped in at a cellar type place where we had some Jamon (ham) straight off the bone - i didn't like it much - some very strong wine, and we also had to drink out of a 'boot'. A pig skin was filled with wine and you had to lift it up and squirt it into your mouth. I did Australia proud and went for 65 seconds...would like to have another go to crack the record 175, as i got a bubble in my throat and nearly choked, haha! was very fun though, and only one other Spaniard beat me, so Lisa and the girls were very proud!
Lisa was involved in Theatre tonight and was a nun on a dating show like Perfect match...was very funny, and the 'girl' that won was actually a man and she chased the guy off the stage, lol!
August 12
Today was back to normal with the one on one schedule, and the most important thing today was the introduction of 'the secret friend'. We all had to pick a piece of paper from a hat that had another persons name on it, and between now and Friday lunch do 'something nice' for them. I drew Tino and got him a beer delivered with his lunch, and in the morning before breakfast i wrote some nice things on paper about him and stuck them up on the wall of the dining room so he had to read them before he got to the tables. People did similar things to this, but Lisa topped everyone when she arranged for her secret friend Judit to be carried on a chair from her house to the dining room by two of the guys...lucky she is about 4 foot tall and 40kgs! Was very impressive! My secret friend got some people to come up and compliment me and even wrote a beautiful poem!
For the Group Activity we had to come up with a fairytale or fable and re-tell it in mime. For some reason two guys in my group wanted to do Pinocchio, after a bit of debate we finally talked them around to realising that it would be too ridiculously difficult to act out and we ended up choosing the boy who cried wolf...went down really well and we got a standing ovation!
After Theatre - the play tonight was about making fun of things that have happened while we have been here, very entertaining - we had dinner, then headed off for a poker tournament...turned into a bit of a shambles beacuse only about 3 of us knew how to play, but by about 3.30am the game was going well and i hit the sack.
August 13
The secret friend thing is such a great idea. Bill's secret friend arranged for all the women to walk up and compliment him and then give him a kiss on the cheek...he is a very quiet guy, but he was clearly very chuffed and i think a few of the other guys were quiet jealous! haha...
The group activity was to invent something that doesn't currently exist and make a tv commercial for it. We had Bill the American in our group, so he did the selling and was hilarious as he sounded just like a normal tv ad! We came up with a hair drying machine that also dyed and styled your hair in a minute!
We ventured back to La Alberca for dinner and had one of the best soups i have ever tasted! Was broth with egg and bread and stuff in it, very, very nice! and then for the main meal we had bits of pork that had been roasted, again, very, very nice! The meal wasn't as boisterous as usual as i think people were starting to realise that this was our last night. After tea we headed back home and started a party with dancing and drinks...a very people were a little sad and had to have some time out.
Lisa and i on the other hand had a bet that if one of us cried on the last day we had to cough up €20 to the other person. I've recruited some people to try make Lisa cry, will be a very tough challenge though!
August 14
Last day with our first group! Lisa and I escorted PabloS to breakfast this morning as part of the secret friend business, he blushed a little and seemed very happy!
Our last group activity was to think up a song reflecting our experiences at La Alberca. Surprisingly it was not as hard as we thought and by the end of the 30mins we were quite happy with what we had come up with.
At the end of this, it was Graduation time. Quite a lot of people were crying (unfortunately one of these was not Lisa), and we got a certificate and a mug.
We then got to find out who our secret friends were, and Tino was so happy when he found out it was me, and was very thankful, and i was also the same when i found out that mine was Bill, such a beautiful old man, he and Pat were like everyones Grandparents.
The bus then arrived and everybody hugged and kissed, then they were on the bus and Lisa and i waved like mad until we couldn't see the bus anymore...i really don't know how the next group is going to live up to this one. Another good thing is that we made a lot of English friends for us to visit, and def think i'll being heading back to Spain sometime to improve my Spanish!
