Round the world in 150 days (mas o menos..)

Life in "English Town" in Spain

What a fabulous experience!! Now that it´s over, my only complain is that it was all too short. Just when bonds started to form, the 8 days were up...

In the English Town (aka "Pueblo Ingles") of Valdelavilla, I got to meet a bunch of very interesting (and good looking!) Spaniards and Anglos (ie. Native English speakers from the States and Britain). Most Spaniards were sponsored by their companies to come to this program, with an exception of three who paid out of their own pockets. Many are managers at work, but at Valdelavilla everyone put on their silly hats in the name of learning English, and did many, many fun & crazy things!!

Valdelavilla is the perfect setting for an "English Town". The stoney village was abandoned in the sixties and restored in the recent years. The houses were all made of stone, as were the streets, and the surrounding countryside was where the action took place. It really doesn´t come any more remote than this.. with not one single shop in sight and no mobile phone coverages, there was nowhere for the Spaniards to escape back to speaking Spanish. And we had the place all to ourselves :)

The majority of Anglos in our program are retired couples from various parts of the States, many of whom came from an Education background. There were also a handful of Brits with different background, one Canadian, and I was the solo Aussie.. (except I felt like a bit of a fraud cos I can´t drink and don´t have much of an accent!)

It was all SO MUCH FUN... and I enjoyed the one to one sessions the most.. it was where one Anglo pairs up with one spaniard to talk for an hour, about anything under the sun, while walking uphill or down hill around the surrounding mountainside. If you are lucky enough to be paired up with one of the particularly fit spaniards, then it really turns into a training session as well. Perhaps that was why I was constantly hungry despite being fed aplenty of beautifully cooked food at least three times at day.

Creativity reined supreme in Valdelavilla. We were divided into six groups and in all but one night there was an amature theatre performance by one of the groups, designed around the theme of the English language or our experiences in the vilage. My theatrical debut was as a silent thief, and it was so well received that I was sure that I would be the first suspect if anything ever went missing! We had a multitude of talents on board, including a very good flamenco dancer, an experienced Santa Claus, an advertising guru, a radio announcer and some very very funny actors.. ensuring that we were up in stitches every single night.

On top of that there was a fiesta night where we danced the night away, a ceremony at night where we drank the homestewed beverage to dispel "bad English" from the place (can´t remember what it was called), an excursion day where we visited a nearby abandoned village that was even larger but not restored, and a night where we watched our chef Augustin cooking a massive pot of paella for all of us. And who could forget the presents we received from our secret friends every day?

So many memorable moments, and the people were absolutely the best thing about this experience. We had some real characters who brought lots of laughter and warmth to our group... one guy introduced his home country, Canada, to us, and gave us Maple Syrup biscuits to sample (it was delicious!).. a Spanish girl told us all about the idealogies in the Japanese culture, followed by a spaniard explaining the art of Judo (he has a black belt!)... a guy who forgot to tell a lie during the game "2 truth and a lie).. we even created our own celebrity out of a highly energetic spanish girl (Pilar of course!) who can talk, laugh and run non-stop, is enthusiastic about everything and constantly tells you that you are wonderful and are an inspiration to her! Noone could match her stamina or enthusiasm, and her fame was consolidated at the end of the week with a brilliant sent up of her character in one of the performances and her winning the "Most Entertaining Spaniard" award in addition to being the runner up for almost every other one.. (Most Contagious Laughter, Best Dancer, Youngest Heart..)

If only we had a few more days.. ít´s hard to go back to being a solo backpacker after being surrounded by such a wonderful group of people... at least now I know a bit more about the Spanish culture and history, and know some good places to visit in Spain.

ps. here are some photos of the place we called home from the "Pueblo Ingles" website.

(new!) photos taken by our group.. http://flickr.com/photos/puebloingles_223/

posted by Susan @ 2:50 PM