To be honest I was apprehensive about this week, for several reasons, it’s my last ever program, it’s a new venue (which typically means problems) and I had to get something off my chest. Having spoken with the person I needed to, I could put that finally to rest. As for the venue, I would have to deal with that once I was there and the problems too.
The tapas for me was awful. It is SO clear the manager does not want us there, and constantly turning up the volume to the football and whizzing around us clearing away stuff before we have finished our business.
Yet again Anglos missing at the tapas; which leaves the PD playing a guessing game as to whether we have enough Anglos or not. As it turned out we were two short, again! So for another week we had to double our own workload; not fair to us, the Anglos or the Spaniards, just because we cope doesn’t mean we should have to.
Well the journey – we left after 10am and got to the venue after 4pm – what a ride: it was like a magical mystery tour. The lunch was nice though, in a small little town.
As for the venue – talk about step back in time!!!
Extremely rustic village, quite quaint and is literally in the middle of no-where.
No mobile coverage and hardly any internet signal, and the little we had was being shared with 6 other laptops, in a makeshift internet cafe – I could have cried.
But it is a nice interesting venue, not sure I would want to do lots of programs there, but as this was my one and only it was a nice experience.
My room keeping to the rustic look and feel was ‘cottagey’ and the doorway was built for dwarves I guess?! I half expected to get inside and find 7 small beds!
I must say thought the food was fantastic, nice home cooked meals, good variety and excellent salads, bit of a change from last week! And the staff were warm, friendly and spoke English (to some degree).
The usual problems of course existed at the venue, such as: no pads, no pens, no paper, no projector, no access to music, limited computer access, printing issues – all very frustrating and simple to resolve issues, which always get overlooked.
In order to run an effective program you need access to materials and have the flexibility to adapt programs accordingly – I’m sure I’ve mentioned that before, haven’t I?!
The Quemada was good and enjoyed by all, and after we had an impromptu session of jokes from the group; now you know you’re doing well when Spaniards can tell jokes in English!
The entertainment sessions were fun as usual, on Wednesday Marisa managed to do a Cha Cha Cha dance class, which was a nice change and something everyone could be involved in. It did mean of course I first had to learn to dance, no mean feat (that’s feat not feet!), anyway I managed to get the routine down, but when everyone was there, boy did I feel the pressure!
There was no party, very quiet evenings and a very cosy meeting room, all in all very different to other venues indeed.
If you recall, I mentioned how small my door was, well, I managed to survive the whole week without hitting my head and wouldn’t you know just as I was checking out I cracked on the beam – OMG!!! I now have a mark across my head – some souvenir of my trip!
The program was great as were the people, they also wrote very nice messages in a card for me and I was given a Superman T-Shirt as a present.
The people make these programs not language, that simply brings them together – but it is those people I will miss most of all
So to you, the participants Anglo or Spaniard, I would like to thank you all for sharing your lives and your time with me and making my job worthwhile :)
As usual the photos of the week can be found by clicking the picture below and any chosen ones for my portfolio can be found by clicking HERE
