I'm sitting in a hotel room in Salamanca the morning after our program finished. I'm sharing the room with Vicki, another Anglo from the program. One of the Spaniards, Javiér, gave me a lift, and I 'gave' him an extra one to one for an hour. I've changed my schedule slightly, and am then moving on to San Sebastián on the advice of many who tell me it is one of the most beautiful towns in Spain. That's a big call, I can tell you! There, Emma, another Spaniard, will meet me and show me about. The next day I spend in Bilbao, and Emma will meet me again for the day. That's an indication of how generous the Spaniards are and how close we became in just one week.
The program gives out the email addresses of all the participants (unless someone doesn't want it: unlikely in this situation) so we can keep in touch. I'm told there is quite a bit of email traffic for the first few months, then it tends to die out, but one of the Spaniards who also did the program 4 years ago still has lunch every Wednesday with one of the Anglos on that program. They both live in Madrid. I have one Spaniard who I will probably keep longer contact with because we shared so many interests.
On the Thursday night I did my presentation, a pictorial view of Melbourne and other parts of Victoria to counteract the : I know about Australia, you have that opera house on the harbour! I was only allowed 5 minutes, and I ended up speaking way too fast, but at least they could see the images even if they couldn't understand what I was saying. I apologised to a few afterwards, and they said that they were interested to hear my real speaking pace because I have spoken slowly and clearly all week. It made them appreciate what it would be like being in the country. They also loved the pictures!
That night we went into the town for dinner to another of the family's restaurants in an almost medieval setting - long table set in a horseshoe. It wasn't as congenial because you could really only talk to the person either side of you, but fortunately I was sitting next to JC. We spent the hour or more, barely touching our food, talking Greek legends, religion and philosophy and photography. We did attract some cheeky comments from the others across the other side, but we didn't really care. Obviously his English is very good, and it reminded me of how impressed I was by the wide vocabulary base of many.
When we returned, we had an informal party: "and we drank and we danced and we talked until the early morn, who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me"
Some of them ended up back in the cabin Emma and I shared, and staying talking until 4:30am when I tossed them out.
On the final day we had a group activity where we had to make up a song which told a little of what we had done. As you may have guessed my group chose Waltzing Matilda as the tune. The final line of the chorus went "we'll be speaking English the whole bloody week."
One of the other groups chose the tune "we will, we will rock you" but they used the Anglos singing "we will teach you" with the Spaniards replying "we will kill you". Great fun!!
We had a Graduation ceremony, with certificates for all, and after lunch it was time to say goodbye. Most were heading back on the bus to Madrid, so for them the party continued - they were threatening revenge by having only Spanish spoken on the bus - but we were heading the other way so after many hugs and kisses we parted.
The program gives out the email addresses of all the participants (unless someone doesn't want it: unlikely in this situation) so we can keep in touch. I'm told there is quite a bit of email traffic for the first few months, then it tends to die out, but one of the Spaniards who also did the program 4 years ago still has lunch every Wednesday with one of the Anglos on that program. They both live in Madrid. I have one Spaniard who I will probably keep longer contact with because we shared so many interests.
On the Thursday night I did my presentation, a pictorial view of Melbourne and other parts of Victoria to counteract the : I know about Australia, you have that opera house on the harbour! I was only allowed 5 minutes, and I ended up speaking way too fast, but at least they could see the images even if they couldn't understand what I was saying. I apologised to a few afterwards, and they said that they were interested to hear my real speaking pace because I have spoken slowly and clearly all week. It made them appreciate what it would be like being in the country. They also loved the pictures!
That night we went into the town for dinner to another of the family's restaurants in an almost medieval setting - long table set in a horseshoe. It wasn't as congenial because you could really only talk to the person either side of you, but fortunately I was sitting next to JC. We spent the hour or more, barely touching our food, talking Greek legends, religion and philosophy and photography. We did attract some cheeky comments from the others across the other side, but we didn't really care. Obviously his English is very good, and it reminded me of how impressed I was by the wide vocabulary base of many.
When we returned, we had an informal party: "and we drank and we danced and we talked until the early morn, who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me"
Some of them ended up back in the cabin Emma and I shared, and staying talking until 4:30am when I tossed them out.
On the final day we had a group activity where we had to make up a song which told a little of what we had done. As you may have guessed my group chose Waltzing Matilda as the tune. The final line of the chorus went "we'll be speaking English the whole bloody week."
One of the other groups chose the tune "we will, we will rock you" but they used the Anglos singing "we will teach you" with the Spaniards replying "we will kill you". Great fun!!
We had a Graduation ceremony, with certificates for all, and after lunch it was time to say goodbye. Most were heading back on the bus to Madrid, so for them the party continued - they were threatening revenge by having only Spanish spoken on the bus - but we were heading the other way so after many hugs and kisses we parted.
No comments:
Post a Comment