It's Tuesday morning, Day 4, and breakfast is about to start, but the numbers are still low because we had a party last night after dinner. I left at 1:30am after dancing for 3 hours straight. The first hour it was mostly the women dancing - the Spanish men needed a bit more lubrication before they hit the dance floor. The music was a combination of 60s - 90s and some of the popular Spanish songs. With one, they immediately started doing a set of steps a bit like the Nutbush. I'm going to ask them to teach me, and find out the song, so we can do it sometime.
In Day 3 in the one to one sessions I was asked to listen to the presentations they had to give the following day. Their first presentation is about the work they do, because this is the language they know and feel comfortable about, but also what they need their English for most often. It was fascinating for me because I learnt about their work, companies and t we could talk about the wider political and economic situation as well. We also had a 2 to 2 session where we are given a range of possible topics to discuss but can really talk about anything. We started talking about what you would do if you won 5 million Euros and it went into a wider discussion as you can imagine. Yesterday in our 2 to 2 we talked about whether our country should have a monarchy. The 2 Spaniards had quite different views on whether their Royals were useful so it made for an interesting discussion. The economic situation is never far from their minds. Yesterday in the group session we were given the characteristics of 4 people and asked to decide which one we would choose as a world leader, and what characteristic of the others was the main reason we rejected them. Every single group rejected one person because he had corrupt friends. Corruption in politics is a real issue here.
In the break yesterday I joined a group playing paddle tennis. This is a popular game in Spain, and was actually invented here or possible Chile. It is in an enclosed court - the back wall and a section of the side is glass and the rest is a wire mesh. The racquets are paddles and they use a tennis ball. The ball has to land in the court first but can then bounce off the walls so it is a bit like squash. It was great fun.
I had a telephone session for one session yesterday. We went to our rooms and had to talk on the phone. There were some suggested scenarios but we adjusted one and so Antonio called me and enquired about a holiday to Australia. I pretended I was at the Australian Travel Bureau. I nearly hung up when he said he was planning to come to Sydney, but I got over it, and we ended up talking for half an hour about the various options then continued to finish the 50 minutes by talking about tennis.
On Sunday night we had a special presentation of a quiemada, which is a ceremony to frighten away the evil spirits and welcome the friendly ones by drinking a drink which is rather like a rum punch. The alcohol is made from the skins of the grapes after pressing, lemon, sugar, cinnamon and coffee beans. It is set alight to help burn off some of the alcohol. The drink and ceremony come from Galacia, in northern Spain.
In Day 3 in the one to one sessions I was asked to listen to the presentations they had to give the following day. Their first presentation is about the work they do, because this is the language they know and feel comfortable about, but also what they need their English for most often. It was fascinating for me because I learnt about their work, companies and t we could talk about the wider political and economic situation as well. We also had a 2 to 2 session where we are given a range of possible topics to discuss but can really talk about anything. We started talking about what you would do if you won 5 million Euros and it went into a wider discussion as you can imagine. Yesterday in our 2 to 2 we talked about whether our country should have a monarchy. The 2 Spaniards had quite different views on whether their Royals were useful so it made for an interesting discussion. The economic situation is never far from their minds. Yesterday in the group session we were given the characteristics of 4 people and asked to decide which one we would choose as a world leader, and what characteristic of the others was the main reason we rejected them. Every single group rejected one person because he had corrupt friends. Corruption in politics is a real issue here.
In the break yesterday I joined a group playing paddle tennis. This is a popular game in Spain, and was actually invented here or possible Chile. It is in an enclosed court - the back wall and a section of the side is glass and the rest is a wire mesh. The racquets are paddles and they use a tennis ball. The ball has to land in the court first but can then bounce off the walls so it is a bit like squash. It was great fun.
I had a telephone session for one session yesterday. We went to our rooms and had to talk on the phone. There were some suggested scenarios but we adjusted one and so Antonio called me and enquired about a holiday to Australia. I pretended I was at the Australian Travel Bureau. I nearly hung up when he said he was planning to come to Sydney, but I got over it, and we ended up talking for half an hour about the various options then continued to finish the 50 minutes by talking about tennis.
On Sunday night we had a special presentation of a quiemada, which is a ceremony to frighten away the evil spirits and welcome the friendly ones by drinking a drink which is rather like a rum punch. The alcohol is made from the skins of the grapes after pressing, lemon, sugar, cinnamon and coffee beans. It is set alight to help burn off some of the alcohol. The drink and ceremony come from Galacia, in northern Spain.
Hi Bron. Enjoying the blog. Hope those dancing feet are getting their due rest when needed. Have fun and keep the great photos coming! SueB
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