Still catching up - Spain Trip

Email excerpt:

Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2006 00:40:04 +1100 (EST)
From: Arlyn Santos arlyn_2222@yahoo.com.au
Subject: OMG I can't believe it's December!!


..........Just a quick note to let you know what I've been up to recently.

I've had the most amazing two weeks in Spain. I flew to Madrid on the eve of 16Nov. Spent a couple of days there which is nowhere near enough time. Some people are not overly impressed with Madrid but I found it to be friendly, clean and the public transport is excellent. In the two days I only managed to see the Royal Palace and grounds, the Lazaro Mansion/Museum and the Museo del Prado which is one of the 'big three' museums. Prado has a great collection of Goya and a good collection of Reubens, Boticelli, Valezquez, and others.

I volunteered to be one of the Anglos to go and speak to native Spaniards to improve their English We had English, American, Canadian, Kiwi, and about 6 Aussies there that same week. The program is called VaughanTown and this was one of the best things I've ever done. The deal is you just need to get yourself to Madrid which is the pickup point, and they take care of transport, accommodation and meals at Puerto de Gredos, about 2and a half hours west of Madrid. It's a 6 day intensive english language course for the Spaniards. Some people are there doing the English Masters program but most are sent by their businesses.
As a volunteer you have one-on-ones, telephone, and conference call sessions as well as group work and then at the end of the day a presentation session where you can volunteer to get up and present 'something' or do a skit - it's all light hearted and very funny and I've had an amazing time. We had kareoke night where pretty much the Anglos took over, a nice walk to the nearby village and a small party to finish the program.
At first it was scary thinking I have to talk for pretty much 12hours in the day, and to think what the hell am I going to talk about for 6 days straight! But your day is broken up and each individual Spaniard that was there for the week were all lovely, talking and building a rapport with everyone was sooo easy, I highly recommend this to everyone going to Spain.
By Friday 24Nov when we caught the bus back to Madrid and everyone parted, tears were shed by the reality that I have to leave my new Spanish friends, and my heart was broken by a lovely Aussie guy (typical- I go all the way to Spain and end up meeting an Aussie despite all the yummy Spanish men around me!!)

That Friday night I flew straight to Barcelona where some of my mates in London came to spend the weekend with me. I also had an incredible time there, an amazing cosmopolitan place. The architecture is incredible, thanks to that Gaudi dude, and I also went to Barcelona FC stadium and watched Barcelona vs Villa Real soccer game.

I've got photos and have included the links below:

VaughanTown
http://au.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/arlyn_2222/album?.dir=/61f0re2&.src=ph&.tok=phBjr6FBISFjX2CV

Barcelona
http://au.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/arlyn_2222/album?.dir=/4097re2&.src=ph&.tok=ph.hr6FBkQ.ZOiuO

I think from here you can also see some of my other pictures from the past year.


I hope you're looking after youself. Take care now and I hope you have a great holiday season.

Love always,

Arlyn, xx