Amposta

Now that our time at Pueblo Ingles is over, I mean who can survive 15+ hours a day speaking, we retreated to a small pueblo called Amposta to stay with our friend Amaya. With a population of around 15 thousand it was ideal for refreshing our minds and souls while giving our mouths a much needed rest.

We met Amaya while at Patim in Castellon. Most likely the best benefit of our time there (also for meeting Sanja from Serbia who we plan on visiting someday in the future). We took an overnight bus from Madrid to Tarragona and then a train from Tarragona to Amposta. While waiting in the train station for Amaya we busted out our playing cards for more rounds of Phase 10 and Skippo.

During the restful week in Amposta we also hiked 2 mountains. Despite already having our breath taken away by the climb itself the views were also breath-taking and marvelous.





We spent a mourning at the beach one day while Amaya had to work. We were the first to arrive at this small local beach but within 20 minutes the whole beach was covered. I got a great run in and Krystle got a darker shade of white. Upon returning to the city, we walked around and saw the river nearby and the bridge to the city. Another day we traveled down the river to the sea on a tourist boat.






We had the wonderful opportunity to have lunch with Amaya’s parents. It was a sight to see has 3 languages were being spoken during this meal. Krystle and I occasionally in English with Amaya practicing English skills she learned in primary school but has not used since. Her parents spoke many Catalan, trying to accommodate us with speaking Spanish. In the Catalunya area, Spanish is actually the second language in the small towns and rural areas because Catalan is the primary language.

After enjoying a typical meal of Catalunya which included a delicious cooked turkey we explored the city a little. We saw her mother’s clothing store, makes expenses dresses for special occasions, and went to see the bull ring. It is constructed each year for the one week festival and then dismantled afterward. The bulls are not killed and the locals are the ones in the ring running from the bulls.. craziness. On the last day they also have fireworks which was another kick for us as we missed the 4th of July fireworks back home.






We also enjoyed some coveted Mexican food.





Here was our goodbye at the train station.

Day at sea

A friend that we made at Pueblo Ingles just so happened to be vacationing near us the following week while we were in Amposta. David and his wife Virginia were going to be staying in Port de Salou, which is where apparently everyone from their town, Zaragoza, goes to vacation.




It is about a 45 minute drive from Amposta where we were staying. Our friend was nice enough to come out of his way to pick us up and take us home. They own a skiing boat that they take out in the Mediterranean Sea everyday while on vacation. So it was just us 4 out on the boat. They took us to an area, that was “the most like a lake” so I could try to ski. First David went on 1 ski. It was his first time ever getting up on one ski!! Congrats David. He was it was because we were lucky, and that we would have to return again the next day so he could ski again. Haha Then his wife, Virginia went, and she was amazing, apparently she has been skiing in the sea since she was 5 years old, and you could definitely tell. Now I know how to ski because my dad has a boat and I ski a few times a year, but I have never skied in an ocean or sea. It was sooo different! It was windy and super wavy. I luckily got up on my first try and skied for about 5 minutes, then decided to be risky and go outside of the wake. That sure wasn’t happening as it was super wavy, water filled the skiis and I did a nose-dive into the water almost immediately. I had a good time though and now I can say I skied in a sea!





The rest of the day we just relaxed on the boat, swam in the water, and talked in both English and Spanish which was very interesting and fun. After the sea, we had lunch at the Nautic club which Virginia’s parents belonged to, which was very nice. Then we relaxed at their place for a little bit and enjoyed the beautiful view. Here are a few pictures of the view.

More English

Party night was Monday night and there was a lot of fun music and dancing among everyone. Here are some pictures of our party!







Don’t ask what we are doing, "dancing"…




One night we had a demonstration of “Quemado” This is a very common Spanish drink from the North West part of Spain. There is a little bit of a magic/witch spell type stuff that goes along with it, and we had a few of the participants acting as witches and saying the poems. Brian, our MC (master of ceremonies) the guy who talked all week, was making the drink while the witches talked. It consisted of almost pure alcohol (smelled like rubbing alcohol) coffee beans, lemon grind, apples, sugar and maybe more but that is all I can remember. Then he cooked it, burned it, for about 15 minutes to lessen the severity of the drink. We all had some at the end, and it was NOT good. Here are a few pictures of the ceremony and us trying the drink..




Here is the last night of hanging out.




We were trying to get a picture of the guys jumping in the air… it was very difficult.. but this is what we got





Closet to success we ever came to


Here is us with Brian, the Master of Ceremonies, we had a great time with him



The rest of the days flew by with talking and activities. I (Krystle) lost my voice about the 3rd day because we were talking for over 15 hours a day, and it was very difficult to continue doing all of the activities. The head person Laura gave me a little bit of extra free time which was nice, so I could sit and NOT talk! Anyway, it was a great experience and now we have many friends in Spain that hopefully someday we can come back to visit!

Here is the whole group

Pueblo Ingles

August 12th starts our time at Pueblo Ingles. Pueblo Ingles is an organization that runs camps for a week for Spaniards to be fully immersed in English. They get “Anglos” who speak English as their first language to come be volunteers for the week and in exchange for our speaking English many hours a day, we get a free place to stay and free food for the week! So it is great for us!
August 12th we had a welcome luncheon and got some information before we started the next day. After the yummy lunch we ate with a lot of typical Spanish food, we got a nice Flamenco show! Jordan and I hadn’t planned on spending the money to go to one, so it was great to see the local show without paying for it! Here are a few pictures of the Flamenco dancers…




We met our bus at 1pm and headed off to Los Panascales for the week. We sat with a Spaniard on the bus, and our speaking time began. We pretty much talked for 10-15 hours a day. Everyday we had at least 5 “1 to 1’s” which means one Spaniards and one Anglo talking for an hour. Sometimes they switched it up and made it 2 to 2’s. We also had a lot of activities and theatre.

We had an excursion today and we went to a close-by village called El Escorial. This is the home of a very important monastery called San Lorenzo de El Escorial. Our whole group of about 50 decided that we all wanted to see this. We had 2 English speaking guides and split the group. It was a long tour, but very interesting. The most interesting part was the crypt where we got to see the tombs of most of the late kings and queens of Spain. It was pretty neat. There were a few missing because they were in a different area where they “get ready” for the crypt for like 25 years. Not sure exactly what takes 25 years to do, but it was interesting to say the least. Unfortunately we couldn’t take any pictures inside, but here are a few pictures of the outside areas. It was very nice and a good change from speaking so much English.





A different area of tombs with prince’s and princesses 137


Apparently, I did not know this, but Jordan is an actor. The second night of being here, we had some theatre. Jordan was asked to be part of the theatre, and did a great job. Jordan was playing a stupid tourist (commonly referred to as a "giddy" in Spanish) who gets robbed by these 3 girls. It was very funny and Jordan did a great job exaggerating his part. Everyone had a good laugh, and he kind of set the tone for the rest of the theatre performances.