The Things You Learn

It's amazing how quickly the time goes by when you get back to real life - it's been three weeks already since I returned from my trip!  I've had a chance to think about everything and realize some of my mistakes, so I thought I would make a few comments as a guideline for next time, whenever that might be.
 

Things I did wrong:
 

1.  Losing things.  I didn't end up losing anything that didn't find its way back to me, but I easily could have.  And if truth be told, I deserved it.  I resolve to be more attentive to my stuff on future trips.
 

2.  Buying ScotRail tickets ahead.  I really did need to buy the Virgin Trains ticket ahead to get the discount on the train from London to Balloch.  But the train from Balloch to Prestwick Airport was just a regular, anytime ScotRail ticket.  I didn't save anything and I spent extra to have it mailed to me, when I could have just paid on the day without a problem.  I can't really blame myself for that, totally, since I didn't have a clue at the time.  I just wanted the tickets in my hand.  But I will know better next time.
 

3.  Not having a phone when traveling with others.  I realized that I had made a mistake when I told Lisa when to expect me in Balloch, and I had no way to let her know, so they had to wait an extra 30 minutes or so for me at the train station.  It also could have been a problem when I went to fetch my camera.  We will see what the technology fairy has come up with by my next trip before deciding how to resolve that one.
 

4.  Taking the wrong shoes.  I wore slip-on shoes for the plane, thinking I could also wear them with the long pants that I had with me.  That was true, but I only wore those pants two days.  On the other days I wore capris or shorts, which only went with the sandals, and the slip-ons stayed in the suitcase until my homeward flight.  What I should have done was wear athletic shoes on the plane, and with the long pants.  Then I could have had them to wear with shorts or capris, and for doing things like hiking down to the river.  The sandals were great, but I really should have had shoes I could have alternated with them.
 

Things I learned:
 

1.  Fried calamari isn't completely terrible.  It isn't squeaky or chewy.  I wouldn't order it in a restaurant, but if someone served it to me I could eat it and not gag.  That's the best I can do right now.  :-)  I also ate eggplant and zucchini, both steamed and grilled, and they were actually OK.  I had several other things that I really loved (cod with tomatoes and onions, manchego cheese, gazpacho, Aquarius) that were new to me.  Ooh, and lemon sorbet with cava!  Sort of like the punch that you make with sherbet and 7-up, only with sorbet and cava (Spanish "champagne").
 

2.  If you plead complete ignorance and ask, people are willing to help you.  They even help you when you don't know you need it, like the guy who followed us with my gps in his hand.  I asked a lot of questions, and had a lot of random conversations with strangers (including a strange man in Balloch who followed me across the street with his dog to tell me that the shop I had just come out of had thrown him out the day before for telling their customers that they were overcharging - pretty sure that's not the only reason they threw him out).  Everyone I met was great - and you learn a lot if you stay open to random conversations.
 

3.  Sauchiehall St in Glasgow is pronounced "sucky hall".  Heh.

4.  I was an idiot to have waited so long to get my new knee.  Every day I walked somewhere or did something that would have been impossible last year - hiking down to the river at Gredos, walking miles of streets and up hills in Glasgow, going up and down stairs in my hotel room, walking, walking, walking.  Not entirely without pain, but a couple of ibuprofen took care of it, and I never needed anything more.
 

4.  Next time I should take a jar of peanut butter.  It could come in handy for lunch or dinner, and most of the Spaniards have never tasted it, though several of them expressed an interest in it.  In general, I need to think about "local" things I could take to share.
 

5.  The automated immigration system at O'Hare is a new pilot program, being tested only at O'Hare right now (though they have it in some other parts of the world, I hear).  Very fast and easy!
 

7.  You can buy lots of things over the counter at the pharmacy, both in the UK and Spain, that you would need a prescription for in the US.  Just sayin'.

USA, USA!

I caught the 7:50 bus outside my hotel this morning for the 4 minute ride to Heathrow, and then I got on the Heathrow Express to T3 for my flight.  We sat on the train for a couple of minutes then they told us all to get off and go to a different platform.  Even with that tiny glitch, I was in line at the bag drop by 8:30.

Security was , um, very thorough.  My knee beeped, so I had to take off my shoes and be patted down.  Then I was wanded.  Then they asked me to put one foot up on a box and they wanded that leg, then the other (which beeped).  I asked, sort of joking, if she wanted to see my scar, and she said yes.  So I hiked up my pant leg and showed her.  The only other place I was patted down was in Glasgow.  I was sitting in the departure area by 9:10 for 9:45 boarding.  Perfect timing.

I have to say, Virgin Atlantic is great.  We had on-demand touch screen entertainment, and in addition to lunch and "tea", they came around and gave us ice cream bars!

We got into O'Hare a few minutes early. They now have an automated passport check where you feed your passport into the machine, it copies it, asks you all of the questions on the customs form, and then takes your picture and prints you a receipt.  Then you turn in the receipt after you get your bag.  They first sent us to the wrong carousel, and I got a little concerned when my bag never arrived.  Then the next one over started up, and everyone moved over.  I think mine was the next to last bag to come off the belt.

I thought I could catch the 3:00 bus, but it turns out that their schedule has changed, and it doesn't come til 5:25.  So here I sit.  But given the complexity of some of my travel, and the good breaks I got along the way, I can't really complain.

Last Stop

It was a beautiful, breezy morning in Madrid.  The museums don't open early (well, not much does in Spain, really) so I went around the corner to VIPS to pick up some sliced strawberries, and then stepped next door to [hanging my head in shame] Starbucks for a cafe mocca.  I sat at Starbucks' outside tables and enjoyed my breakfast, then went looking for culture.  Just as I walked away from my table, though, I ran into Kathryn from Vaughantown!  She said she, too, was waiting for the museums to open, but was going a different direction (I ran into her again at the Thyssen).

Because it was closer and smaller and cheaper, I opted for the Thyssen-Bournemisza instead of the Prado.  Part of the reason was that in just 90 minutes or so, I really couldn't do justice to the Prado's vast collection.  And in all honesty, I just can't sustain interest in paintings for that long.  I much prefer sculpture and jewelry and furniture.  I probably don't try hard enough to appreciate paintings (though there are some that I really love, and I appreciate the talent that it takes to paint), which is why a museum like Kelvingrove appeals to me so much.  In addition to paintings, you have your stuffed elephants and your antique cars and your crystal, and strange heads hanging from the ceiling.  That's my kind of museum!   I got done early enough that I had time for a quick shower and cooldown before checking out and walking down to Cibeles for the airport bus.

                                        You can just see the tables in front of Starbucks to the left.

The plane got in about 10 minutes early to Gatwick, there was no line at immigration, and by the time I got my bag and made my way to the bus area, it was 5:30.  I stopped into the ticket office to see if I could get an earlier bus if there was one (my ticket was for 6:50), and there was - 5:40!  I asked the woman in the bus area about how many stops it made, and she listed T5 as the next to last stop.  I asked if I could maybe get off there instead of the central bus station (so I wouldn't have to backtrack by shuttle to T5 - remember my ticket issue when I booked the hotel?).  She told me to ask the driver, and he said sure!  Woohoo! One less step in the process.

                                                       

Adios and Goodbye

Sorry about having no pictures yesterday.  The wifi signal and/or my netbook were not cooperating.  They have now been added, if you look back.

 

It is a little late, I know, to say much about the Spaniards, since this is our last day, but I will give a quick rundown.  We have two Oscars (Oscar and Oscar G) and two Javiers (Javier and Francisco Javier), Jose from Argentina, Paula from Portugal, Ana, Elena, Pedro, Pilar, Begoña, Victor, Teresa, and Miriam..  There are a couple of them with not a great deal of English, but they have improved so much this week.  They are all natural comedians and a lot of fun to talk to.  Yesterday, in advance of the presentations, a couple of the guys shaved, when they had not been doing so all week. They looked so different that I hardly recognized them.

 

They are mostly somewhere in their 20's-30's, though some are older. Many of them work for US companies or others that do international business, or they work in the information technology field.  Besides the previously mentioned surgeon, there is also a school psychologist, and a civil engineer,  One is the European brand manager for Centrum vitamins, and two others work for drug companies.  And one works for everyone's favorite Spanish beer, Mahou, though he says he can't get anyone discounts.

 

 

There is really no way to describe how such an exhausting week could be so fun, but it was.  The certificate ceremony just before lunch was a chance to say some last words to everyone, and Oscar G summed it up pretty well when he said, "In the future, I might forget my English, but I will never forget you."  There were tears, and hugs, and kisses, Facebook friend requests and business cards exchanged, and a group photo taken.  Then a last lunch together (except for a few who had come in their own cars and didn't stay for lunch).

 

Now I am back at the Westin Palace in Madrid in a fabulous room overlooking the Neptune Fountain.  Tomorrow I plan to go get a little culture at the Prado Museum, then head to the airport for my flight to London.  Just two more sleeps and my trip will be over.

 

 

 

Next to Last

Today was a very long day.
All of the Spaniards were doing their 10 minute presentations and were nervous, using every last minute to practice with their one-to-one partners or still trying, last minute, to come up with something to talk about.  I had a total of five one-to-ones, and was part of the audience for one set of presentations.

At siesta, I went for one last swim in the fabulous pool, empty except for Katy and me.

                                                                   The perfect pool.

Two more one-to-ones, then a short group activity where we learned a dance that Australian kids do in high school, the nutbush.  It's sort of a line dance at a fast tempo that left most of us gasping for breath, but it was fun.

Dinner ran long tonight, and soon there will be music and dancing up at the little building.  We check out early in the morning, have two more one-to-ones followed by lunch, then the trip back to Madrid.

                             The dining room - note the blue Anglo chairs and the tan Spaniard chairs.

I am ready to head home.  I'm ready to wear clothes that were not washed in the sink, and get a cold (really cold) Diet Coke out of the fridge whenever I want.  I am ready to sleep in a little, go back to the gym, work on my pictures, and digest all of the great experiences I have had this trip.  I am very grateful to Sue and Igor for being great to travel with, to Lisa and Donna for being great hosts, to Jaime and Adrian for being wonderful tour guides, and to all of the Anglos and Spaniards of Vaughantown.  But it's time to go home.

Scavenging and Trekking

This has been a very eventful day.
Actually, it began last night with dinner.  Yesterday there was a big influx of regular tourists arriving, and the hotel is suddenly a bit crowded.  We are a big group of 34 people, and that many people have difficulty being very quiet when we are in a small room, and the conversation (and the wine) is flowing.  We were just laughing, having a good time, when the MC went upstairs to the lobby for something, and was cornered by a Spanish tourist who screamed at him about us being so noisy when he had paid a lot of money to stay here and have dinner, etc.  Daryl told him that we were just having fun and he couldn't stop it, but we did try to keep it down a little after that.

Last night was the queimada ceremony (see last year's blog for an explanation).  We had a bit of a party in the little classroom building afterward, and I left about 11:30, but there were those who, I hear, stayed until 2:30 and later. 

My losing streak has reached a new high (or low).  Last night before dinner, I left my cellphone in the lobby (but got it right back), and THEN.... I lost my electricity!  At about 4:00 a.m. I woke up and needed some decongestant from my daybag that was downstairs.  I flipped on the light for the stairs, and the second one's bulb blew, taking with it every light in my little house.  The lobby is open all night, but though I could probably have gone there to get some help, I didn't really need them coming over to fix it at that hour, so I just used my phone for enough light to get down the stairs and back, and went back to bed.

This morning, the whole lot of us walked into town to do a photo scavenger hunt.  In the  little town there is a castle, an old prison, a Roman bridge, and some other places that we had to photograph, along with our group with a display of Barco Beans (white beans that the area is famous for) and some other things.  We ran all over Barco getting our pictures, then had a drink in the square before heading back.  We had a couple of one-to-ones, then lunch.

My team, Angela (Anglo), Victor (Spaniard), and Julio (Spaniard) at the hotel gate, on the way to town.


Then during siesta, when I would normally be swimming, Craig (an Anglo from Michigan) and I walked down to the river (about an hour's trip all together).  We were actually in search of a geocache that had just been published the other day and has not been found yet, but we were in the whole wrong area.  Still it was worth going just for the view.

We had another telephone session, then a couple more one-to-ones, then a hilarious entertainment hour (I was in a skit last night).  Now it is past dinner time, and though I know I said I would tell you about the Spaniards today, there just isn't time right now.  We have reached that stage of the week, though, where we are starting to eat off of each other's plates and make fun of each other without risk of anyone being offended.  One of the Anglos is teaching them all kinds of slang, and barely an hour goes by without a Spaniard telling me "See you later, alligator" to see if I will respond "After while, crocodile".  I also had an interesting conversation today with one of the Spaniards who is a maxillofacial surgeon.  We talked at great length about Kym's surgeries and he was interested to know what kind of outcome she had right away, and he explained the facial sweating.

Last full day at Vaughantown tomorrow (already!).

Hanging Around the Hacienda

Last night after dinner we had a trivia contest in the lounge.  My team was dismal in the first section (general knowledge), quite a lot better in geography, and then really brought up our score on a picture identification section that included identifying various sports trophies, shapes of countries, and paintings and sculptures (we could identify either the artist or the name of the work).  In the end, two teams had a score of 25 and two had a score of 24.  I was in one of the 24 teams, but we were pretty proud of that considering we had a score of 3 at the end of the first section.

This is the main hotel, the center of most activities and all meals.  It was an old hacienda in a former life, with the family living upstairs, and the animals being kept downstairs.

The hotel contains the lounge and bar, and dining room.  There is also another small building up the hill where some of the activities take place (mainly the noisy ones where we might alarm the other guests).  Yesterday all of the Anglos had to give a two minute presentation on where I live and why my town is really, really cool and better than your town.  The Spaniards will do something similar this afternoon - and then the skits begin.  I am set to be in a skit tonight, but I won't know what it involves until later this afternoon.

The schedule is a little more relaxed today.  After lunch and siesta, I have a group activity where we are just the audience, a rehearsal, free time, then entertainment.  During siesta, we think Jose will join our little swimming group (yesterday it was Katy from England, Begona from Spain, and me).  We don't want it to get too popular because we don't want to share the lanes.  :-)

Some are pushing to have another trivia night after dinner (only with easier questions), but last night's went till nearly midnight.  It didn't start, though, until 10:30 because dinner doesn't finish until 10:00.  I know it sounds late, but the whole day runs late, so it isn't hard to get used to.  As it was last year, meals are at tables for four, with two Anglos and two Spaniards.  It is easier here because there are blue chairs and tan chairs in the dining room, and the Anglos get the blue ones.  So if you walk up to a table and both blue chairs are occupied, you have to find another table.

Breakfast   9:00

One-to-ones, telephone calls, rehearsals, etc. 10:00, 11:00 12:00, 1:00

Lunch   2:00

Siesta/free time  3:00-5:00

Group  5:00

One-to-ones, telephone calls, etc. 6:00, 7:00

Entertainment   8:00

Dinner   9:00

At lunch we had something that was billed as "rice casserole with meat and fish".  What arrived looked more like chicken broth with rice and loads of small sea creatures - tiny crabs, shrimp (unpeeled), prawns, tiny lobster claws - as well as chunks of fish, chicken, and chorizo.  We all just picked around the sea life and ate the rice.  It was funny that even the Spaniards didn't quite know what to do with our little fishy friends.  It turned out that they weren't really meant to be eaten, they were for flavor and looks, mainly.  There was hardly any meat on them (or so I am told).

Tomorrow we will take a group walk (with one-to-ones along the way) into "town", which will take about 30 minutes, they say, so we can see the town and do any necessary shopping.  I am not involved in any conference calls, but those are going on today and tomorrow.  The Spaniards are beginning to work on their presentations that they will give on Thursday, too.  There are still a handful of Spaniards that I haven't spoken with yet (I have now done 11 one-to-ones), but everyone gets to everyone by the end of the week (I have four left).  Things are falling into a little routine now, and I have learned a lot about them and their lives.  One of the Australian girls was a little freaked out last night because she accidentally said "hola" in front of the Master of Ceremonies, and she is afraid she won't get asked back.  There is no Spanish allowed by anyone, but lots of people, including me, have slipped up a time or two.  The other Anglos that I didn't mention yesterday are two women from England, a woman from Tucson, AZ who is originally from Trinidad & Tobago, and me.  Tomorrow I will tell you a little about the Spaniards in the group.

My little barn away from home.  Mine is the closest one.  The single upstairs window is the bathroom, and the triple window is the bedroom.