PUERTA DE GREDOS
ENERSO 2003
DE
RODLI J PEDERSON
This is a record of my trip to Spain in January and February 2003. It is organized into several parts:
- PUERTA DE GREDOS
- SALAMANCA
- BURGOS
- MONASTERIO DE SAN JUAN DE LA CRUZ
- SEGOVIA
- MONASTERIO DE PARRAL
- MONASTERIO SANTO DOMINGO DE SILOS
I spent the first days in Madrid recovering from jet lag. I went to the Prado and tried to find painting by Diego Rivera, but they were not there.
Next I joined Vaughan Systems at the Plaza Colon for the bus trip to Gredos. Vaughnan is an English language teaching company. I worked ten days for them as an English conversation teacher. I received no pay but got room and board including wine in a luxury hotel. The rooms had a bidet, bath Jacuzzi and a heated towel rack. I used the heated towel rack to dry clothes I had washed by hand.
This is the hotel Puerta de Gredos.Formerly it had been a hacienda for a sheep ranch. Other buildings were used to dry the wool. That is Ivan walking in the foreground.
This is the Puerta de Gredos, which you passed through to enter the hotel. We passed through this gate several times when we went on walks.
These students were business people from Spain and Portugal. At meals we were supposed to sit with 2 Anglos (English speakers from Wales, England, Canada and Australia) and 2 students at each table. Any reference to Spanish or Portuguese was prohibited.
Breakfast began at 0900 and the breakfast police would not let you go down to the dining room any earlier than 0900. I tried coming down on the elevator and it stropped at the reception or lobby floor. They had programmed the elevator so it would not stop at the dining room. This concentration camp type of customer service tended to disturb everyone at this luxury hotel.
After breakfast at 1000 we would split up for one-on-one sessions that lasted an hour. After the hour was up, you got a new student (we jokingly called them victims). A student would come up to me in the hotel lobby and say, “I am your next victim.” If I were to attend one of these sessions in German or Spanish I am sure I would learn a lot. It must have been stressful for them to talk English and hear English 12 hours a day.
Lunch was served from 1400 to 1500 then there was a break until 1700 when the one on one cycle started again. Theater time began at 2000. At this time everyone took part in a play in English. This was a wonderful way for the students to perfect their English. At 2100 we went down to the dining room for supper. The rest of the evening was ours to spend, as we wanted.
Most of the people, but not all, spent their evenings at the bar right next to the reception.This snow-capped view of the Gredos Mountains greeted us every morning:
During the days a Gredos we took a field trip to Avila, the walled city. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera.
