DEL.ICIO.USSPECIAL BUDGET TRAVEL SECTION
Week at Spanish resort earned by chatting in EnglishSpaniards pay for immersion program letting them hone language skills
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 04/23/06
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Taking in culture of Spain need not cost mucho dinero
• What to know if you go • Spanish wines in Atlanta
 RUSS ALLEN/Special | |||
| Oscar Robles, an executive with Sun Microsystems in Spain, pauses beside the riverwalk in Cazorla, Spain, a favorite route for Pueblo Ingles one-on-ones between Spaniards and Anglos. | |||
 RUSS ALLEN/Special | |||
| The village of Cazorla, Spain, sits on a mountainside beneath the Castillo de la Yedra, a castle dating to the 11th century. The castle houses the Museum of Popular Arts and Customs of the Upper Guadalquivir, a state museum. | |||
 RUSS ALLEN/Special | |||
| The museum at the Castillo de la Yedra is divided into a historical section and an arts and popular customs section. The historical section includes a room with a life-size Romano-Byzantine Christ on a cypress cross, flanked by depictions of the Apostles dating from the 17th century. In another room are remains of Arabic pottery found within the castle. | |||
 RUSS ALLEN/Special | |||
| Some Pueblo Ingles participants visit the museum in the Castillo de la Yedra above Cazorla: Bob Prochnow (from left) of Albuquerque, N.M., whoÕs temporarily living in Spain, and Spaniards Amaya Fernandez Alvarez, a pharmacist, and Mariano Avila, who works for a Spanish television network. The room theyÕre in is a typical Cazorla kitchen, in the museumÕs arts and popular customs section. | |||
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MOST POPULARCazorla, Spain — Gathered around a blazing pot on a patio at Hotel Villa Turística de Cazorla, we're cooking up your basic moonshine. Blue flames lick at the ladle and at the dish towel-covered fingers of one of our hosts.
This is a Queimada (meaning "to burn"), a centuries-old Celtic ritual of brewing a concoction of aguardiente de orujo (alcohol), sugar, coffee beans and lemon rind to sip in a ceremony to free your spirit and confer confidence in your own strength.
Most tourists to Spain do not participate in or even hear about this custom, but we're not most tourists. And we don't need strength, but our new Spanish friends do.
Language immersion
It's the midway point of an eight-day session of Pueblo Inglés, an immersion program launched in 2001 as a supplement to English grammar lessons. Pueblo Inglés brings together about 20 Spanish speakers and 20 English speakers at resorts in Spain to help Spaniards improve their comprehension and speaking.
We've been yammering at them nonstop for days. It's our job, for which we're being well-rewarded: Our stay at this three-star resort, along with a breakfast buffet and three-course gourmet meals at lunch and dinner, including wine, is absolutely free.
Our only expenses are round-trip airfare to Madrid and a night in a hotel before and after our week with the Pueblo Inglés program (though we decided to stay a few days longer), plus a few euros if we want sodas, coffee, other alcohol or between-meal snacks at the resort. (We spend less than 10 euros, about $12 for the week, and leave a 10-euro tip for the staff.)
It's a budget trip with a rich experience.
The cost of the program is paid for by corporations that send their Spanish executives to hone English skills, by individuals looking to improve their speech and comprehension and by the company's Masters Students, who pay to attend four Pueblo Inglés sessions as part of their nine-month intensive English study program.
Another glimpse of Spain
But the fact is, most of us English speakers would pay for this chance to meet and talk with interesting, fun-loving Spaniards and get a glimpse of Spanish culture you don't see while roaming Madrid as a tourist.
"We had a wonderful time at Cazorla, and I have recommended it to all my sisters. I have five, so this could be quite a spike in activity for Pueblo Inglés if they all decide to go at once," Tom Brown of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, says of his week with our group at the resort. "Personally, I would love to go again and am scheming to find a way to manage it for the fall."
David Miller, a Texan who's retired from the military and living in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, has attended Pueblo Inglés sessions at other locales in Valdelavilla and La Alberca, and says each is unique. "The makeup of the group [at Cazorla] was just remarkable and ... the synergy that evolved was just fantastic," he notes in an e-mail. "The diversity of backgrounds, both Spanish and Anglo, helped to move it along."
Diversity is an understatement. At this session, the first in Cazorla, our group of English speakers ranges in age from early 20s to 70s and includes Anglos temporarily living or traveling in Spain; a singer/actress from Canada; an entertainer/traveler from the Netherlands, whose most recent job was teaching in Thailand; and two people from Ireland, one a native and the other a Chicagoan studying at the University of Limerick.
Spanish executives, employees
Our Spanish speakers, early 20s to 40s, are executives or employees with Vodafone (mobile communications), Medtronic (medical devices), other technology companies and even a women's lingerie company (www.womensecret.com); five Pueblo Inglés Masters Students pursuing careers in marketing, business administration, international law, technology and chemistry; a network television employee; a graphics designer; and a pharmacist.
Our eclectic group makes quick friends, aided by our master of ceremonies/activities manager Brian Bolles, who moved to Madrid more than four years ago from Colorado, and program director/logistics manager Pablo Aspas, who first came to Pueblo Inglés as a client two years ago.
Repeat travelers
Helping the group mesh are four Anglos who've enjoyed Pueblo Inglés programs so much they've been at least two times, plus the record-holders of our group: Joanne and Bob Prochnow of Albuquerque, N.M., and in Spain for an extended visit (both with 10 Pueblo Inglés sessions), and Mike Monroy, retired from the military and living on the coast of Spain (22 sessions).
After a 41/2-hour bus trip from Madrid due south to Cazorla, we arrive at this 32-villa resort carved into a hillside overlooking the town of about 8,500 people. Its simple, white-washed Spanish architecture would be at home in a travel photography book. Above us is the Castillo de la Yedra, a castle dating to the 11th century; surrounding us are thousands of acres of olive trees.
Our villa has two bedrooms, two baths and a living area, ample space if you don't come with a friend or spouse and share your villa with a roommate. (Pueblo Inglés assigns roommates for singles who come alone.)
Our first activity, lunch, sets the tone. We sit at tables of four and follow the rules: English speaking only for eight days; spouses and friends don't sit together; each table must have two Spaniards and two Anglos. And we start jawing about anything and everything, the weather, the resort, our professions, our families, our background, our cities, daily life.
We get our Spanish friends talking and watch for blank looks or for more nodding than talking — signals to speak more slowly, rephrase or explain. Most Spaniards at Pueblo Inglés sessions are intermediate English speakers, a 5 on a 1-10 scale; at this session, most of the Spaniards seem more advanced, perhaps an 8 or 9.
Learning the ropes
After a break to unpack, we regroup and really begin: We stand and introduce ourselves by name, city, profession and one fun or interesting fact. One young Canadian woman once was a bartender in the Yukon; a young Spanish woman is an actress making a living — so far — in sales; a Spanish executive plays drums for fun (we later learn he also dances like a madman).
And we hear the schedule that will set the rhythm of our days: wakeup call at 8:15 a.m.; breakfast 9-10 a.m.; one-on-one, 50-minute sessions between an Anglo and a Spaniard or group preparation or presentations, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.; break for lunch at 2 p.m.; siesta or free time 3:30-5 p.m.; group activities and one-on-one sessions, 5-9 p.m.; dinner at 9; then bedtime at 10:30, or more likely, a drink or coffee at the resort's bar, more talking or cards, games, music and dancing until midnight or later. Some members of the group didn't call it a night until well after the bar closed at 1:30 a.m.
Yes, it's a long day. Yes, it's work. No, it doesn't seem like either.
Even on the first day of our fast-paced schedule, nobody is having second thoughts. But everyone is discussing them.
Teaching idioms
"What does it mean to have 'second thoughts'?" I ask Beatriz Moreno Gomez, a Masters Student working toward a career in marketing. This commonly used idiom is one of several we're asked to talk about in our one-on-ones.
Gomez works out the answer, then tells me she's trying hard to improve her vocabulary, aiming for an international career, perhaps working a few years in the United States. "Vocabulary isn't taught in school when they teach English, and it's a problem," she says. "Without it, you can't understand."
Our Spanish friends learn many more expressions as the week goes on. They are phrases that, when you think about it, make little sense: "To think on your feet," "to figure it out," "to scratch the surface," "to crack a joke." No wonder the Spaniards are "scratching their heads," ready to "crack up."
It's the one-on-one sessions you come to treasure. As you get to know each other, you start to share more than just the idiom of the hour.
Making friends
Joelle Willard, a theater arts student from Edmonton, Alberta, explains the magic: "Once in Cazorla, I didn't want the week to end. Why? Because I didn't just meet people, I met friends. I found myself on my one-on-ones telling Spaniards things about myself that I don't tell others. ... In return, I received words of encouragement, knowledge of Spain and its people, stories about their lives, and so much laughter! I can honestly say that in that week, I became a changed person."
A week after the session, the Spaniards also are seeing changes they didn't realize as they concentrated so hard to understand English delivered in accents ranging from deep Irish to the Deep South. In e-mails the group is exchanging, we hear how things are going:
"Once back to the real life ... I'm very pleased to inform you that I have just finished my terrible Wednesday's weekly teleconference successfully (at least, better than other Wednesdays)," says Amaya Fernandez Alvarez, a pharmacist working with an international consortium of researchers conducting drug testing — and communicating their results in English. "So, thanks to all the Anglos for your patience (I think this is going to work)."
Perhaps the proven methods of Pueblo Inglés lead to this transformation, or perhaps there's something in those incantations of the Queimada that inspire success.
Freeing the spirit
In the bluish glow of light cast by our pot of brew, we can believe in either. We hear the ancient words for courage recited in Spanish, Galician and English.
"I could imagine my Celtic ancestors gathered around listening to the incantations, perhaps even believing them," says Joyce Brown, a retired Canadian schoolteacher, recalling the ceremony. "But most intriguing was the arrival, as if on cue, of the bats hovering about the scene below. Then, later as if on cue once more, the church bells began to peal. I could picture the priest, holy water in hand, racing over to save his flock from the evils threatening them."
As we sip the bitter liquor, we recall the incantation that frees our spirits and asks that spirits of friends who have departed share in the Queimada with us. It touches us all.
"I have a special memory of the Queimada night," Francisco Javier Ginés says in an e-mail to the group. During the ceremony, an Anglo spoke with Ginés about the terrorist bombings of Spain's Metro on March 11, 2004, and about Ginés' friend who was killed. "Something switched on in my brain at this moment," he says. "Things like that gave to Cazorla a special spirit, more than a language interchange."
IF YOU GO
Getting there
Expect to pay $500-$600 round-trip airfare from Atlanta to Madrid in the off season, much more during summer months.
About Pueblo Inglés
Pueblo Inglés has been conducting English immersion programs for Spaniards since 2001, when four sessions were held. This year, the company expects to conduct 80 sessions, with about 3,075 participants.
Three more sessions are planned for Cazorla: July 14-21, July 21-28 and Oct. 20-27. Dozens of sessions will be conducted in two other venues, La Alberca, four hours west of Madrid, and Valdelavilla, four hours northeast of Madrid, and four sessions for ages 14-18 are planned. An Italian immersion version of the program may be held this summer or fall in Italy, open to those who've previously attended a session in Spain.
The company screens English-speaking applicants and tries to make sure each session has people from a variety of backgrounds. Most applicants, 73 percent, come from the United States, with 10 percent from Canada, 8 percent from Ireland, 7 percent from England, 2 percent from Australia and 1 percent from New Zealand. To apply, see www.puebloingles.com and click on the British flag at the top of the page.
Hotel Villa Turística de Cazorla has 32 villas equipped with TVs, phones, central heat and air, and terrace; also on the property are a pool, restaurant and bar/game room. www.villacazorla.com, 011 34 953 71 01 00.
Guide books
Here are three with helpful budget travel information:
• "Rick Steves' Spain 2006" (Avalon Travel Publishing, $19.95 but frequently discounted online). It lists lots of inexpensive places to eat and sleep and is a good guide for travel by bus and train.
• "Fodor's Spain 2006" (Fodor's Travel Publications, $21.95 but frequently discounted online). We found the Hostal La Ninfa, a charming small hotel in Granada, in this book. It was the nicest budget lodging we stayed in on the trip.
• "Let's Go 2006 Spain & Portugal" (Let's Go Publications, $22.99 but frequently discounted online). "Let's Go" books are geared to younger travelers and ultra-cheap places to eat and sleep, but they have good maps, and cheap doesn't mean low-quality or unsafe.
Information
• Spain Tourism: www.okspain.org, 305-358-1992.
Wines keep memories of Spain alive
After sampling a wide variety of inexpensive wines in Spain, we searched for them when we returned to Atlanta.
The Spanish table wine served at Cazorla, Conde de Picardo Cosecha 2003, wasn't available at the wine stores we checked.
Here are five worth trying, all under $11:
Vina Mayor Crianza 2000, $10.99. Very flavorful, refreshing and light taste. Our favorite, and rated 87 by Wine Spectator.
Marqués de Cáceres Crianza 2002, $9.99. Velvety smooth and light on the palate, not as nuanced as Vina Mayor but our second-favorite of the five we tried.
LaPlanta Cosecha 2003, $7.99. Dry and smoky flavor, not quite up to Vina Mayor, but $3 cheaper.
Las Rocas de San Alejandre Garnacha 2003, $9.99. Burst of flavor fades too quickly.
Cortijo III Tinto 2003, $7.99. Strong tannins, too harsh for my taste, but acceptable to the merlot-lover in the family.
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