These are all pictures from the second Englishtown program I did in Valdelavilla, Soria.

I'm hoping to get some better pictures from others who did the program, the low resolution setting on my digital camera leaves something to be desired...but it does give you some idea of where I was.

Unlike the other program I did, which was in a 4-star hotel, Valdelavilla is a restored medieval village in the Spanish countryside. There are rumors abounding of people preferring its "atmosphere" and "rustic charm" but the majority of us thought that was just something they said to try to convince people to come.

It was very beautiful there, and very isolated, and very...rustic. My toilet wouldn't flush properly, a lot of people hit their heads on the low doorways, the quarters felt cramped and claustrophobic...if I do another program, I'm going back to Gredos, definitely.

It rained a lot while we were there, and we had plenty of thunderstorms, but there was also a fair amount of sun. When there was, a lot of people hung out on the lawn in front of the reception building. Or went for hikes - not much else to do, really, except go up the hill or down into the valley.

I became friends with the folks in the photo there, we were all around the same age and so we sort of stuck together. Emily, the blond, and Troy, to the left of Josh, are both Aussies, but the good kind of Aussies (there was another Aussie who was a complete dick, but he's, unsurprisingly, not in the picture). Jayne, in the middle, was from Birmingham, and forever being confused with Janie, a middle-aged alcoholic chain-smoking southerner - because Jayne spelled her name with a "y" and it confused people, especially the Spanish people, who are used to letters being there for a reason (like, to represent a sound). Silly Spaniards.

These are windmills. I did not see any delusional old men on horses trying to charge them, unfortunately. On the foggy days, though, it was kind of a cool effect, to have the white windmills be semi-hidden by mist. Again, the low-resolution setting...sigh.

Yolanda here was a very good dancer, and my favorite 1-hour conversation was with her, because we basically gossipped and talked shit about everyone in the program. Now THAT's what I call English teaching! Mikel is from the Basque country, and reinforced my impression that everyone from Bilbao is cool.

The stylish looking vehicle in the background is the bus we took. Mountain roads + riding on a bus = instant party, as far as I'm concerned. However, we did pass a lot of sunflower fields on the way there and back, and they're pretty.