Nonstop chitchat at Valdelavilla - Part I

I don't fancy myself as much of a talker; in fact I find most small talk exhausting and inane. Certainly not someone who has the inclination nor patience to engage in conversation for twelve hours a day, to non-native English speakers no less. 

Yet Sunday afternoon found myself and fourteen other "Anglos" in the tiny town of Valdelavilla in Soria province, which even most Spaniards have never heard of, after a three hour bus ride from Madrid. With us were eleven local Spanish people who had signed up for an intensive six-day course during which they will listen to the Anglos speak, try to figure out what in the world they are saying behind those indecipherable thick accents (yes, I'm referring to you Scots), and then respond in their best broken English. Repeat process until brain melts. Always having a drink in hand helps.

For the privilege of undergoing this torture, the Spaniards have shelled out megabucks (or their employers were snookered into doing so), while us Anglos were not exempt from being loco - we were here in Valdelavilla on a volunteer basis, and had paid for airfare and accommodations in Madrid out of our own pockets, and instead of spending precious vacation time laying on the peach sipping mojitos, giving our best efforts in explaining the intricacies of Shakespeare's language to the locals through one-on-one conversations, improvised conference calls, games, dance lessons, theater performances, and the like.

Obviously, non-stop talkers are preferred, especially altruistic ones. Doesn't quite sound like yours truly? Yes, I did think long and hard about joining the program offered by Vaughan Town, the leading player in the English language educational market in Spain, and wondered if I might become a misfit. However, the lure of free lodging and three-course meals with red wine (or white, if you insist) was irresistible, and I laughed off the fears and got onboard that bus pronto.

Valdelavilla was abandoned in the 1960s, and lay in ruins until its rehabilitation in the 1990s and is now a rural tourism complex. The town consists of about ten buildings similar to the one in the photo on the right, and it takes roughly five minutes to walk around Valdelavilla. This is about as small and idyllic a town in the entire country could be. Another claim to fame is that Valdelavilla has declared its official language as English, perhaps the only town in Spain to do so. Of course, it helps that no one actually lives here, and that most of their clientele are the busloads that Vaughn Town sends over for the English program.

It simply is quite a lovely town, the perfect escape from the hustle and bustle of Madrid, and a great place to talk non-stop for twelve hours a day, interrupted only by delicious meals and a siesta. If this sounds like your cup of tea (idiom alert!), or you're dying to recount the minutiae of your latest cruise, or you were born to explain phrases like "to put two and two together" and "to get a word in edgewise" to befuddled and bemused Spaniards, then joining the volunteer program is a no-brainer (¿qué? - Ignacio). 


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