At 6:00 a.m. Wednesday morning, Oct. 3, I took my scheduled Super Shuttle ride to the Phoenix airport. Then it was a United Airlines Boeing 737-800 to Dulles Airport outside Washington, D.C and overnight, a Boeing 757 to Madrid. The package I bought through Orbitz included round trip airfare and three nights in Hotel Dinastia in the city of Getafe, in the province of Madrid. The national capitol of Spain is the city of Madrid, which is in the province of Madrid - the province has many suburban towns and cities that surround the city. It is somewhat like New York City in the state of New York in the United States of America.
After quickly clearing immigration and customs, I bought a four day ticket for unlimited rides on the metro (within the city of Madrid) and the cercanias (within the province of Madrid) - the cercanias is the suburban train system. I went into Madrid city center and came up out of the metro in Puerto del Sol - this is the geographical center of the Iberian peninsula. From there, I got a cup of coffee at Dunkin Coffee (that is what Dunkin Donuts uses as their name in Spain). I then found a small store where I could buy two plug adaptors for one Euro - I had forgotten to bring a couple with me (I have many back home in Phoenix).
Then it was off to Atocha train station to buy tickets for my train ride to Cordoba - it was very busy and very slow, as I waited nearly two hours in line before I was able to buy my tickets.
Finally I took the cercanias out to Getafe Central station, and walked the 20 minutes to Hotel Dinastia. As I approached, I saw this somewhat garish pagoda style building that is the Restaurant Dinastia.
Hotel Dinastia was around the block on the other side of the restaurant. There are three hotels together, each with their own restaurant.
There is a large grocery store next door, a MacDonalds, the municipal sports complex, the local high school and many condos and apartment buildings.
Getafe is on the road from Madrid to Toledo and has a population of about 175,000. It is now very industrialized but displays its farming roots in many places.
On Friday, I went back into Madrid and wandered through a different part of Retiro Park that has what once was a zoo.
The former zoo is in the gardens next to a library.
I met up with James for lunch. I had met James when I was in Madrid in January - he is an American who works at the Madrid campus of Saint Louis University (the main campus is in Saint Louis, Missouri, USA). He is also in the US Air Force Reserve. We had a pleasant lunch together and discussed many possibilities for him to do his remaining five years time to be able to retire from the Air Force Reserve as I had done.
Friday evening, I went to the regular meeting of the English Speaking Group founded and run by my friend Richard, a retired British seismologist who has lived in Madrid for more than ten years now.
Saturday was a lazy and leisurely day in Getafe and Madrid, and included the Vaughan Town Tapas Reception from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.
In Getafe, I walked around the town to get a better feel for the area where the hotel was located. There were many townhomes, condos and apartments that surrounded a greenway between two streets.
As I walking from the cercanias station at Nuevo Ministerios to the Grupo Vaughan offices, I noticed several schools teaching English to both kids and adults.
There are two Vaughan Town sessions this week, so there were more than 20 Anglos (native English speakers). Much to my surprise, one of the Anglo volunteers with the other group was Norm with whom I used to teach at Johnson State College in Vermont. I taught with Norm for about ten years before he retired; we had time to catch up as well as getting to meet all the other Anglos.
Sunday meant checking out of Hotel Dinastia and going back into Madrid to wait for our Vaughan Town group to gather at 4:00 p.m. On the first Sunday of the month, Madrid closes many of the main streets to cars and trucks so that families can ride bikes, inline skates, scooters, etc., on the streets. As I was riding the train in from Getafe, I saw many families boarding the train with their bikes. And as I left the train station in Madrid, I could see hundreds of people enjoying the streets.
The bus ride was about two hours and our small group checked into Hotel Intur Alcazar de San Juan around 6:00. As is normal with Vaughan Town, this was a very nice hotel. After checking into our rooms, we had about an hour of free time, so I went for a walk in the Alces Park across the street from the hotel.
And at 7:30 we officially started our week of English only for Vaughan Town. This is the smallest group I have ever done - only six Anglos and five Spaniards - usually groups are 15 - 16 Anglos and a nearly equal number of Spaniards. Plus, this is what they call a Fifty-Fifty session; half of each day, the Spaniards are in classes with Vaughan teachers, learning grammar and vocabulary, and the other half speaking English with us Anglo volunteers. In traditional Vaughan Town sessions, 100% of the week is spent speaking English with us Anglo volunteers. It appears that we Anglos will have much more free time than we do in a traditional program.
After quickly clearing immigration and customs, I bought a four day ticket for unlimited rides on the metro (within the city of Madrid) and the cercanias (within the province of Madrid) - the cercanias is the suburban train system. I went into Madrid city center and came up out of the metro in Puerto del Sol - this is the geographical center of the Iberian peninsula. From there, I got a cup of coffee at Dunkin Coffee (that is what Dunkin Donuts uses as their name in Spain). I then found a small store where I could buy two plug adaptors for one Euro - I had forgotten to bring a couple with me (I have many back home in Phoenix).
Then it was off to Atocha train station to buy tickets for my train ride to Cordoba - it was very busy and very slow, as I waited nearly two hours in line before I was able to buy my tickets.
Finally I took the cercanias out to Getafe Central station, and walked the 20 minutes to Hotel Dinastia. As I approached, I saw this somewhat garish pagoda style building that is the Restaurant Dinastia.
Getafe is on the road from Madrid to Toledo and has a population of about 175,000. It is now very industrialized but displays its farming roots in many places.
On Friday, I went back into Madrid and wandered through a different part of Retiro Park that has what once was a zoo.
The former zoo is in the gardens next to a library.
I met up with James for lunch. I had met James when I was in Madrid in January - he is an American who works at the Madrid campus of Saint Louis University (the main campus is in Saint Louis, Missouri, USA). He is also in the US Air Force Reserve. We had a pleasant lunch together and discussed many possibilities for him to do his remaining five years time to be able to retire from the Air Force Reserve as I had done.
Friday evening, I went to the regular meeting of the English Speaking Group founded and run by my friend Richard, a retired British seismologist who has lived in Madrid for more than ten years now.
Saturday was a lazy and leisurely day in Getafe and Madrid, and included the Vaughan Town Tapas Reception from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.
In Getafe, I walked around the town to get a better feel for the area where the hotel was located. There were many townhomes, condos and apartments that surrounded a greenway between two streets.
As I walking from the cercanias station at Nuevo Ministerios to the Grupo Vaughan offices, I noticed several schools teaching English to both kids and adults.
There are two Vaughan Town sessions this week, so there were more than 20 Anglos (native English speakers). Much to my surprise, one of the Anglo volunteers with the other group was Norm with whom I used to teach at Johnson State College in Vermont. I taught with Norm for about ten years before he retired; we had time to catch up as well as getting to meet all the other Anglos.
Sunday meant checking out of Hotel Dinastia and going back into Madrid to wait for our Vaughan Town group to gather at 4:00 p.m. On the first Sunday of the month, Madrid closes many of the main streets to cars and trucks so that families can ride bikes, inline skates, scooters, etc., on the streets. As I was riding the train in from Getafe, I saw many families boarding the train with their bikes. And as I left the train station in Madrid, I could see hundreds of people enjoying the streets.
The bus ride was about two hours and our small group checked into Hotel Intur Alcazar de San Juan around 6:00. As is normal with Vaughan Town, this was a very nice hotel. After checking into our rooms, we had about an hour of free time, so I went for a walk in the Alces Park across the street from the hotel.
And at 7:30 we officially started our week of English only for Vaughan Town. This is the smallest group I have ever done - only six Anglos and five Spaniards - usually groups are 15 - 16 Anglos and a nearly equal number of Spaniards. Plus, this is what they call a Fifty-Fifty session; half of each day, the Spaniards are in classes with Vaughan teachers, learning grammar and vocabulary, and the other half speaking English with us Anglo volunteers. In traditional Vaughan Town sessions, 100% of the week is spent speaking English with us Anglo volunteers. It appears that we Anglos will have much more free time than we do in a traditional program.
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