Here is the start of another learning Spanish in Spain topic.
One again, I am heading back to Colegio Maravillas in Benalmadena on the Costa del Sol.
I leave tomorrow and begin classes on Monday for a week.
The good new is that Madrid Man's Board member Arturo will also be in the area at the same time and will also be attending classes at the same language school at the same time.
Given that some circumstances have changed, I asked the school to arrange accommodation for me with a Spanish family in Benalmadena. I spoke with my host last night by telephone and she is very cheerful and she agreed to meet me at the train station in Benalmadena and take me to the house. On arriving at Málaga airport, I will catch the costal train to Benalmadena.
Hopefully, those board members and guests who like reading the "learning Spanish" topics will get added value, because Arturo has agreed to post in this thread too, so you will get a bit more variety, rather than the boring old stuff from me.
Stay tuned...
Robbieroy

I also leave tomorrow for Malaga by way of Milan. For the same price as NY/Malaga on Iberia, I am able to go from NY to Milan and then take EasyJet to Malaga. I just finished packing and I also finished my income tax forms. For the first time I am filing the forms early.

After 40 years I took 10 Spanish classes (30 Hours)at the end of last year at the Cervantes Institute in NY. On Monday I will start a week of intensive classes at Colegio Maravillas. Four hours a day -- Monday through Friday.

I will be staying with friends who live in Fuengirola. I arrive in Malaga on Sunday and we plan on going to the Feria de los Pueblos. After the week of classes I will spend Palm Sunday weekend in Sevilla. I then go back to Milan with my friends for 4 nights before returning home on April 15.

I met Robbieroy for the first time in December. I enjoyed reading his stories of the Spanish classes in Benalmadena and decided to take a week of classes on my next visit. I will let you know how it goes.....

Arturo

Arturo - I will be flying into Malaga Sunday as well - maybe we will pass eachother in the airport :-)

Friday 31st March
The flight out to Malaga was dreadful - instead of arriving at 7.20pm, we arrived at 2.00am. The reasons were numerous... The reasons:
- the inbound flight was delayed for 1.5 hours
- an sir traffic strike in France delayed our departure
- the crew ran out of hours so a change had to be made and due to this,
- we had to go via Birmingham
- we had to spend an hour holding in the air to burn off fuel because the plane was too heavy to land.
- eventually, we took off and landed at Malaga at 2.00am local time.
Well - six to seven hours stuck on a plane going nowhere fast is not much fun!
I took a taxi to Benalmadena where I am staying and was met by my host, Maria.
Maria is a delightful person who is a primary school teacher. We have lots to talk about in Spanish.
I finally got to bed at 4.00am!

Saturday 1st April
Gor up pretty early and after breakfast, Maria was kind enough to take me to Fuengirola, as she was going there with a friend to do some shopping.
I had arranged to meet a Scottish friend to help me start my car. Fist, we went up to Mijas to collect my car key and documents - they were being kept for me by Dominique - she is the former wife of Ille Natase (excuse the name dropping!).
Well, got to the car in Fuengirola and the battery was fine but it would not start. We gave it a push and a jump start and the engine roared into action - music to my ears (only beaten by Branka Parlic´s rendition of the Philip Glass composition "Metamorphosis 2"!).
All being well with the car, I went up to the tennis club (Campo de Tenis Lew Hoad, between Fuengirola and Mijas) for a coffee and to meet some of the club members.
I met with Floreal, the ex coach of the club. Those of you who have been following my blogs here will remember that he suffered a stroke in 1991 and had to retire from coaching. It was really good to see him amd I got a great big hug!
We spent some time chatting about recent developments and had arranged some tennis for later in the afternoon.
It was great to be back at the club and on the tennis court, as I have not played on a regular basis recently. I hit with a an American friend April - she can run and hit the ball all day! We then had a friendly game of doubles and a coffee. After two hours of tennis - I was ready to eat.
Back in Benamadena, Maria had prepared a meal of mixed salad boquerones fritos and courgettes stuffed with vegetable and cheese. Great food!
Her son who lives and works in Malaga came over to eat and say hello.
Following a couple of Mahous, and some of the Barça - Real MAdrid football match, it was off to bed at 11.00pm - as you can imagine, I was very tired.
Coming over on the plane, I suddenly realised how busy I had been at work and how I was maybe "running on empty" - those who know me might have guessed! Anyway, being back in Spain feels great and I already feel more relaxed.

Sunday 2nd April
We went to the church in Benalmadena this morning. It was really interesting for me and the servise was well attended. The made GREAT use of technology to present images, the readings and the hymns on a giant screen. There were losts of children present, as well as older people and foreigners.


Well - you know the routine by now - off to the tennis club for some lunch. I did a bit of reading in the afternoon and Floreal and myself set off to El Faro which is about 5km from Fuengirola to play some tennis with friends who stay there. We played for about an hour and went back to their apartment for some tapas - great queso de Manchego, chorizo (spicy Spanish sausage), and acietunas (olives).



Later in the evening Maria prepared me a great meal of chicken, couscous and vegetables.
The weather has been great - 30 deg C during the day. The evenings are warm with 22 degrees at 10.00 pm.

Monday 3rd April
First day of classes......
I was due to meet Arturo at the train station in Benamadena at 8.30am but we missed each other - I will let Arturo do the explanations!
Paid my money at Colegio Maravillas where we are studying and found out that I would be in Miguel´s class for Grammar - this is the superior class and Miguel does a really good job at trying to get the grammar into our heads.
For the conversation class, the teacher will be Juan Louis - he was the director of studies and does a really good job.
Grammar this morning was about probability and using conditionals - "if I were then I would, if a had.. then I would have etc. He would probably have done it.. He will probably do it... etc." Most of time was spent considering the concordence of the different verb times (tiempos) and the meaning of the different combiations of past present and future. Mind-numbingingly interesting!
In the converstion class and then taked about the religious meanings of the processions during the Spanish celebrations of Easter.
This was really intersting, so for example.
- the first Sunday is the Domingo de Ramos (Palm Sunday) and represents Jesus entering Jerusalem.
- the Monday represents various things including Jesus at the temple
- the Tuesday is about when he was taken by the Romans and tried
- the Thursday is about the crucifiction
- Friday is about him being taken down from the cross and put in the tomb abd
- Sunday is about his resurrection.
This was all fairly new to me.
If anyone knows more then please post a reply - thanks.

After lunch, 2 hours of tennis practice in the afternnon and then back to the house in Benalmadena for 8.30 and something to eat.

At the language school, I met two students whom I met a Christmas - Momi and Valeria - it was great to see them again.

Cultural note
Photos of Semana Santa processions can be seen here: Semana Santa Photos

My flights all went well on Friday and Saturday. I took KLM to Amsterdam and Milan. It took a long time but I liked the fact that they had individual screens with many movies, TV, music and games. I watched The March of the Penguins, two episodes of Two and a Half Men and played Tetris.

The connection in Amsterdam was very easy, much better than in Madrid on Iberia. Maybe the new airport is better. My luggage was waiting for me which was good since I have had 3 bad experiences flying Iberia.

After spending the night in Milan I took EasyJet to Malaga on Sunday. My friend met me at the airport but I did not see CascadaDuSel. My friend said it would be a day of total Spanish. We met 5 other friends at the Feria de los Pueblos and they did not speak any English. This was more intensive than the first day of classes.

I did not wait long enough at the train station and just missed RobbieRoy. We met later at the school just after I finished registering. He is well known at the school and has made many friends among the teachers and students over the years.

I took a placement test and am in an intermediate class with seven other students from all over the world...Japan(2), Switzerland(2), Poland. There is another American and I am not sure where the other student is from. I am the oldest student in the class by far. I also think that I am way behind the others in class. Hopefully I will get better.

The first two hours we studied grammar which is my weakest point. I have forgotten much of what I learned in school. The second two hours went better because we covered vocabulary and conversation. I need to study but it is such a beautiful day that it will not be easy.

I will let you know how the rest of the week goes. I am off to get some sun and some gambas al ajillo, my favorite meal in Spain.

Hasta lo pronto....

Arturo

Tuesday 4th April
Following on from Arturo´s post...
In the superior class, there are only 4 of us - Momi fom Japan (he has been there since last summer), Natali (from Germany, someone else whom I have yet to meet (and I don´t know his/her name (update she is called Emily and is from Sweden)) and myself, the Scottish representative.
The programme of activities for this week is:
Monday at 5.00pm - film
Tuesday Basketball
Wednesday - nothing
Thursday - paddle tennis
Friday - Film
Saturday - trip to Córdoba (I did this trip last summer, so I will give it a miss)


Last night at dinner, we listened to some songs by Aute - I enjoyed hearing my favourite - Al Alba.
Maria also played a CD by Pau Casals the cellist - I enjoyed this. She promised me a copy to take back home!!
Dinner was great - a mixed salad (without tomatoes) and panga (with garlic), a fish that I had never eaten before it was good and tasted like sole.

The class this morning continued with the conditional again, in past present and future with a mixture of hypothesis, probability, concessive statment (sorry, don´t know the English for this but it goes something like "I would go to the party but...."), future in the past and courtesy.
In the coversation class, we spoke more about Semana Santa and saw a short video about it. Juan Luis the teacher brought in one of the costumes of the Nazarenos (the ones that wear the pointy hats like the KKK) and then we did some word games.


All went well.

The afternoon tennis routine continues with two hours practice on a very warm day. The daily temperatures remain high and very pleasant.
In the evening I drove through to the pueblo blanco (white village) of Mijas to meet some Spanish friends. You will see in the next post who I bumped into!
We went to a Spanish bar/restaurant at the back end of Mijas. The restaurant is called El Alacón. It is quite basic, but the food is excellent and the price is right! The say that during summer, from the rooftop restaurant, you can see the Atlas mountains in Africa!
We dined on raciones of mixed salad, chicken wings, spicy chicken wings, spare ribs and fried peppers and some drinks. Not a particularly healthy meal, but delicious!
I had the car, so I stuck to water.
I went back home and watched El Loco de la Colina. Those of you who are familiar with Canal Sur TV will remember Jesu Quintero and his show Ratones Coloraos. HE has a unique style of interviewing. He is now working with TVE 1 and his new show has the same format.
Did some homework (Spanish) late last night and again this morning.


Cultural note
Information in English about Pau Casals can be found at
Pablo Casals Information and Photos

The official home page (in Spanish) of the Aute is at
Aute Home Page

More information about, and some great images of the pueblo blanco (white village) of Mijas can be found at
Mijas

Tuesday, 4 April

Today´s class went much better. I studied the subjunctive before class which helped a lot. I did not remember it at all from years ago. The only intermediate class this week is the advanced class. The other students in my class are very good and have been taking classes here for a long time. In the first class today we had a long discussion of the political problems in Spain. The newspapers are full of stories about the corruption in Marbella. The mayor has been sent to prison. Rosa the teacher is very good and she is very animated and enthusiastic.

In the vocabulary and conversation class we discussed expressions using colors, viejo verde e.g. We also discussed working conditions in the various countries represented in the class.

After class I had lunch at a chiringuita on the beach and got some sun. Weather continues to be just great. I spent the evening in Mijas where I happened to run into Robbieroy.

I do not have much time to study. I am only here for a week and I have so many things that I want to do. I have said hello to many friends that I have made in past visits. I just finished checking my e-mails and responded to friends and family.

More updates to follow....