Vaughantown: Day 4

As we get to know the Spaniards (and Anglos) in the program, things start getting interesting... Mischief is afoot! During siesta, a few of the participants went swimming in the river(!) and arrived late to group activity. I started teaching some of the Spaniards some bad words and phrases -at their request, of course! ;) And at one point, out of frustration over some of the people's "lack of respect" for keeping things on time, I heard that one of program directors, Dade, walked out of the monastary and screamed out loud.

I finally found the dog that was keeping me up the first night. He was the white fluffy "monastary mascot" (a pic of him was posted on a previous post.) He came to me today when I called him and sat down for a good petting. Too bad I couldn't keep going - he was just too dirty.

Just like last time, the later into the program we get, the less formal the one-on-ones and group activities become. We're all becoming fast friends and I'm starting to dread the fact that eventually the program will end.

The two program directors collected email addresses from everyone and created a list that they handed out. I don't want to admit it, but I know that most of the people I have met here today, I may never see again. It saddens me, but that's the truth of life. However, I want to keep in touch as much as I can with some of the people who I got along especially well with:

Michaela (Mickey) and Shaun: The two Aussies of the program, who we met during the tapas intro party. They are wonderful folks and probably the two I would most likely keep in touch with. They are currently traveling around Europe (lucky) and hoping to settle down in a month or so in Ireland to work for a year. Then, perhaps, the U.S. We're thinking about visiting them next year in Ireland if we can.

Irune: The awesome Basque girl from San Sebastian. She is... well... awesome. She taught me a lot about the Basque culture and history. She's sweet, really funny, and totally cool, not to mention that she can speak, at some level, something like 5 languages. I'm hoping she'll make it out to the U.S. sometime in the future.

Jonty: The resident Manx - no, not the cat - but a guy from the Isle of Man. Really cool. I gave him silent props when he arrived to the group activity stinking of the river. LOL!

Oris: A Floridian who spent some of her life living in New York City. Outgoing, silly, and I know she's hiding a bit of a party animal. Every time we sat together, we always ended up laughing about something.

Victor: The shoe material saleman, shoe designer, DJ and Spanish hipster extraordinaire.

Juan, Jacinto, Sofia, Christina, and Alberto: Just the greatest, fun-loving and most hilarious bunch of young Spaniards I've ever met.

I'll post some pictures of the gang in my next blog.