The Gallivanting Grasshopper: Spoiled Rotten -- Coto del Valle

I'm writing this post from the extra bedroom connected to my room that I discovered yesterday afternoon. This means I have three beds, a bathroom, two TVs, two massive closets, and a lovely balcony all to myself. It's very spacious, but the empty beds make me feel a little lonely. It's difficult to spend the entire day engaging in fairly intimate conversations with strangers, and then go back to an empty hotel room. I had a bout of homesickness last night after dinner.

The view from my hotel window

That said, my time here has been absolutely phenomenal. The Spaniards are a joy to speak with, even though it gets very difficult at times. After my fourth hour long one on one yesterday, I started mispronouncing words right and left. I believe I confused the hell out of the poor Spaniard trying to learn English from me. The worst was when I pronounced "salutation" as "salution". I felt like a royal idiot for the rest of the day.

I don't think I've mentioned yet how sensitive the kitchen staff has been with my gluten intolerance. When I applied for this program, there was a section for the applicants to mention any food allergies or sensitivities. I wrote that I was sensitive to gluten. Sure enough, my first meal arrives with a special gluten-free roll baked just for me. It's been very nice to have that one less thing to worry about.

Trina, you would love the food here. So much pig, and I can guarantee that they're happy, because I see then frolicking out in the woods every morning. This part of Spain is teeming with wild boars, and this tine of year, with baby boars as well.

Each country represented at this program needs to get onstage and perform a song tonight. There are six people here from America, and we're thinking of doing Oklahoma. I feel sorry for the solo women from North Africa and Australia.

This program is so good for me. I'm already becoming quite comfortable with aproaching someone, saying "My name is Aimee, I believe we're partners. Where would you like to walk?"' and then taking off on an hour long talking walk through the Spanish countryside. It's a very big step for me. Today, I spoke with a woman getting her doctor's in psychology in Madrid and a young man who loves race cars, scuba diving, and wine tasting -- and hates English. I've become very good at exposing certain English idioms, which is part of the one on ones. Today, I explained what it means when something "comes in handy," and what it means to "call it a day." It's very interesting to see so many things whose meaning we take for granted, absolutely flabbergast these non-English speakers.

I have to get ready for lunch now. Probably a lot more meat and goat cheese. Jason, I had the most amazing cheese dish I've ever had before. Fried soft goat cheese drizzled with what appeared to be a molasses reduction. God, it was amazing. Oh, good theme for dinner, by the way -- "reduction."

some pictures of scenery (we're not allowed to post pictures of people):