4. The weekend in Guadarrama

Coming home Friday after school, I almost forgot about the fact that there was “a weekend” I had to go on. And the only reason I knew there was “a weekend” was because when I asked my host-sister if we could go shopping over the weekend, she looked at me all confused and said that we weren’t going to be in Madrid over the weekend. I said, “I know, you told me there’s a thing on Friday night, but we’re here the rest of the weekend, no?” She then continued to explain that we were going away for the weekend, on a Rotary Orientation. She is a future outbound (flying in September) and I’m a new inbound, so both of us had to go.

Shortly I received all the information regarding the weekend and I was at ease. I only need to know what’s going on, then I’m chilled. The second thought that struck me was: other inbounds! I can’t be the only one, the other southerners must also have arrived by now! That meant other people from the Southern Hemisphere, i.e. Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Brazil and other South American countries or even another South African from another district! I was very excited!

So, after having eaten lunch and quickly packing, we drove into Madrid. I just have to make it clear that the email telling us where to be when and how we were getting to where we were going was in Spanish, so I might have missed a few details that I only picked up on, on the journey into the city.

We arrived at a station and then walked down one of the hallways to a big group of people standing in a cordoned-off area. Maria and Marcos saw some people they knew and we went to stand with them. I looked around. “Wow,” I thought, “how peculiar that there are all these young people waiting to get on the same train as us. There’s probably another youth conference on the way to Guadarrama(by now I had learned this was in the mountains outside Madrid).”

Before long someone started calling names and as people’s names were called they had to go stand in a separate group. “Huh, I didn’t think they would do roll call for a train ride. Can’t they just accept people with tickets and-” ooohhhh. Then it hit me. The man doing roll call was one of the organisers from Rotary and not a station …. person and the children standing here were all coming to the same weekend that Maria and I were going to. I looked around again, mouth a little agape this time. There had to be more than a hundred people here! That means…. Yes (as I later found out), the people standing here were from the whole of Spain. Future outbounds from all three districts! That gave everything some new perspective.

As I waited for my name to be called out, I saw a girl with what looked like a Rotary blazer over her arm. Could it be…?
“Hi, um, sorry, are you an exchange student?”
“I.. um… I don’t-” she began, gesturing with her hands, clearly caught off guard and trying to think in Spanish.
“No, it’s okay! I speak English, I mean, I’m an exchange student too!”
“Oh!” She said, clearly relieved.
“Hi, I’m Mart-Marié, I’m from South Africa.”
She introduced herself. Her name was Salma and she was from Oregon(pronounced “organ”), in the U.S.

By then we had realised that we weren’t on the list they were using for roll call and that meant we were on another one, with the rest of the exchange students that were here. We found them and everyone introduced themselves to everyone else. There was Emma, from Las Vegas (“Like, literally, the city? Not like, outside?” “No, the actual city.”), AJ from Calgary in Canada (Also known as The Polar Bear cos he can survive 8?C with only a t-shirt, shorts and sneakers) and Shurika from Tokyo in Japan. The other we would meet later, i.e. three Indians and another American, from Fresno, California.

I was puzzled about the lack of Southerners and asked these guys why they were coming on this orientation and didn’t go to the big one in September for all the Nothertherns coming in. Turns out, they all had had problems with their visas and missed their September arrival date. For example, Salma only came in November, while the others all came “October 3rd, of 4th” (insert North American accent). I really enjoyed getting used to how the three Americans (yes AJ, I count you as American) spoke. I mean, you grow up hearing it on TV and on the movies, but when you hear it “live”, it’s just so different.

Finally they roll called us and we were off. And… got on buses! My dream of taking a high speed train through the Spanish wilderness was totally shattered! Jokes, I never had that dream and a bus is fine too. Besides, by the time we left, the sun was setting and it was too dark to really see outside. So AJ and I discussed Canadian winters and South African rugby.

When we got to Guadarrama we were shown our living quarters; a good old fashioned youth hostel, with bunk beds, communal showers and room keys one person has to guard. Nothing I wasn’t used to or couldn’t handle. Except in South Africa it had never been this cold and had we never received so little warm bedding. In South Africa they never expected us to stand outside in a big circle and throw a ball around, saying your name when it came your way. In South Africa they are humane! (Please note, I am joking). Although I must say, the strong presence of Wi-Fi everywhere, even outside, is what reminded me that I was in fact, in Spain

The whole venue is called The Fray Luis de Leon. This is from

their website: “Fray Luis de Leon Cultural & Residential Complex is a residential project, designed to provide a wide range of possibilities in the religious, cultural, social and recreational areas. ” They have a big building with lots of conference halls, big and small, a youth hostel, tennis courts, a swimming pool etc. When it was dinner time (la cena) everyone went to the mess hall and we were told the rules of the weekend and everything that was expected of us. Thank goodness for Emma having three months more Spanish experience than me and being able to translate! They also gave us the official numbers, 175 people! That included, future outbounds, inbounds(us nine), Rotex(ex-exchange students) and the Rotary grown-ups. You have to understand, in SA, for our Selection camp of district 9350 (one of the biggest districts in the world), we were ten future outbounds, four or five Rotex and four or five grown-ups. Compare this to that… I wasn’t used to it.

Anyway, the rest of the night was quiet, everyone just getting to

know one another and revelling in the fact that we could speak English and be understood.

But, that night it was cold. I slept in the clothes I had on (long pants, three layers of shirts and two pairs of socks) and but my coat over me. We only had one blanket and a sheet. And the heating was off! The next morning there was no hot water for a shower either. I know I sound very spoilt and unthankful, but as a person from a third world country (mostly), I was really expecting more of a first world country. But I quickly got over myself as the day dawned and I remembered that I was in fact in Spain, a privilege all on its own, regardless of the sleeping arrangements for one night.

The rest of the day wasn’t really that exciting. We sat through a three hour Rotary presentation on exchange and although I tried very hard to be the model student and listen attentively, I had heard everything before and the fact that it was in Spanish didn’t help very much. Later, while the outbounds had another lecture, the inbounds had a sporty hour on the tennis/basketball courts where we played Dodgeball (American/Spanish Version), Kickball(Like Baseball/Rounders, except you kick a ball) and Tag on the Lines (exactly what says). It was the longest I had been outside since I arrived in Spain and the only reason was because we were constantly running around like little kids. I had forgotten how much I missed that.

And that was pretty much the weekend. On Sunday morning we took photos, exchanged numbers, made WhatsApp groups and vowed to see one another again. We were three who live Madrid, so we can get into contact easily and make plans to go exploring, which is nice.

Then we all got back to Madrid and everyone disappeared onto their train or another bus back to where they came from. My dad took the scenic route home, which means that instead of taking one of the “rings” on the outside of the city to get back to Montecarmelo, we drove smack bang through the middle of the city. I got to see the Agricultural Ministry’s building, Parque de El Retiro, Estacion de Atoche, Real Madrid Stadium, the four skyscrapers, Plaza de Castilla. I almost cried, no jokes! Everything is just so… beautiful! I mean, you see these big cities in movies, you hear of them on the news, they pop up on you Pinterest feed when you’re searching “best travel destinations”, but you never really think you’ll see them yourself. And there I was, driving past, so close… it really was surreal.

And that’s the weekend! Stay tuned for more, hasta luego!