¿Habla español? (Do you speak Spanish?)

The majority of tourists heading for Spain stick to the "playa's" or the Andalusian south of Spain. Valladolid is not a main tourist attraction, although it has much to offer in terms of culture, art, architecture, nature and food. So why am I going there? 'Castilia y León' is the region of Spain where the purest Spanish ('castellano') is spoken. Hence it is a great place to learn the language. Valladolid is renowned for its language institutes.

I've been taking Spanish classes for the last four years now at a School for Adult Education (CVO-Het Perspectief) in Ghent. I find this to be an excellent school with dedicated and enthusiastic teachers.

Our fourth year teacher Elvira offered us a great opportunity to take part in a summer school of one or two weeks at the Foundation of the Spanish Language (Fundación de la Lengua Española) in Valladolid, on a grant that remits the fee for taking 20 hours worth of classes (=510 EUR)!! 
I immediately jumped at the occasion and booked myself 2 weeks at the end of the summer holiday.

After almost ten months of looking forward to it 'D-day' is finally drawing near. This is promising to become a great adventure. For a start I've never been away from home for so long. I'm planning on blogging during my stay, depending on how much time we get off. :-) I hope you enjoy the richness of Spain as seen through my eyes as much as I do!

I've just been informed that right at the beginning of the first day we'll all get a language test (ie-iek!!) so I guess I'd better hit the books and freshen up some vocabulary and grammar... Oh joy! :-)