After a few hours of intensive English we were nearing our destination, to the obvious relief of many Spaniards.
On the last morning we packed our bags while nursing hangovers from a particularly raucous party the night before.
Some days later several poor students admitted to not understanding a single word during the entire bus journey. Their furnishing service is totally free and you pay the same price, or often a lower price, than if you went direct to the furniture retailers yourself.
And finally and perhaps most importantly, LRAU has only affected a minority in Valencia. Participants are systematically allocated conversational partners, so it's pot-luck what you'll be talking about each hour - and how fluently.
Innocent buyers are protected by the "good faith" clause of Spanish consumer law. Being more or less stranded in a remote mountain valley certainly restricts your outgoings.
But that trend has now been reversed, with more Britons creating their own holidays in Spain using no-frills flights and accommodation booked over the internet. All around me, less fortunate participants struggled to make themselves understood to their Spanish students. "Roaming charges are still too high, particularly for people using pre-paid phones, and for those travelling in North America. Expect to be billed about one per cent of the purchase price for a lawyer's conveyance services. But I had conversations about the changes in diet in modern Spain to traffic problems in Madrid. Over the past three years, travel companies have reported a decline in bookings to Spain in favour of cheaper destinations such as Greece and Turkey. For residents, the surprise is not so much allegations of multi-billion euro municipal backhanders but the fact the national authorities are at last doing something about it.
In short the LRAU only applies to the Valencian region, the Costa del Sol is not affected.
I'm already signed up.
Back to the Costa del Sol.
Mr Valdecasas says residents and non-residents alike are obliged to declare all capital gains made in Spain, whatever their source. Anthony Ball of mobile charges comparison website Onecompare.