First Day of Spanish Class

el 1 de julio 2011

Today is the first day of July and our first day of class also. We got up at 6 (a great way to start the second half of this year!) and got ready for class. It was actually nice to have time to catch up on my blog before breakfast. We had breakfast at 7:15 which consisted of two large pancakes with syrup and banana slices and tea. Amber and I left for class a bit after 7:40 and we arrived a few minutes after 8. We paid for our classes and then were introduced to our teachers. My teacher is named Sara and Amber’s teacher is Amanda. The classes take place in a long open hallway lined with tables. I thought it might be distracting to learn in this environment, but I did not find it to be so.

Sara and I talked until the break at 10. I felt like my Spanish was really flowing and she let me do most of the talking. We each got a free Spanish textbook, a notebook, and a pen. However, we did not use the textbook at all. I talked a lot about my family, my mom’s volunteer work with the assistance dog training program in the prison, and my job. We also talked a bit about politics both U.S. and Guatemalan. During the break, Amber and I went for a walk. We walked to the central park and walked around a bit. We are still looking for a dance studio to take salsa classes. We had to turn back before too long. We got back to our school just in time at 10:30, but I had to go to the bathroom and there was a line, so my teacher was waiting for me at the table when I returned. I thought we might do some grammar work, but we continued the conversation. I guess she took me seriously when I said that I need to work on speaking more than anything! She would correct me as I spoke and I learned many new words. Sara has a seven month old baby named Karla Lucia. Before class ended, Sara and I went to the copy shop next door and she made three copies of papers for me to do as homework. I went back to the school and picked up my stuff and found Amber.

We walked around some more looking for dance studios. We stopped to ask in a gym and a girl from Holland said that she could take us to a dance studio run by her Guatemalan boyfriend. We went and talked with him. All the prices are the same, but they are more than what we would ideally like to pay. We thanked them and kept walking some more. Finally it was time for us to head back for lunch. We quickly stopped by our house to use the restroom and wash our hands before heading over to E&E’s for lunch.

We had spaghetti, lettuce/cucumber/tomato/onion salad, a canned pear, and bread for lunch. We stayed and talked a long time… almost two hours in total. Amber and I stayed for a while after the others left and continued talking. I love talking to Elvira and Enrique. They are fun, interesting people and are very good at correcting/assisting with our Spanish. We went back to our room and worked on homework around 3 for a while. Then we went out to look for a gift for Bernabe and Nirma (the family in Parramos) and to see a procession in the park. We went to a candy shop and waited in line for about 15 minutes, but we decided to come back tomorrow when there might not be such a long line and the candy would be fresher if we bought it tomorrow. Amber got some blackberry guanabana frozen yogurt and we walked to the central park for the procession. Today is the last day of the celebration of Corpus Christi in the Catholic Church which is why they were having this procession in the park. While we were sitting on a bench, several indigenous women tried to sell us things. We politely declined until the third woman came along with her daughter. The woman talked to Amber and showed her what she was selling and I chatted with the daughter. The daughter was six years old and her name is Damaris. I enjoyed talking with her. She wanted me to guess how old she was and then I made her guess how old I was. She counted up to 26 for me. When it started raining, I put up my umbrella and she came under it with me. I shared mine with Amber and Amber gave her umbrella to the woman. She is 24 and has this daughter and a 7 year old son. After talking with her for probably 20 minutes, Amber ended up buying a pretty scarf from her.

When they left, we left, too, because of the rain. We were going to stop at the internet café near our house, but it was closed probably due to the procession. We went to our room and journaled for a while and I took a shower. We headed over to dinner at 7. We had pureed black beans, scrambled eggs with tomato, fried plantains, and bread for dinner. We again stayed and talked for a long time, more than an hour and a half. It started raining heavily, so Enrique loaned us an umbrella to walk back to our house. The road was covered with water when we crossed the street. We were going to go to the park for the live music and dancing tonight or a discoteca, but we don’t want to walk in the rain. Amber finished her homework and rested and I wrote this blog. I read for a while after I finished. I woke Amber up at 10:15 to get ready for bed. We went to bed soon after.