Spanish School

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We've realized through receiving many questions about language school that we haven't said much about it. I guess since it was day to day routine, we never really thought writing about it. Oops. Since it is the primary reason we came to Guatemala, we thought we should fill you in.

We attended school for a total of 15 weeks for 25 hours a week, and graduated the last weekend of November. People around here are usually shocked to hear that, as language school is so intense, and the normal span for a student is between 2 and 6 weeks. The classes are set up as one-on-one instruction for 5 hours a day. You can have a different teacher each week, or remain with the same teacher for as many weeks as you like. Between the both of us, I think we had about half the teachers in the school!
To give you a little taste of the intensity, do you remember in high school or college when you would zone out for a couple minutes during class? We learned quickly that is not possible when you are sitting a foot and a half away from your teacher. We would take a nap almost every day after class because we were so exhausted. I never thought that learning a language could make me that tired!

I (Sarah) found learning Spanish to be extremely difficult but I came to Guatemala knowing 'hola' and 'adios' and now am an intermediate Spanish speaker. Hurray!Drew came as an intermediate speaker, and now is virtually fluent. He's been told by more than one Guatemalan that he does not sound like a gringo (a big bonus!) and the he speaks very well. At our last border crossing from Belize to Guatemala the customs lady actually peaked at Drew's passport after conversing with him to see where he was from. She thought he was Guatemalan! I feel that is quite a feat due to his tallness and blondness, but when the guy opens his mouth you would never know the difference.

As of today, we only have 9 days left in Guatemala. It's a bit strange, but both of us are excited and ready to come home. We fly out of Guatemala City on the 15th, will be spending about a week in California visiting our friend Phil in Las Angeles, and Drew's extended family in San Diego. I have never been to California or met that side of Drew's family, so we are really looking forward to it.
We return to snowy Colorado on the 23rd to celebrate a late Christmas with our families and start getting used to normal life again. We are looking forward to seeing everyone!

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