My New School

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So, I just completed my first day at my new school, Miguel de Cervantas. I greatly prefer it to my old one. For one, there aren't screaming children in the classroom, or annoying American ex-patriots that feel the need to rant about Muslims, women, or Obama every time they walk about your table.

My old school had classes near apartments, so that didn't work out so great.

My new teacher's name is Linda. She is incredibly hyper. She told me she has ADHD, and she also drinks coffee.

Yeah.

Still, her grammatical explanations are much clearer. But, she told me the same as my other teacher, which is that all I can do is read, listen, and speak. There's not much more in terms of grammar for me to learn, it is all just practice. So, I am contemplating leaving Xela after two more weeks of classes, and taking a bus to Oaxaca, Mexico. I could see some sights in Mexico, and then just fly from Oaxaca to Mexico City, and fly home to Oregon from there.

I'd be cutting my trip short a bit, but I wouldn't mind, since I could see a lot of cool stuff in Mexico, and I think I get as much out of just speaking Spanish as I do taking formal classes, where all I do is talk for 5 hours anyway.

There is a horseback riding tour I am considering doing. I would like to do something outside of Xela, as I am getting tired of a dirty city.

On a semi-related note..there are a number of Guatemalan youths here who like to blare American rap music. Really, really vulgar American rap music. However, they don't understand the words. So, for example, one of the sons of the family I stay with will have Dr. Dre playing all throughout the house, while all of us foreigners look shocked.

It isn't so different from the people in the US that listen to mariachi, which can have a lot of really vulgar lyrics, oddly enough.

I also had an interesting revelation today! When I am speaking to an educated Spanish speaker, I have little problem understanding everything they say. My teacher today told me that a lot of the people in the market are not educated, and they actually learned Spanish as a second language in their twenties (Guatemala has 24 languages), so they speak it pretty poorly. It doesn't help me with understanding them, of course, but it makes me feel better to know it isn't entirely my fault...

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