Back to School

---

Day 268 - Tuesday 24 June

As always the bus was running late so it was mid morning before I was back in my usual guesthouse. I´ve put it off for ages but I finally got round to organising my Spanish lessons. I found a teacher that only charges $6 US an hour for private lessons, so booked myself in for a 2 hour class this evening.

With my lesons starting this evening I spent the afternoon relaxing at my guesthouse before it was time to start my first lesson. As I can speak the basics my teachers got me learning verbs. I seem to have been able to cope ok without them but I guess if I want to speak the language correctly I should know them. Its been a while since I´ve done any work and 2 hours later I felt drained. Now I remember what it like to go to work. I´ve made a mental note that once my lessons finish I must enjoy my last few weeks holiday.

I was planning on watching a movie tonight but with 24 new verbs to learn its going to have to be a night in with the books instead. 24 verbs what a fun evening ahead.

Day 269 - Wednesday 25 June

My lesson starts at 8 am so I was up at 7. So much for a holiday. Todays lesson was more verbs, this time in the past tense. As I´d only learnt a couple yesterday before falling asleep I think I´ve a long day of studying ahead. I´ve also got some homework to do which will take me another couple of hours.

I had a break to watch the Euro championship semi final between Germany and Turkey before finishing my homework. I´d done enough for 1 day so when 2 girls from my guesthouse asked me if I wanted to join them for a coffee I readilly agreed. It turns out one of them was nearly kidnapped the other day. They got her to a car but she managed to escape.

I was just about to finish the evening by studying some more verbs when in walked Jamel and Heidi. Me and Rusell used to play cards with them in the evenings on Mana island in Fiji. What a small world. When we flew to Santiago they flew to LA and have been working their way down. So instead of the verbs we caught up on what each of us has been doing.

Day 270 - Thursday 26 June

Before todays lesson I finally got round to learning some of those dam verbs. Thankfully there was no new verbs today, I couldn´t have coped with them. Unfortunately I´ve got yet more homework and new words to learn so its another boring afternoon of studying with the customery break for the football. But I suppose my trips definitelys improved since I´ve learnt to speak a bit of spanish, and if I know even more then the worlds my oyster.

By early evening I´d had enough of studying for one day so popped down the cinema. I ended up watching the film ´21 Blackjack´. After seeing Vegas in the film I cant wait to get there.

Day 271 - Friday 27 June

Another morning spent getting up and cramming as much Spanish as I could before going to my lesson. The future tense today and thankfully I´ve got no homework to do this weekend.

Having taken Pa to Lima so she can fly back to Thailand, Russ returns to La Paz this afternoon. So after he´d turned up at the guesthouse we went out to get a bite to eat and catch up on the latest gossip. I then broke the news to him that although hes rushed back to La Paz for the weekend I´ve decided to return to Santa Cruz for the weekend to see Giancarla. He didn´t complain but then he cant really, hes done me over enough times with Pa. I must be mad going back though. Although its dirt cheap to travel I need to be back in La Paz for my Spanish lesson on monday. Its going to take me about 16 hours to get there and about 16 back, so that only leaves about 20 hours to spend with Giancarla. Is she worth it? Im not sure yet only time will tell.

I had a bit of time to kill before the buses leave so we went down to one of the video arcades. They´ve got all the old 90's games I used to play growing up, streetfighter 2, sega rally, outrun, teckon, super bomberman etc, and the best thing is there only about 3p a game.

Unfortunately I spent a bit too long there and when I went down the bus station all the buses were full. Its friday night so all the locals are travelling for the weekend. Its a big hassle and adds another 4 hours journey time (thats 20 hours now), but theres an indirect

---