Almost a native!!!

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Rachel and I just finished our first round of language immersion classes. The course consisted of 20 hours of classes over 2 weeks. We went from really floundering to get anything done to actually functioning in day to day life (alright Rachel is having trouble, but she admits that she is not great with new languages). We have been able to contract workers and order all of our bathroom supplies, to even be at a point where we can bargain prices in stores.

I really realized that my capacity to communicate had changed a few days ago when I was throwing away vertical blinds before our painters started their work here. As I took out one load of slats, a car pulled up. I got a bit nervous because you just never know what people are thinking, and it’s a rarity here for people to just stop to chat. The guy jumped out and started rattling along in Spanish. If this had been 2 weeks ago, I would have apologized about my Spanish and closed the gate. This time I actually understood that he was asking for more slats and if I was throwing away the metal wall mounts. We spoke for a few minutes and I went inside to get him the pieces he was looking for. When I came back out with the stuff he had asked for, he started glowing and explaining that he has a weekend house here in the mountains and another house in the city.
He invited Rachel and me to his vacation home for drinks and to go 4-wheeling with him in the local park.

In the end, he wrote out a whole thing with his name and addresses, phone numbers and signed it “por amigos”.

I guess we’re on our way to Tico status 



Matt





Orchid Lodge's Website - http://www.theorchidlodge.com
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