Estudiendo En Canoa

---

So we´re in this tiny seaside village called Canoa. We´re going to be here for about 3 weeks, staying at a little Spanish language school right on the beach. The place is run by a local family. This Ecuadorian guy Huan Carlos, his wife, his Dad and various other relatives teach classes at the school and run the hostel. They have three puppies, a kitten and a small child who all run around and climb on you while you´re trying to conjugate verbs. It´s one on one tuition for less than 3 quid an hour. The classes are pretty intense, especially for me because my Spanish is currently non existant. Luckily Carlos and his wife Marielina speak good English, though some of the other teachers don´t understand any. There are only six or seven students at the moment. It´s actually quiet season, winter over here, but though it can be cloudy some days it´s still in the high 20s temperature wise, and the sea is about the same.

Canoa is only one street really, and most of the buildings are constructed entirely from bamboo and string. It´s sort of in the process of changing from a quiet fishing village to a backpacker hotspot, mostly because of the good surf on the beach. I can´t upload any photos at the moment because this internet cafe is pretty rustic, but you´ll have to take my word about how pretty it is here. Imagine palm trees, hammocks beaches, seafood, surfing and 80p (mucho fuerte) cocktails, that kind of thing.

My Spanish is still shit. I know it´s only been three days. I´m trying to be patient, but I hate being bad at anything, though you´d think I´d be used to it by now. Kit is loving it, because he already knows quite a bit he can happily chat away with everyone, or at least it looks that way to me. I am well jealous of this and it really makes me want to learn. The one on one classes are pretty effective though, even at my very remedial level. Our teachers are always around to chat to / practise on and they´ve also done things like take us to the market (you get ripped off less when accompanied by locals) and attempted to teach us how to cook local food. Just playing with Lindsay (their hyperactive kid) is a good learning experience cause she is only 6 or 7, she speaks very simple, clear Spanish and shouts at you without mercy when you get things wrong.

We watched the Quito football team play the other night, a match against a Brazilian team, in some bizzare intercontinental championship I´ve never heard of (aparently the winner plays Man Untd in December in Japan, or something). All the students from the school and the family who run it crowded into their living room to watch on a fuzzy little TV. It was tense. I like South American football much more than the European equivalent. They take it so much more seriously. People were actually praying and crying before the match even kicked off. Also, you have to love any game in which it isn´t a foul to put someone in a flying headlock midair, then punch them in the nuts.

Advertising seems to have been taken to new extremes over here. They had banner ads complete with irritating voiceovers running along the bottom of the screen pretty much constantly, even during the match, and the entire Brazilian team seemed to be named "Poweraid". Adverts in Ecuador are mostly just pictures of women in bikinis licking the product in question - beer, hotdog, political party, heptitis medication, whatever.

Anyway, I now know how to say "the ref is a blind bastard" en Español, but I still can´t count past 20.

You can´t help but get involved though. Me and Kit have purchased stylish, matching bright yellow Ecuador football shirts.

We went out in Canoa last night which was awesome. Their idea of a club is a big hut on the beach, the floor is sand, everything else is made of bamboo, except the speakers. They actually had a suprisingly good electro DJ. I initially thought it was going to be too quiet here, but I was very wrong. At night the people (a mix of locals and gringos) appear out of nowhere.

I think we made a good choice with this place. It´s peaceful and chilled enough to allow the possibility of us getting some studying done, but with plently to keep us occupied.

---

Comments

[JimJimJonson]

Canoa
Sounds Awesome Dude!!!! Hav a wiked time!!!!11!!!!