Back To School Say What!?

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We have been in Antigua for a few days now. We enrolled in a Spanish Immersion school and started our first class on Sunday. My teacher didn´t speak any English and I was quite frustrated. I got a terrible migraine and went home early. Thankfully I felt better the next day but I still was frustrated; I could see that other teachers spoke some English and so finally yesterday I decided to ask for a new teacher. Martha, my new teacher speaks quite a bit of English and I just think she is a better teacher so I´m much happier now. Dan is learning at a faster pace than me and frankly it´s irritating but he is just smarter than me and I already knew that 😉 I´m improving though and that feels good. We took a free salsa class last night, we signed up for a private lesson, maybe I´ll find my Cuban roots and learn how to dance well. Class is 5 hours a day, one on one with the teacher but towards the end of our class we join each other´s table and play games, it´s fun and pretty helpful actually. I feel quite sorry for the people who don't have English as a first language. For example there are many people who speak say German and English and learning Spanish is much more difficult for them than us. Being from the united states I find that we have an advantage because there are just words that are common knowledge like dinero or bueno; I'm thankful for that. We have class in a beautiful garden and it's so nice to be outside. We are staying with a local family. It's a pretty nice house I think comparatively. Right now there are two other students staying there as well. Janet is the mother she has two adult children, Daniella and Martine who live in the house as well, we like them all a lot and I feel pretty comfortable. Its about a 30 minute walk to the garden from our house and these cobble stone streets are not kind. Hopefully we don't fall and knock our teeth out or worse. We come back to the school after lunch to use the free internet, I would say we are walking at least 2 hours per day minimum. I don't mind =) We get 3 meals a day at the house except Saturday night and all of Sunday they don't provide meals. It's nice to eat out a bit. Last night we had wine at a tiny unique place called porque no, we taught one of our house mates and Janet's two children how to play the card game scum, it was fun and I was impressed that Dan could communicate how to play so well because Martine doesn't speak a ton of English. We've seen a few of our friends here that we met in other cities, it's nice to see familiar faces. Oh I almost forgot that we saw a fashion show in the park a few days ago. Interesting but I didn't like the fashion. There are people trying to sell you stuff everywhere and with as much walking as we do it was getting irritating. I just ignore them now. We only have our backpacks, I can't buy stuff so it's useless. It's really hard to believe that Christmas is coming, it doesn't seem like it at all. I'm missing my mother's deserts right about now. Dan did buy me some nice chocolates a couple days ago, that will have to suffice.

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Comments

[Norm Wilson]

Hi Ey-uh!
Kathi and I just got a Christmas card from yer Maw and Paw.....lol :).. They gave us your blog address. You look like the same pretty little girl I remember from back at our old house. This is Norm......remember? Well, I am glad to see a picture of you! and happy to see that you our now quite the World traveler! Keep in touch little one. Kathi and I would love to see you again! We were hoping to drop by and visit it you before you left...............oh well. We wish you a Merry Christmas and nothing but happiness in the future! Kathi and I are doing great! Both of us will be retiring in 3 years.....can you believe that? I feel so old! At least that is what the color of my beard tells me. Keep in touch! and when you guys come back to Spokane, give us a call and we will come and visit! Your Mom and Dad said that they would like to see us too, and I would like that as well. Be careful over there and take care of yourself! Norm Wilson

[eyaaaaaaaahhhhhh]

Long Time No See!
Norm! Wow it's been so long, I would have loved to see you both before I left but I'll be back one day! Danny may have told you I ran into him a bit before my trip, it was so crazy! I have truly enjoying traveling and look forward to seeing so many more places. Thanks for the complements, the people here can't believe I am 29, I'm thankful I still look young! Anyway Merry Christmas!

[KUMIKO]

From JAPAN!
Dear Eya Hi!!Tammy taught me the thing of your trip. That's great! Did Spanish and salsa become skillful? I’m looking forward to getting to know your trip. Take care of yourself. And Merry Christmas!! From KUMIKO in Japan

[eyaaaaaaaahhhhhh]

Kumiko!
Hi, it's so good to hear from you! My Spanish is a little better but I still need to learn much with salsa too but it's so fun! We hope to come to Japan at some point, I would love to see you if we could arrange it! Merry Christmas!