Taking Spanish lessons

Trip Start May 11, 2005
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Trip End Ongoing


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Saturday, June 2, 2007

I came to Xela because I heard it was cheap and a cool place to learn Spanish. After shopping around for an hour I decided to go with the cheapest school. Later I found out that this was actually a good school too. I am paying 80 bucks for 5 days of 4 hour one on one lessons. So far it has been extremely hard work. I was not bargaining for this because people always say that they just ¨picked up Spanish while they traveled¨ First of all there is no just picking up Spanish. I have to study my ass off and get up early and I still suck!!!!! Most people here do home stays... thats where you stay with a local families and eat 3 meals a day with them. I opted not to do this because it cost more and there is activities everyday ( Salsa lessons, hikes, field trip and dinners) that our Spanish class puts on so it looked like I would not spend much time with a family. Plus I heard that all they feed you is beans and rice!
On my first day of class we field tripped to see a Saint that was half catholic and half Mayan. Saint Simmon is the saint of the afterlife after-party and people bring him offerings of cigarettes and booze. As you can tell in the picture he kinda looks like a cowboy Elvis. The room is covered in little candles and pictures of catholic saints. On our way out we lit a fresh cigarette and put it in the Saints mouth. The locals then burnt some plastic booze bottles while pouring alcohol on the fire... I'm not sure what was going on since the guide only spoke Spanish.
The rest of my time here I have been studying, going out with people from my Spanish school and doing the random field trips our school offers. My teacher is good because he makes me go out and ask directions to people to various locations in the city. While we were doing a walking lesson around town, I found a Taco Bell! It was glorious!!!! Mucho gusto.
Even though I'm traveling alone...I'm rarely alone with all the people I meet along the way. Now I off to San Pedro again!
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