Back to school
Trip Start
Oct 01, 2008
1
3
61
Trip End
Apr 01, 2009
It's very remiss of the city fathers' not to have provided somewhere to watch the sunset and have a beer - at least I haven't found it yet - so today I sacrificed the latter for the former. Not really worth it. Saturday I did a Caribbean cruise - well boat trip to the islands - and we met a real cruise liner on its way in. H U G E!! I've seen it since looming above 14 storey buildings. I'm sure it wouldn't fit through the Panama canal. Not the best boat trip ever. Too much boat, too little islands. But I met an American girl (luckily) who'd just finished a Spanish course and she A) translated for me, and B) told me where the language school is. Right around the corner from my hostal as it happens. So I was there at 8am today, signed up and started at 9am for 3 hrs a day (Mon - Fri) for the next 3 weeks - tres horas a dia (lunes - viernes) por la proxima tres semanas (I think). Tomorrow I'll see if I can get a discount on my hostal room as I'll be there a while. I've done so much walking (don't know the bus routes yet and don't trust the taxi drivers not to rip me off) that I now have 5 blisters on my right foot and have to wear socks - in 35C heat! - so I don't get any more. I bought some beach shoes yesterday - the kind that look like they've escaped from a wet suit - and they don't rub but they've turned the soles of my feet bright pink to match my clogs. At first I thought I'd contracted some unspeakable disease like shocking pink fever, which I didn't have a jab for. Whenever I go into the old city I walk by a park (never through it) which I thought at first had a ladies netball team - lots of girls in tiny shorts and tops hanging around. I've since realised they are ladies of the lunchtime through to night! A donkey, a pony and at least 1 iguana also hang out in the park. My favourite store is Exito - very like Asda. You can feel the air con 10 ft from the door and I go there when I'm hot and bothered. And being an hypermarcardo I don't have to know the names of anything. That said (as you've seen), even after just 1 lesson I feel more confident with Spanish, specially now I know more about pronounciation. Far fewer people know English here than anywhere else I've been in Latin America. And the school is one I chose on the internet months ago when I was browsing for South America Spanish courses. Fate. Soon I'll be able to understand what people are saying too. Then imagine all the things I could do.
