All I have to say is that San Pedro is amazing!! It is so nice to wake up every day to a beautiful view, knowing that you get to spend the morning learning Spanish and waste away the afternoon drinking licuados and trying to do Spanish homework while falling asleep...well maybe the homework bit is not so great, but its what we're here for so we deal. So far, we've had five classes and our heads are so overloaded with Spanish that we sometimes forget the English words when we speak to each other. The classes are good though, basically they are entirely in Spanish and are a combination of learning grammar, such as verbs and stuff and conversation with a teacher one on one. At times its really hard because you just have nothing to say, or you know what you want to say, but not in Spanish. I think in two weeks we'll know quite a lot of Spanish, certainly enough to get around....hopefully.
But thats enough about Spanish class, I should tell you what we've been doing in the afternoons. On Sunday we moved in with our host families. April and I are in the same house unit, but with different families. The two women are sisters, but they live seperatly; April is downstairs and I'm upstairs. The houses here are nothing like we have at home in Australia, they are made from concrete and are pretty plain on the outside and are divided into small rooms on the inside. Its nice and cool when its hot outside, and I'm sure it would be warm when its cold, but it doesn't really get cold here so i wouldn't know. There is another student that is staying with April's family, who is studying to be a nurse and volunteering here in the clinic, she's really nice. April and her have been going running every morning so far, but I've been feeling a little sick in the stomach so I haven't been going. Besides its kind of crazy to run here because there are hills everywhere and theres nowhere to run where its flat. On Monday we had our third Spanish class with new teachers this time and one on one. It was so full on, speaking Spanish for 4 hours is hard! After class we went back to our house and had lunch with our families. The food is good, but there always seems to be so much of it and I feel rude not to eat it all. I think i may get fat here, but at the same time we do a lot of walking up and down the hills everyday so maybe not. Then April and I went to a cafe and had licuados (they're like fruit drinks mixed with crushed up ice, definately going to miss them when we go home!). Later that afternoon, we went back to school to go to the conversation class, which was optional but seemed like a good idea. Once again our brains were overloaded with Spanish phrases. We came home and ate with our families then went to bed pretty much straight away. Its amazing how tired I feel here; we've been blaming it on the altitude, but i think we've just been doing so much.
Tuesday morning was the same; Spansh class, confusion, headaches...Came back for lunch then went for a walk to the nearby town of San Jaun. It took about 20 minutes to walk there and we were going to have our afternoon licuado there but couldn't find a nice place so we came back to San Pedro and went to our usual hangout. We did our homework, but then were so tired that we decided to go back home and have a little siesta. It sounds lazy, but a lot of people do that here, so if its ok for the locals, then its ok for me!
Wednesday was the same in the morning, but I felt that it was a little easier than the previous days. Hopefully the Spanish is sinking in and it will be easier to learn as time goes by. We didn't do anything that afternoon except our homework. Thursday was spent learning spanish in the morning again, and in the afternoon we went back to our familiy and had lunch. After that we went to our favourite licuado spot and drank and did our homework. It nrained like crazy that afternoon so instead of going home we went to school and just wasted some time on the net. All in all, a pretty slow day.
Friday...the last day of spanish school for the week. I dont know about April, but my morning was really hard! I couldn´t concentrate at all and that makes learning spanish extremely hard. Even coffee didnt fix me!! In my host family there are two parents and 3 sons, but the sons all study at a town about 3 hours away. The youngest one has just finished classes and came home last night so there´s 4 of us now at meal times. It was pretty funny on Friday, as while the parents know I suck at spanish and talk really slowly for me...he did not know this and started talking at regular pace. I just sat there all confused and looking like an idiot! Im pretty sure they were talking about me and laughing...you know how you sometimes just get that feeling like you´re the subject of their laughter. It´s really weird at times because when they talk to each other they swap between Spanish and Tzu´jil (the local Maya language) and this language uses glottal stops...its when you close off your throat in the middle of a word. Anyways it sounds really different, almost like one of those clicking languages. That afternoon April and I went kayaking in the lake...it was fun up until it started to rain and we got cold. It was still a really good experience though. Lots of people come out on Friday nights here, going to church and what not and there is always music playing which is really nice.
Tomorrow we're climbing a volcano, which is going to be really fun...but hard. It takes about 7 hours all up so I'll let you all know who it goes...
