Saludos!
I can't believe week one is finished. My son, Justin, told me that I would be challenged by the total immersion experience. Those weren't exactly his words, but that was the gist of it. That is an understatement!! I feel like I'm drinking water from a fire hose!! Or like someone dropped me off and forgot to come back and pick me up!! A lot of it is soaking in, but there is also a lot I hear over and over again. I was laughing with one of the other students as I shared that the same word can be a new word every time I hear it!! It's like it is the first time and then it hits me! I heard the same word yesterday!! It's amazing to me how much capacity our minds have when we really dig in and determine that we are going to learn something!
Ecela Lima is a fairly small school with a very diverse population of students. There are students of all ages, ranging from 18 to mid 60's. It is also very multi-cultural with students from England, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Brazil, U.S., etc.
This week was full of very interesting and challenging conversations from South American history to food and some very interesting conversations on Christianity vs Catholicism and the Bible. I enjoyed these conversations immensely! I found it very challenging to try to come up with the words at times, but God is good and our conversations were very fulfilling for me and the instructor.
I had private lessons most of the week as the other student in my class spent most of the week at the U.S. embassy trying to get her stolen passport re-issued from the incident on Monday. She finally found out today that her passport will be here in three weeks. She was supposed to leave on the 20th, but will now be staying for three more weeks of classes!
Today after class a few of us decided to explore more of Lima. Lima is known for its ceviche, so we decided we needed to try it!! We ordered a sampler that had sea bass, calamari, octopus, shrimp and mussels in it. it was fabulous, but I've decided that octopus is a little too chewy for me. The rest of it was fantastic! We also tried the orzo with shrimp! I posted a photo of the lunch we shared.
Later on, three of us deciced to go to the Choco Museo where they make chocolate from cacao beans. We ran into Silvan, a young man from Switzerland from school, so he joined us also. It was supposed to be a two hour demonstration, but we ended up being there for four hours. It was very interesting to see the whole process of making chocolate. We actually heated the beans in a pan, used a mortar and pestle to make a cacao paste, and then made three drinks with it. One was a cacao tea that was made by soaking the shells in hot water and adding a small amount of sugar; one was mixing the cacao paste we made with water, a little chili pepper, honey and one other floral spice; the last one we mixed the cacao paste with hot milk, cinnamon sticks, cloves and sugar. They were all pretty tasty!! Then we each made chocolate candies from the finished creamy chocolate and added different flavors, i.e. ginger, coconut, hot pepper. You can see the bag of chocolates I made in the photos I posted!!
These outings we take aren't just about having fun, but continuing to be immersed in the language. They speak so rapidly in Spanish (just as we do in English). The more I am around it, the more my brain is becoming trained to pick out the words. We have a tour on Sunday that the school recommends. Another adventure!!
More to come...
Pat
