Spanish School and Adios

Spanish school started the day after Easter. We each got one-on-one tutors, total immersion. Lisa has had a good tutor that is really structured in her approach, just like she was with her kids at Rivendell. I had a teacher who wanted to talk about his life and his problems more than letting me practice speaking. I felt like a counselor. Story after story... about his ex-wife, his girlfriend, his side real estate business, the drug dealing owner of the school, and the school secretary. This secretary told the director we were an internet referral whom she found - bogus hogwash - so she could overcharge us by quite a bit and take the extra that we paid as a comission for doing nothing.

To add to it, when my teacher heard I was a "medico," I could see the dollar signs in his eyes. Suddenly, the conversation went to him telling me about other students that have given him things. When he learned about the frequent flyer miles that got us here, he asked if they could be given to others (i.e. to him).

This school had more drama than we bargained for. The whole week with my tutor was weird and awkward. Lisa was learning, and I was stuck feeling guilty about how much more we have than these people, and yet frustrated that I was paying to learn Spanish without much growth. I have since decided to tell everyone I'm a fireman, otherwise they falsely think we're rich.

So, we decided to switch schools this week, and so far our new school is much more impressive. Lisa's conversation level is really improving, and our vocabularies have grown by several hundred words already. We study outdoors in a garden which is green, lush, and filled with beautiful flowers. There are avocado trees providing shade and a quick snack. And as an added bonus, the bathrooms are clean, have soap and trashcans to dispose of the poopie paper...oh and our teachers are real good.

One final thing... we left the house and the retired couple we were living with. Suffice it to say that we wanted to try something new and have a place with our own bathroom for the first time in a few weeks, and get out of the nasty sheets we were sleeping in. And oh... the retired man was acting a little (maybe a lot) inapproriate around my wife when I was not around. So we told them adios, and are now in a small two level apartment building with other English speaking friends. It reminds us both of our college dorm days.. except there is a retired man, a guy having a midlife crisis, a nice missionary family, and a sweet landlady named Ester who only speaks Spanish. An interesting mix of people, but we're happy.

These were our nasty sheets. They were actually two sheets that had ripped apart but were sown together. On the left are two pretty major holes, and we suspected that it had been a while since they had last been washed. Good riddance!


The following pictures are of our new school where we get to learn every day. Included are pictures of our classrooms, the banana tree, and the avocado tree just outside our classroom. Definitely an improvement from our first school!