Today was a super long day for me….. I was up at the school by 7:30, took my placement examination, and was dropped right into an intermediate class. This is all good stuff….but I soon realized that I was by far the most undereducated (from a language and cultural perspective) person in the class. There are three older women from Quebec and another younger girl from Switzerland. Everyone in the class (except me of course) speaks at least 3 languages. The Swiss chick speaks 5……. So they all get many or most of the verbs…and today I got to be the driftwood in the class. I was completely brain dead by the end of the class. Not sure if anyone has tried to describe the process they went through when learning another language….but for me, there is a point where I actually become less proficient…and begin to forget and doubt anything/everything I have learned. Once I broke away from the school…..I grabbed some lunch….when and changed my clothes and hit the beach for a few hrs. My school is literally on the beach. They have hammocks, an outdoor kitchen, little cabinas for group study……this place rocks. These guys don’t play around either….as soon as you cross over into the school….SPANISH ONLY! It was nice to see that there were other people struggling with their Spanish…..so I felt a little better about my situation.
After a quick swim…..I loaded up and headed back home….got a few hrs of studying in and hung out with my Costa Rican family. I bet you will never guess what I had for dinner??? Yup……pinto gallo……beans and rice.
I think the funniest thing to happen to me all day was my interaction with the family dog, Polly. I have purchased some treats for all the local dogs and was going to feed Polly some…. I was sitting there saying “Sit” over and over…..but Polly just stood there eying the biscuits in my hand. Ariel told me how to say sit in Spanish……and sure as shit….as soon as I said sentado , Polly sat right down. Jeez…….a Spanish speaking dog.
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