Settling In

I finally feel more comfortable in the town. I haven't wanted to walk around because I was scared I would get lost and I don't know the language too well. I went out to coffee/pastries yesterday with the USA girls traveling abroad here and the other girl from the USA who lives here now. She showed us around the town a bit and since it's a small town, I got the hang of it pretty quickly. So today, after school, I just walked around town a bit (after I finally figured out my credit card problem.) I went into a few clothes stores because I wanted to get a few more shirts, since I don't have any, but most of the stores had really expensive shirts, like Perry Ellis, Hollister, etc. Maybe not really expensive, but not cheaper than in the USA and I feel like I could get something cheaper here. Then I went to this bread place that the family goes to and it's a great little bread/bakery place. I got a sugar coated donut and ate it on the spot. Mmm. I also went to a candy shop and got a bottle of shampoo and a chocolate bar for about $2. And I ate the chocolate right there as well. MAN that's cheap though. Although I must say, the shampoo was VERY watered down. But it works.

When I was walking around town I saw a stray dog (there are a bunch here) with a very incorrectly bent leg. His front left paw was facing pretty much 90 degrees inward and his leg had a kink in it. But he was walking on it normally. He must have been hit by a car but never had it healed. I felt so bad for him, the poor guy. At least he seemed like he didn't care. Then I saw another guy like this about 20 minutes later! God damn, I miss how dogs are treated in the USA.

The people at the school are SO nice and cool. The director of the school, Mirthala, is just so damn chill and nice and friendly. She's also bilingual so it's been easier to get to know her. She was telling me today about how she had bot flies once and it sounds SO SICK. She had this big mosquito bite looking thing for a long time, but didn't know what it was. She finally realized that it's not just a normal bite, and one reason may have been that it had a hole in the middle (a telltale sign because that's the BREATHING hole.) But yeah, eventually she extracted the little worm larvae guy with a needle. Some people just pop it. And she said she knew someone who's dog had a BUNCH of bot flies and the owner thought they were cancerous tumors. I guess that is a good result, haha, but SO SICK. And she also told me that she got bitten by a very venomous snake. It was really early in the morning and dark and she looked down and thought she saw a hair tie, so she reached down and swiped her hand across to pick it up. Then she soon realized this wasn't correct when it BIT her. Soon after she fainted. Then got up again and thought she was fine. Then fainted again. Then got up and fainted again. She kept forgetting that she had fainted so thought she was fine. Eventually her husband came in with the dead culprit in his hands and told her he had already called the paramedics. She was in the hospital for 8 days. I guess it was one of the most poisonous snakes there is so she's lucky! The awesome thing about it is that she still has the snake in her freezer.

Sandra, the secretary, is also very cool (yes, she's an older woman, and I've already told this to Dana.) She speaks Spanish and a little bit of English - maybe about as much as I speak Spanish or a little less. She has told me that my Spanish is really good and that she can't believe that I haven't been practicing it much for years (I felt VERY cool, especially because she told me this in SPANISH.) And I love when she tries to speak English. It's cute. So we've been sort of talking to each other going back and forth between English and Spanish and it's fun!

On top of all this, it's just such a good way to learn Spanish to just listen. I have so much free time at the school that a lot of it is spent simply listening. Sometimes, when I understand, I talk and join in, but often I am just sitting and trying to figure out what they're saying. It's pretty cool, especially when I understand the overall point of a conversation.

I taught my first lesson here today. I taught essentially the same lesson three times in a row. It was all the little kids (Kindergarten and pre-Kindergarten classes.) I did some beat related movements where the kids had to move a certain way when I played chords on the guitar. And I sang old MacDonald and had them do animal noises and "E-I-E-I-O." And I played the awesome game Hillery showed me where you give students objects when their eyes are closed and sing to them, "Who has the pencil?" and they have to sing back, "I have the pencil." I adjusted it slightly because of the language barrier. I first had them simply echo the names of the objects. Then just sing back the names of the objects. Then I started putting in their hands and having them sing (I also changed it to "Quién tiene 'the pencil?'" and "Tengo 'the pencil.'") It was tough though because I REALLY had the push the kids to sing and keep reminding them. And also, when they did sing, it was always in a yelling type of voice, so I worked on getting their voices in a higher, softer place. The problem is, I told them to sing in a "voz más alta," but I didn't realize that that means "in a louder voice" so of course they basically started yelling. I did want them to be a bit louder, but I was looking for them to match my pitch, not start yell-singing. It makes sense though, since they never have any regular music lessons and they're not used to it. By the end of this experience, they'll be singing Don Giovanni.

It was really cool though because I really am speaking Spanish somewhat in the class. I said things like "levantense" and "sientense" (stand up and sit), and things like "pongan las manos atrás de las espaldas" (put your hands behind your back.) Although it wasn't perfect and I was struggling somewhat, it was a LOT better than some of the other people here could do because I was actually speaking! Also, I had the actual teacher to help me if I couldn't figure out how to say something.

Pura vida,

Whit

P.S. Speaking of "pura vida," I was embarrassed today because I asked Max the usual "Cómo está," and instead of answering "bien, y usted?" like I have heard a lot, he said something that sounded totally different and that I didn't understand. I asked what he said again and it was "pura vida." Then I felt really stupid because I KNOW people say that; just couldn't understand it at first, haha. So I said it back and that was that.