Mi Escuela de Espanol (spanish school)

Studying spanish is soooooo cheap here! An hour of one on one class costs about $5. A week of homestay or guesthouse cost $75, with three meals a day included. no wonder it's one of the most popular destination for learning Spanish (only second to Quito, Ecuador in Latin American I believe). Almost every school here has the same format, the class takes place in the corutyard of the school (upper right picture), tea and coffee are provided and the school organizes many activities during the afternoon. Spanish teachers are high in supply here so you can always walk in and start the class right next day.

Spanish is probably not the most difficult language in the world, but it's challenging enough especially when i am still at the stage of "thinking" in English. First of all, spanish words have gender, it's just not very rewarding when I spend the whole afternoon crunching vocabulary and in the class next day, can't even get 50% of the gender right. (oh well, if i just guess, i have 50% chance getting it right anyway, why bother?!....... i guess it's not the right attitude). And the gender is not what really drove me crazy. the irregular verbs are evil! They change their forms all the time, based on the subject (you, i, he, she, they, we) and the tense and often look nothing like its original form, or verbo infinitivo. And there are 26 tenses in spanish, for Buddha's sake! And better yet, sometimes it's necessary to put the object is IN FRONT OF the verb and the subject is often omitted, which is so unlike english. for example, the sentence "I give you the book" will sound like "you give the book", of course the verb "give" changes its form according to the tense and the subject and "the book" is a masculine word. so much to consider just to say a simple sentence like this. no wonder i am always so tired after the class! :)

with that said, i am really glad to see the improvement since day one. although it is still far from being fluent. i can at least get by most survival situations and carry simple conversations. it's nice thinking that with every new language you learn, you open the chance of communicating with many more people in the world.

today is our last day in Antigua, we are taking an overnight bus north to TiKal, stay a few days there to visit the Mayan ruins and cross to Belize early next week. Wish you all have a wonderful weekend.

more on the pictures: the logo of the school (upper left), my teacher and me (lower left), a taiwanese flag painted on the wall in the school (lower right).
[edit] i forgot to mention that there were so much drama going on in the guesthouse, which i won't comment publicly. i'll save those anecdotes for later and tell you over a cup of pearl tea when i get back.