First days in Montanita

I´m sorry I haven´t been able to update this blog more frequently! I´ve been kept remarkably busy around here, plus I´m so worn out physically and mentally from the 6 hours of classes (4 of spanish and 2 of surfing) I take 1 or 2 naps everyday. Yeah, life around here is REALLY hard. Haha!!

Thanks to the journal Sarah gave me before I left I have been able to jot down some thoughts each night and then I can use that to update you when I can´t get to the internet cafe each day. Although, I have found one that´s a lot nicer, the computers are more current and a BIT more familiar looking, so it´s a nice change from before, and I´m a bit more willing to sit here for an hour bécause it´s less frustrating! Although the mosquitos are feastin on my legs...

A few more details about my homestay...the family consists of Olga, Arsenio, and Veronica, their daughter, who is a teacher and about my age. I´m staying in her room now while they do construction on a new addition to the house, so she is staying with friends. I was REALLY excited after being there about 30 min when Julie walked in, a student also staying with this family. Julie teaches at an alternative highschool in California for students that have been expelled from their schools or are recently out of juvenille detention. She is here for the same reason as me...to better communicate with her students and their families. She also saved me from having to shower outside in an unfinished shower stall that consists of cement walls and a pipe...not even a drain that I could see. She was more than willing to share her finished, tiled, bathroom!!

5 Julio
Today was the first day of spanish classes and I made fast friends with the other girls who are in my beginner level. They are both from England, as are many students here. The morning class is usually a lot of grammar rules and vocabulary, and the afternoon class you practice applying what you learned in the morning. This first week my two teachers are sisters that live in Manta, a town a few minutes north of Montanita, and they are both awesome. Friendly, laugh easily, and willing to explain things repeatedly if necessary! We played a fun game where we had words written on index cards and we had to go all around school taping the cards to what we thought they meant. We had some good laughs at some of our mistakes (like the word for woman was taped to the trashcan) and the activity really helped us learn the words quickly. After class we went to lunch and succesfully ordered from the menu (some pointing might have helped us) and paid with all communication with the waiter in Spanish. We were very proud of ourselves! Then we bartered a coin purse for my friend from $5 to $3 and were proud of ourselves again! Bartering (is that the right word?) is a way of life around here but it´s new to us so it was a bit unnerving....but it went well!

We also had our first surfing lesson today, which started with drawings in the sand of where on the board you head, feet, etc should be. Then we practice the action of getting up, which reminded me A LOT of the "suicides" we used to do at crew practice. You start laying down, and it´s basically a push up and jump to your feet all in one (supposedly fluid) motion. We went out into the very large waves and the instructor helped us a lot with telling us when to get on, and then pushing us along with the wave. By the end of class he also had us paddling but we won´t be on our own until later.

6 Julio
Today had some real ups and downs. On the plus side, I felt like I finally understood some congegation rules that never clicked in highschool, and Jenny, Kim, and I had a really fun study session at a local resturant over a few cervezas. It was also a riot when the waitress cleared our plates and I thought she asked "are you finished" because that´s what they USUALLY say...so I said yes...but as she walked away I realized she had said "quieres otro" which means do you want another. We had a pretty good laugh about accidentally ordering another beer! I also had a pretty sucessful conversation with Olga, my homestay mom, using a postcard of Florida. It had Orlando, Gainesville, Miami, and Pensacola all marked, so I was able to talk about my family, where I went to college, and how more people in Miami speak Spanish than English, etc. (On a side note lots of folks from Europe flew through Miami on their way here and thought they were already in South America because the airport personnel were speaking to them in Spanish!)

On the negative side, Julie took a few days off class to travel to Lima, Peru with some other students here so I was on my own to converse with the family at dinner. It was a lot harder without her to help translate, as her Spanish is a lot better than mine. I brought a beginner Sudoko book with me because I thought it would be a fun game to teach them and I figured I could do it because it´s based off numbers and words I know...no seven here because seven is here...etc. Well, that was silly of me. It was a total flop and Veronica and I were very frustrated at the effort...Olga though it was pretty amusing, but in the end put her hands up and surrendered saying she didn´t understand. I also made a complete fool of myself repeatedly going from store to store trying to buy an alarm clock. My phone has no service, so doesn´t know what time it is, so it won´t let me use the alarm function. Since Julie left today I need an alarm clock for tomorrow!! I went from store to store using just the vocabulary I had "Tienes un reloj" (do you have a clock) and then I´d pantomime sleeping, say "beep beep beep" and wake up. The clerks would look at me blankly, but usually after a second act they´d figure out what I needed and then tell me, no, they don´t have any. I did eventually find one though, and was glad I could stop putting myself through that embarrasment!!

More to come soon, I have it all written in my journal but it´s almost time for dinner so I have to log off and run back to the house!