Poco a poco...

En la escuela (at school).

Esta mi primero semana de clases en la escuela El Proyecto de Linguistica Quetzalteco de Espanol. Me gusta mucho estudiando aqui! Esta semana, mi maestra es Teresa y nosotros estudiamos espanol por cinco horas cada dias. En la escuela, hay un patio y nuestro escritorios estan a lado del patio. Tambien, hay una cafeteria pequeno donde hay cafe y te y pan por comemos cuando tenemos pause de la clases a las diez y media.

It's my first week of classes at the school The Quetzalteco Spanish Linguistics Project. I like studying here very much! This week, my teacher is Teresa and we study Spanish for five hours each day. In the school, there is a courtyard and our desks are next to the courtyard. Also, there is a small cafeteria (cafe) where there is coffee and tea and bread for us to eat when we have our break from class at 10:30.

When I first arrived at school and met my host mom, she greeted me in Spanish and probably asked me how my trip had been. I stared at her blankly with a polite smile on my face. I think she then asked how much Spanish I spoke. I continued to stare at her, politely blank. Aliza, the student coordinator, explained that I didn't really know very much Spanish at all, and Lizetth smiled and responded, "Ah, pero poco a poco, tu vas a aprender." But little by little, you will learn.

Poco a poco is the mantra here. Little by little. At the start of the week I did a lot of polite staring. Lizetth carefully explained to me what time meals were at, and I must have asked her to repeat the words for breakfast, lunch, and diner at least half a dozen times - they're so different from english and french they took a few days for me to get them, and I still stumble over desayuno (breakfast). But by yesterday I could tell her: Manana es viernes y los viernes tenemos cena a la escuela. Por eso, no voy a cenar aqui, voy a comer a la escuela. Tomorrow is friday and on fridays we have dinner at school. So I will not have dinner here, I'll eat at school. Of course, she already knows the weekly schedule so she knows I have dinner at school tonight, but it's great being able to communicate a full thought. I can also tell her when I have plans with friends and I won't be home for dinner.

My other super-proud moment this week was when I could tell the school secretary: Yo quiero saber cuando voy a ir a la escuela de la montana. I want to know when I am going to go to the mountain school. Por dos semanas empieza el 2 de julio. For two weeks starting the 2nd of July.

In addition to classes, there are daily activities scheduled such as lectures, movies, hikes, and other trips. Los jueves, hay un partido de futbol y despues vamos a la pizzeria donde, los jueves, tienen dos pizzas para un. On thursdays there is a soccer game and afterwards we go to a pizzeria where, on thursdays, they have pizzas two for one. It's pretty good pizza too. Through these activities (of which I've attended 2.5 - I went to two of the lectures and joined folks for pizza after the game) I've gotten to know some of the other students at school. We also chat during our half hour morning break from class.

Although we're strongly encouraged to speak Spanish as much as possible when at school, we pretty much always revert to english during our free time. It takes a lot of concentration to speak and listen in Spanish because your brain is constantly translating, and that gets exhausting very quickly. So, partly, we just need a break from our massive brain work-out, and, partly, we have a genuine interest in learning about one another and it's much faster (and more complete) in english. It will be interesting to see how the group dynamics change over the course of my time here. Most folks only come for 2-4 weeks of classes, so in about a month or so I'll be the only one left of the current cohort.

Speaking of comings and goings, Errol, my companion on our chicken bus adventure, is only here for a week. He's off to visit Antigua this weekend before he flys home to San Francisco on monday or tuesday. He was taking goodbye pictures today so hopefully I'll get a copy soon to post up and y'all can put a few faces to names.