So, last Wednesday I came here to Cuernavaca. Marion and Merideth came with me which was quite a delight. The city is not quite what I expected – after hearing from thousands of people how beautiful and great the city is I definitely had a different picture in my head than what the reality is. I’m in no way saying it’s a bad place – it’s just not what I expected. It’s like a miniature Mexico City (granted I have seen like 1% of it so far so I can’t really say much of anything about it yet…)
For the past week I have been attending Universal, a language school (http://www.universal-spanish.com/), and living with a host family through Universal. I had anticipated this week as being a week to get to know the city a bit before I moved in with my host family for the year and started my work at Buena Tierra. However, it did not quite turn out that way. Instead of exploring, I spent the majority of my time sitting in my house and running to the bathroom about every 20 minutes. Awesome. I never felt good enough to go explore because I never knew when I would need a bathroom again! Oh, the joys of my stomach adjusting to another country…Oh well, the good news is I will be here for a year so I’ll have plenty of time to explore.
So I’ve been living with a delightful family that lives about a 4 minute walk away from Universal. They have been totally great and Sara, my host mother, has definitely taken care of me while I’ve been sick. I had been warned by fellow MCCers that everyone would have a different idea of some herbal/natural remedy if I were to ever get sick – and the minute I told Sara I was intenstinally not well she asked me if I wanted her to make me a tea that, although it didn’t taste very good, would fix my stomach. I figured what the heck – but no. I know I exaggerate but I kid you not – that tea was the NASTIEST thing I have ever tasted in my entire life. She made me like ¾ of a mug and I only drank about half of what she gave me and it took me like an hour to down as much as I did…it was plain awful. Anyways, she was trying to help and has been super helpful while I haven’t been feeling the best.
Language school has been good, but a challenge. I have had one-on-one class for 3 hours every day (will be 5 days total). We have pretty much focused everything on grammar and the structures that I don’t know. While I feel good about being exposed to all of it – I also feel like I am getting 3 months worth of information crammed in my head in one week … and it’s been frustrating at times. I don’t know if I put too much pressure on myself to know everything there is to know in Spanish or what, but I have gotten fairly upset with myself at times when I don’t get something. But it’s okay – I still feel pretty good about where I’m at and know that I will learn tons more in the next 11 months than I did this past week.
Happy HAPPY note – with all my time spent in my house I have managed to learn quite a bit on my new toy – my guitar. I’m uber pumped. I thought I would never been able to read tabs – but I totally learned and can play an awesome song (or at least struggle through it) – Sarah Mclachlan’s (beatle´s) “Blackbird.” If anyone has any suggestions of good material/books/songs for learning how to play guitar – please let me know! Or if anyone can teach me how the heck to play bar chords … I don’t think my hands were created for those … Bob, I’m still waiting for you to get yourself down here to Mexico to teach me everything J
The Future: Wednesday I move in with my new host family and Thursday I start work at Buena Tierra – lots of transitions coming up…should be interesting.
I guess that’s all for now. Sorry there aren’t any pictures to show…I didn’t exactly do/see a whole lot this week to take pictures of…
Take care and keep in touch!
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