Thursday, March 14, 2013

I have almost finished my first week of class. I have enjoyed it a lot, especially the students and the professors. There is one student from Russia, one from Switzerland, two from the United States and at least four others from Brazil. The students from Brazil seem to have no problem understanding Spanish, but they tend to mix it up with Portuguese when they speak. I would think that would be very hard to keep two similar languages separate. The Brazilians were very proud that the new Pope is from South America. At least three of the students work with travel arrangements and apparently see the need for communicating in Spanish in their jobs. I don't know if their jobs are paying for this or not. We only have one male in class (except for the instructor, Diego, in the morning class), the rest are all women.  I mentioned earlier, Pedro is a pilot for TAM. I don't know if he has extended time off or how it is that he has time to take this class. He told me that he flies to many Spanish speaking countries and wanted to speak it better for that reason.

One of the students from Brazil told me that she is going to take weekend trips while she studies in Barcelona. She is off to Paris this weekend and next weekend will take a bus to Madrid. She told me that this is the first time she has been out of Brazil and wants to take advantage of the opportunity to travel. I think she is very brave!

Anna, the afternoon instructor, asked me today if I was finding the class too easy. She said she noticed that I finished the work easily. While I do remember most of the tense we are working on, it is the speaking and listening that I is helping me the most. Diego drills us at the beginning of each class forcing each of us to speak and talk about what we did after class. Knowing I have to do this, I try to first, do something interesting and second, look up a few words so I can tell him what I did. I feel like I am making good progress.

After class today, I knew I had to make sure I can find the meeting place for the trip to Valencia on Saturday. The meeting place is the Arc de Triumf; the same place we met for a tour on Monday. Monday I got lost because the metro gave me a choice of two streets to exit on and I picked the wrong one. Today when I got off the metro, I took the other exit and the Arc de Triumf was right in front of me. I was probably right around the corner from it on Monday, but just walked off the wrong way (no map with me that day). Now I just have to figure out if the metro runs less frequently on weekends so that I know what time to leave home.

Then since I was near the old part of the town, I set off exploring. I walked down old narrow streets, first heading toward the port (down hill as Elaine would say) and then off to the right. I soon ran into Via Llaitana which was on the main route for the tourist bus so I immediately recognized it. I walked down to the cathedral and then started back up to Placa Catalunya. I felt like I was right at home, on the same streets that Lola and I walked so many times last week. I walked up Carrer Pelai  past our hotel. Soon I was on the Gran Via and on my way back to the apartment without any problem at all. I am sure I will still be able to get myself lost, but I felt good leaving the Placa Catalunya and not getting turned around. Maybe I will get lost in Valencia on Saturday!

The handyman from school knocked on the door twice tonight to do something in the entry way of the apartment. He showed me what I was doing wrong with the television while he was here, but it kind of surprised me to hear a knock and then have him walk in. I hope he is done for the night, because I am done for the night.