We have an amazing teacher this week. Generally, it seems the older the teachers are, the better they are. (More experience really does make a difference.) My three best teachers so far have been the three ladies with the most experience. (i.e. The nicest way I can think of to say “they are older.” :-/ Sorry.) Anyway, I am in a class with just one other student, Alex Rodman. He is both incredibly fortunate and unfortunate at the same time.
I have had Alex in three classes before this, he takes classes off and on because he works for CPI and gets classes free. He works about six hours a week teaching English and gets 20 hours a week worth of Spanish classes in addition to his teachers pay. Isn’t that neat! :-) On the flip side, because he takes classes for free, he is put in basically whatever class has room. When there is no extra room, he doesn’t get classes, and when there is room, he is put in whatever class is available. In our case that means that I haven’t had him in our class for four or so weeks’ worth of lessons. Luckily his Spanish is pretty good, but he is put in a class that expects you to have covered all the subjects of the previous classes, and the professoras don’t slow down for him when he hasn’t covered the subject. Poor guy :-/ He is also fortunate to be living with a friend of his here in Costa Rica so in general, he does not have to pay for room or board. Isn’t that cool? :-) On the flip side, the friend he is living with is his “ex”-novia who invited him down to Costa Rica for the summer and after he got down here she decided she didn’t have time for him. So she broke up with him but her mother likes Alex a lot and insisted that he stay for the summer. So that’s kind of an awkward situation :-/ Poor guy. Alex is a very forunate and very unfortuante individual at the same time.
One of the neat things about being here so long is that you get to know your classmates stories pretty well. My classmates that have been pretty consistent have been Benjamin, Adonis, and now Alex. We’ve had a couple people come and go for a week or two at a time, but these guys have been my consistent classmates. Every week, with a new professor, they ask us where we are from, what we do, why we are studying Spanish, etc. Basically we talk about ourselves to practice Spanish. But by this time, I have heard these stories quite a few times. I think I could impersonate all three of these guys. I know their answers to all the standard questions. I was joking with Alex today that next week we should switch identities to see if they can catch us or tell the difference. ;-)
So anyway, I need to start my essay. I have two weeks left, but I really want to get a chance to have my professors review my paper before I turn it in so I need to give them time to do that. Five pages of writing in Spanish on pretty much any topic I want. I am going to make it easy on myself and just write a summary of my trip...and I am very glad that I’ve written this blog, it makes the essay a lot easier to brainstorm for and outline.
Hope y’all are doing well. Que tenga un buen dia!
Adios,
Gregorio
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