i'm here, i'm healthy and i'm having fun in my class, but i'm struggling to keep up/catch up in level 3. i expected to be placed in level 2, and am finding level 3 a challenge because it assumes i can conjugate present and past, and it ain't necessarily so. learning spanish like a parrot, by repeating dialogues for months on end with only minimal comprehension of the words, put me at ease with speaking, but not necessarily saying what i mean!
my host family, olga and humberto, are very nice. they have a fascinating home in an older area of the city, near el centro (downtown), where el zocalo is. downstairs, their home has beautifully tiled floors that remind me of oriental rugs, upstairs, the hallway also is tiled like that, and so are some rooms. mine has a wooden floor, which is pleasant when i'm barefoot! my bathroom/shower is completely tiled -- floor, walls and ceiling, but the tiles are plain pink. a pattern would be overwhelming in that space.
i ride the bus to/from school, a bit of an adventure, since the drivers mostly seem to be nascar wannabes, squeezing their buses through heavy traffic on narrow streets at what feels like great speed. this morning, we had a driver who didn't try to beat the lights or crowd cars out. it was a great surprise.
el zocalo is a park/plaza with beautiful old trees, iron benches and a bandstand, along with vendors of toys, snacks and more. it is surrounded on three sides by stores and cafes, and the beautiful cathedral on the other. because of its beautiful colonial architecture, puebla is a u.n. world heritage city. on sunday, a brass band was playing sousa and strauss.
the building occupied by the spanish institute is about 370 years old, and originally was a convent. i find it amusing that i'm going to class in what originally was a nun's cell. each classroom's capacity is una maestra/un maestro y seis (6) estudiantes o menos. there are only three of us in my class, so we all get lots of attention.
kids would love it here -- it's slug bug heaven, because puebla is where vw builds the new beetle por todo el mundo (the whole world). everywhere you look are vw beetles old, middle-aged and new. and because it never freezes here, they never salt the streets, and coches probably wear out before they rust out. at lunch today, the director told me that jobs at vw are highly coveted because after working there two years, a worker can buy a vw at cost. usually, he said, the workers have buyers lined up for the cars in advance -- presumably at a premium.
it's almost time to meet my guide at the zocalo, so adios por ahora.
elena
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