Dia Uno y Dia Dos de Clase

Monday, October 1

Today was our first day of class at CISA.  We arrived at 8:00am with Jaden.  Hector started with prayer time and then we were introduced to our teachers.  Eddie is more advanced than I am (on a scale of one to ten, Hector said I am a 1 and Eddie is 1.5) so he has a different teacher than I do.  Her name is with Karen.  My teacher’s name is Sonia.  My lesson today involved Sonia asking me questions in Spanish and I was answering in Spanish as best I could.  She corrected my mistakes and taught me new words when I tried to use one I did not know in Spanish.  It was very conversational, which is the part that scares me the most.  But, already on day one, I felt very comfortable with my teacher.  I tried to add things to the conversation the best I could in Spanish and she would respond with more questions.  She asked about my family and Eddie’s family, and lots of other things.  She told me that I comprehended very well, so I was encouraged by that.  She wrote down many of the things she said before she said them so I could read and hear at the same time.  I appreciated that very much as I am a visual learner.  I have a very hard time making my brain use the words I know to form sentences.  We practiced making simple sentences with the most basic verbs. 

She also had flashcards with opposites on them.  We played matching games and “Memory” with them and I won 9 – 4.  I felt like a Kindergartener, but it was fun.  I think it helped me to start to make connections with some of those words.  It is obvious that if you have an experience to go along with learning a new word, it is easier to remember it.  For example, Eddie and I were in the house with Samia and Jimena when it started raining.  Samia ran out of the bedroom yelling “La ropa! La ropa!”  I quickly figured out that she was saying “The clothes! The clothes!”  They were out on the line to dry and the clouds had just opened up and poured.  All four of us were trying to quickly grab the clothes and run towards the shelter of the back porch, which is all tile floor.  Well water + tile = slippery.  You guessed it: I slipped and fell flat on my back.  I will NEVER forget the meaning of: la ropa.

After class, we had a delicious lunch (burritos and watermelon) and then brought Jaden home for a nap.  He spent the whole morning running around outside with his babysitter, Diana.  He played with the dogs, a tennis ball, on the playground, and even danced with no music.  He loves the freedom to play outside.  The weather is beautiful here in the morning.  It gets hot in the late morning to early afternoon.  Then it cools off and rains in the afternoon.  The evenings are very pleasant; not cold, but not really hot either.

After our nap, Eddie and I had homework to do.  I asked Jose Pablo (12) to check part of mine to make sure I was doing it correctly.  Later, he asked Eddie for help with his homework for his English class where he was reading a paragraph about the Beatles.  It was nice to be able to help him after he has helped us so much already.

In closing, I just want to give praise to God for such a wonderful opportunity and experience so far.  Eddie was mentioning to me today that he was thinking about what his life would have been like if he already knew how to speak Spanish.  He said, “I wouldn’t be here right now, and I might not have married you.”  Wow, am I thankful that God has a better plan that we do.  He could be thinking, “I wish I already knew Spanish so I wouldn’t have to be here.”  But no; he is grateful for the experience and the path God has us on.  I know that God has been our guide every step of the way, especially when we don’t know where that next step will lead us.  I certainly never thought “Hmmm… I think I will move to a foreign country where I don’t know anyone and can’t speak the language.”  But, here we are: in Costa Rica learning Spanish and living with a family we never met before.  Only God could have put the pieces of this puzzle together so perfectly, and I am thankful He did. 

Tuesday, October 2

I went to bed discouraged last night because Eddie had me quiz him on the vocab words he had learned yesterday.  The list was sooooo long and he got 90% of them right when I quizzed him.  I have to keep reminding myself that I have only been here for less than a week and I should not expect myself to comprehend as quickly as Eddie.  Even so, I wanted to punch him... Alas, I did not as I would hate for him to punch me every time I demonstrated more intelligence than he. :)

This morning, I felt a bit intimidated as Sonja looked over my homework.  I guess I did okay.  She marked where I had made mistakes, but ended with "Muy bien."  We played some more games and she  pulled out a few other sets of flash cards: verbs, things around the house, etc.  The most intimidating thing she asked told me to do was to go and interview 3 people in Spanish.  Two of them I had never even met before.  The first person I went to interview was Daniel, our driver from the airport (aka: the comedian).   I had a set list of questions to ask him from my book and I was required to write down his answers.  I asked him his name (in Spanish) and he responded: "Yo me llama Dracula."  His answers stayed true to character as he told me that his last name was "Sangre" (blood), he was mil anos (1,000 years old), and that he lived in Transylvania.  I guess that was his way of breaking the ice in the awkward situation I found myself in.  It made the next two interviews a lot easier for me, as Daniel reminded me that learning should be fun. 

By the way, the curriculum we are using was all written and illustrated by Hector and Daniel.  The stories, illustrations and examples of conversations were all written by them.  Those pictures and illustrations are weird.  As I am learning to translate them into English so I can understand them, all I can think is "that doesn't make sense."  I have learned that it is not my comprehension that is lacking; it is meant to be funny in a weird way.  (I guess I should be used to that; I am married to Eddie).  During my lesson today, we read an example of a restaurant menu in our book. It was all written in Spanish, but translated to English, the name of the restaurant was "The Happy Cat."  The menu items included: cat tail with beans, cat eye soup, cold cat salad, etc.  We now understand why he tried to convince Eddie and I that they eat cats in Costa Rica.  Sorry for all the cat-lovers who may be reading this.  Just don't come to Costa Rica and expect them to love cats.  

Jaden was so exhausted today after class.  I have never seen him more tired in his short life.  Overall, he has adjusted to our new life in Costa Rica with no problem.  But today, he was pretty grumpy on our walk home.  When ever Eddie would say "Bye-bye, Jaden" and walk away, Jaden would stomp his feet and cry and complain.  He didn't want us to carry him, yet he didn't want to walk.  He wanted sleep.  We brought him home, gave him a shower to cool him off, and laid him down for a nap.  He was out in 2 seconds...