Mucho Gusta!

I LOVE THIS LEARNING MALARKY!

Seriously, after the rest of my journey being pretty uneventful (post Home Alone post....geddit??) I have settled in and had my first lesson.

First of all, what is this country like...?

Well, not as rural as I supposed. I wasn´t surprised to see the large Macdonalds, or even the HSBC but my heart dropped a teeny bit when I saw the TGI Fridays. Yes, really. People seem fairly affluent here (in a contextual sense). I think (seriously) that any country which has garden centres and puts flowers on verges and roundabouts is quite well to do, because if you´re stuck in poverty you just don´t bother - do you? Roads are good and the infrastructure seems secure. People are friendly and, in Boquete, seem a bit shy when you say hello but they smile and say it back.

I suppose I could illustrate how polite people are with the 4am stop by the police during my bus journey. Bus stops, police officer (immigration) gets on and turns all the lights on. He asks to see everyone´s id. They get it out (no grumbling). He goes down the bus, and before getting off there´s a strange exchange which consists of him thanking everyone and them thanking him. He thanks then again, they thank him, he says´de nada´(its nothing) and thanks again. ´De nada´ reply the people. Has anyone seen the Father Ted episode where Mrs Doyle and her friend get arrested because they are both trying to pay for the tea and they end up fighting in the teashop´? It was like that.

Cultural reference: whilst I´m typing Daft Punk´s Get Lucky is playing.

So, arrived fine and got a taxi to my host family. Oh my goodness, they are SO NICE. Properly kind and lovely. The lady of the house, who I think is called  Talicia, really took time to talk to me and understand my really, really bad Spanish. I forgot how difficult it is to start a new language and how easy it is to feel disuaded in learning it (there´s only so many blank looks I can manage in on ten minute discussion - and before you say it Michael Evans .. yes, you´d think I´d be used to it by now ;-) ). I also met hubby and son who are equally nice but less talkative. The room is clean and private, I have my own bathroom and the house is a good size.

I had a couple of hours sleep this am before going to school, then I got learning. I just LOVE it! I love learning and trying to get all the pieces of Spanish to fit together in my head so that I understand it. There are two other people in my class (the second most basic), there was a twelve year old boy but they moved him up to the next class because he was just too damn good and we were holding him back.

The teacher; Abelardo; is very good, doesn´t speak English and can´t say my name. ´See-an, Shan, San, Sy-an and Show-an´ have all been options today. Hilarious. He thinks it really funny that I keep throwing French word s into the conversation and when I get anything wrong I counteract it with ´merde´ (no idea why). After the 12th repetition of the word he asked, ´Do you actually know what you are saying?´

Hmmmm #bringingcluelesstothenextlevel

Anyway, safe, happy and having a good time concisely describes me at this moment but boy, I´m going to sleep tonight!

Hasta Lluego.