Week One

After a few days of confusion and heavy reliance on hand gestures  to communicate, I have finally tapped into that obscure part of my brain that stashed away my three years of high school spanish and things are beginning to make a lot more sense.  Being placed in a sixth grade classroom at the middle school that is located at Nuestros Ahijados was also a very big test of my spanish speaking abilities.  The second day I was asked to take attendance and as I went down the list, every child had to ask me a question (in spanish).  I am sure my answers were very humorous to the kids, and I am fairly positive at one point that I answered "purple' in response to the question "what do you like to eat".  And yet, they still grabbed my hands and the end of class and brought me out to the field to play soccer with them during recess.  It just amazes me that they are so accepting and affectionate.  It only took about 5 minutes for the first kid to come up and play with my hair, give me hugs, and want to look at my earrings. They dont care what I look like or what language I speak. I am also very impressed by the teacher in this class.  She seems to have a strong connection with the students ans can motivate them to learn while still keeping a light mood in the classroom that allows them to have fun and be silly.
This week we also took a salsa class,  celebrated July 4th with an order of burgers and beer, and took a walking tour of La Antigua.
Below is a picture taken from the terrace of our hotel.  The giant mountain is Volcanagua which lies to the south of the Antigua.
Hasta luego!