Language School, broken tongues and bad ears.

Today was the 2nd day of Spanish classes for Kristin and I.  We took one day last week, and it was a little overwhelming.  What I didn't realize, last week was the introduction, easy basics class.  Today, we jumped right in, with an introduction to the face.  It's quite appropriate, as 2 parts of mine are broken.  My mouth/tongue is broken, as I can't pronounce most of the words, and my ears are broken, because I am struggling to hear the words being spoken.  I'm hearing different letters than Kristin, so it's going to make for some interesting conversations when/if we become proficient in the language.  At least it gives us something to do 2 times a week for the next 10 months.

Tuesday, we went diving.  It was very nice to get under the water again, and although the dive was a little murky, it was a great dive.  We dove just off our local beach, at a spot called Cerro Gordo.  We had snorkeled there with the kids, but it was nice to see it from under the waves.  There are about 5 different dive shops here in La Herradura, and we had talked about trying a dive with each company to see who had the best service/prices/etc.  After our dive, the owner met us on the beach, and had a ice cold beer ready for everyone who went diving.  We decided that we didn't need to find anyone else, so we bought a 10 dive package right then and there.  It's the little (cold) things that make for happy customers.

The kids have settled right into the whole school routine, and it's the same battles here that we had back in Calgary.  Get them up, get them fed, get them ready to go and out the door.  Kristin has biked down the hill with them a couple times this week.  One of the really nice things here is after we drop the kids off, there is a group of us who all go for coffee a couple times a week.  It's a great relaxing hour or two to start the day, and we our making some really good friends here because we take the time to slow down once and awhile.  I think this might be one of the many things we bring home with us after this year.  The relaxed pace really suits me......Kristin however is struggling to slow down a little bit.

All in all, it still feels like we are on vacation, and I hope that's how it will feel the whole year.

CIAO

Shane