Sámara continued

I don´t remember where I left off last time, but today was the second day of classes. I was placecd in the advanced level with two other people, and all we do is talk and talk and talk and review some grammar and practice it by talking. It´s actually turning out better, even though at first it was really dull. 4 hours is a long time, but there is a 20 min. break at the 2 hour mark, which is refreshing, but then it´s back to class. Thankfully, we are right on the beach and so as soon as class lets out we get to go right to the water.

Yesterday, I had to wake up at 6:30 am to get to the school and do some logistical things, which was fine. But what I am learning more and more is just how the bugs and insects seem to multiply every day. If you think you have an idea, well guess again. Here´s a few examples to illustrate just how many mosquitos, bees, wasps, you name it, live here. My room has two windows, with curtains. Both windows were shut and my door was locked. I woke up with 3 flies-mosquitos on my bed sheet. In class, I opened my dictionary, and found a squished insect in it. What the hell kind of place is this??? The new game a few people I met and I play is where we´ll find a mosquito bite next on our body, since every day we all end up with new itches everywhere. I´m getting used to it. Also, my host family has an insane amount of random animals living around the house. I saw tons of frogs hopping around last night, and while watching a Yankees-White Sox game with David (my 10 year old host brother), I heard what sounded like a parrott squawk. It turned out to be an iguana crawling on the wall right above the small tv. Today, I was walking to school with a buddy and saw a squirrel-looking animal on a fence post, except it was shaded maroon on its underbelly, had a white strip above it, then darker on the top. Very weird. The guy I was with speaks little English and is from Switzerland, and when he saw the animal he said, "So it´s a male." I looked again to see what exactly he was looking at, and sure enough, he had noticed before I did the squirrel´s large "teste-satchel" (in the words of Borat). Every day I find new animals, pretty cool.

I´ve also met some really interesting people here. After my little oral evaluation which placed me in the advanced level, I took an hour long walk on the beach and met a guy named Matt from Hawaii, here with his girlfriend named Roxy who is also in the language program I´m in. They are big surfers and so this afternoon we are planning on getting our boards and testing the waves, even if they are a bit small. Matt took me to lunch with him and some other people, where I met up again with Elizabeth (the Canadian on the bus I met earlier), another guy from Swizterland named Jonas, and a girl from Wisconsin who goes to the University of Minnesota named Chelsea, who is here for 9 weeks. Most of them speak very to little Spanish, so I resort to English or even French (all but Chelsea speak French), so it´s actually not that bad.

I´m planning my weekend right now. I think I´m going to hit up Montezuma and Mal País if there´s time. Right now I´m heading off to lunch, then it´s the beach. It´s gorgeous right now, but it always is in the morning. In the afternoon, clouds storm over everything, and in comes the rain. But no matter what, even if it is pouring, I´m determined to get a surfboard and get out on the ocean. Unfortunately, high tide is synonymous with rain time this time of year. And it´s pretty much a guarantee, as I´ve experienced the past couple days, that it rains. But right now it´s sunny and the beach is so clear, with little islands off the coast. I´ll try to post pictures.

Tonight I´m going to try to get people organized to go out to bars, because using phones is not really an option. But I´m interested to see what the night life is like in Sámara. This place only has one computer that is on dial up internet at 36 mbps, so it´s very very very very slow. I´ll try and post updates as often as I can though. ¡Hasta luego!