May 25

(picture of my classmates and my professor)

Buenos Dias! I learned so much today! We went over vocabulary for hours! I am actually starting to think in Spanish when I do things, no lie. I love love love my class! There are only four of us but they are so awesome! My teacher is named Susana she is from here and is wonderful, she is taking us to desserts on Thursday! One girl is named Magume from Japan, she knows no English and no Spanish its nothing like Japanese so its helping us more to attempt to explain things to her, or use charades in the end if needed. I’m really good at charades J Another girl Anna is from New Zealand, she is really cool and has been traveling for a year and a half, she has plenty of stories for us! Lastly my new friend Elisa, from England! I love having an English accent around again! It makes me miss Vanessa terribly but it is still wonderful. Today we had to describe a traditional dish from our home country, together we have sushi, roast lamb, roast beef, empanadas, and hamburgers… which one is from America? At lunch today I made a new group of friends! We stick together in the real world because Spanish is the only way to communicate. I ended up translating for directions for food and the bathroom and I ordered for two of us at Subway all in Spanish! Me groupo de amigas es Marlous from Holland, Enrique from Holland (they did not know each other before), and Imogene from Whales. Today we left dance class after an hour and a half of Salsa and Meringue to plan our trip for the weekend. Were going to the Caribbean! It only cost 40 dollars for two nights, and transportation there and back! I’ll be gone Friday-Sunday! At the school I found out that most students take class only Monday- Thursday for 5 hours because everyone travels on the weekends, so I changed my schedule today. All the new comers change within 2 days. My friend Marlous and I take the bus together because we live 10 houses apart, it’s much safer this way and our housemothers are friends. Tonight I taught

my vocab words to the family in sign language, “Lesco” so I practiced and they all laughed. It’s weird because I want to respond to everyone with the Portuguese words I know, or with the Spanish from the states, so different. Here pollo is said pojo and they say they are the correct Spanish here so im going with it. I basically love this place, everything is great, one of my favorite things is the different languages I just love the accents and the Dutch, German, Japanese, and Spanish words being spoken all around me! It’s very different and I am trying to get used to it here still but I am sure I won’t want to leave. I am still white, it has been raining off and on but it’s so nice, I think on the beach this weekend I will get some color, I hope! No bug bites yet! I love you all! Keep praying for me!