Some general thoughts....
Two days of language school (mornings from 9:30 until 1:00) and I´m happy I made the decision to do this. My class of 8 others includes two native English speakers - a guy from Washington D.C. whose wife works for the State Dept. and they are here now but have lived in many places and a guy from Australia who met his Chilean wife in Australia where she was a tourist (so she stayed there for 6 months to learn English and now he is learning Spanish here - he said they used Google Translate to communicate for months! A girl in my class from Holland speaks 7 languages already and will travel for 9 months now between high school and college. In January she will go to Indonesia for 6 months to live with her father´s family and to study the native language.
In my class are also folks from Holland, Germany, China, and Japan. Many people in the school are from Brazil and work in tourism. It´s an interesting place with activities and good people. They offer a free Salsa class on Wednesday afternoon and I´m going. Me encanta salsa y la musica.
I´m living at Claudia´s for these next two weeks and it is very comfortable. To get to school from her house I can walk to the metro station or take the bus to get there, then take the metro (subway) for about 20 minutes. Easy! She has a husband who is always making jokes (in Spanish) and is very pleasant and she has renters. I met the young man from Mexico today - he is working here for one year with his company and speaks English well.
On Friday the metro had electrical problems and 4 of 5 metro lines were down. Traffic was a mess and most people could not get to work and I´m glad I did not have classes yet. The chief of the metro was fired. The metro is easy and clean and I´m very comfortable on it now. I also walk a lot and yesterday I went for a run, which felt so good! It´s pretty hot in the afternoons and I was red as a beet afterwards.
Every outdoor park has workout machines installed and people use them. They look like a standard bench press or stairmaster but all use your own body weight for resistance - no weight stacks. There are gyms everywhere, runners, bicyclists, and generally people who move a lot. People have tattoos and piercings and wear all the same clothing we do so I fit in quite well. It´s not cheap here though. Their economy is doing well and there´s tons of bars, restaurants, dance culbs, coffee shops, etc. It´s comfortable here.
I am posting this without photos because it's time for a post. I'm suddenly very busy with school, homework, and friends! I talked with Claudia and her Patricio a lot today, and to Eduardo and Francesca who both rent from Claudia. I never turn down a chance to practice listening and speaking Spanish... so another night and I have not uploaded photos. Having friends is so good!
Hoping to post photos tomorrow.
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