My Mexican host family, Me, and CAM missionary Brent

Language School

Cuernavaca, Mexico

Mexico Photos 1

Mexico Photos 2

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Update 5/9/2008

I am finishing my first week of language school in Cuernavaca, Mexico.   So far everything has gone really well.  A few facts and highlights:

• Host Family – God has provided a very nice Mexican host family for me to live with—Leonel and Lety.  A bonus is they teach Spanish at my school.  (So I’ve gotten some extra tutoring at night.)
• The School – I’m attending La Universidad Internacional. (http://www.spanishschool.uninter.edu.mx/index2.html).
• The Experience – I’m learning how to get around the city by both taxi and autobus.  I took a bus across town last night to the “Bodega” (big store) to buy a fan to blow the mosquitoes away while I sleep.  The food pattern is breakfast (“desayuno”) before school/work;  lunch (“comida”) in the mid afternoon; and a light dinner (“cena”) sometime around 9:00 pm. (I’m not sure the late night eating is good for the figure though…).

Update 6/2/2008

I wanted to write this soon enough to stop you all from coming to the airport to welcome me home.  :) While this was supposed to be my last day in Mexico, I have decided to continue studying Spanish two more weeks* and will return on June 16. 

*Detailed Explanation:
Things are going well, although becoming an expert in the Spanish language is taking longer than I thought.  I thought if I ate Mexican food in Mexico while living with Mexicans while studying Spanish, I would become fluent in less than a week!  Apparently, I’m not eating enough Mexican food, because it’s still a struggle to talk about my life using the Present Progressive Perfect, Present Subjunctive Imperfect, and the Past Subjunctive Imperfect verb forms perfectly.  In general, I understand what it means to be imperfect, but it’s more difficult to apply that to my verbs with perfection.   A week ago I discovered there are 28 possible verb forms in Spanish.  What’s up with that?   I may just pick my five favorites and focus on those.  Is it really that important for me to talk about what someone “wanted that I had” done (past subjunctive perfect)?  ;)

                       
Updates (Puestas al día) from Cuernavaca / Language School

Host Family – I’ve gotten along well with my padres.  We've had some great conversations (in Spanish) about the Bible, salvation, and religion.  Also, my Madre taught us how to make tamales, and I got to play some soccer with my padre (a former pro soccer player).

The School – I was disappointed with my learning the first two weeks, but I changed my schedule and the last two weeks I’ve had a very good teacher. (She won the award for “teacher of the year” last year.)

The Experience – I’m enjoying the Mexican culture.  I think some of my best conversation practice, other than with mis padres, has been with my taxi drivers.  I’m becoming a little more “chido” (cool) because I know words like “chido”.  The school also offers excursions, and I’ve gotten to visit several interesting archeological sites, the river where the first Tarzan movie was filmed, Mexico City, and I even splurged to go on the school’s weekend trip to Acapulco (it’s all part of the “cultural exposure”)  :).  God has provided friends, but I’m seeking more Spanish-speaking friends now to increase my practice.  I’m meeting some through the local church.