Leslie and I started with a new school last week.  Our previous school was very good but it focused on conversational Spanish which is what a lot of people want.  We see a lot of young backpackers here who want maybe 3-6 weeks of conversational Spanish before heading off to travel and explore.

We signed up for a more academic, structured and intensive program.  This program is designed for young people who want to get credit for university language courses back home.

There are 4 three week courses, each course the equivalent of one semester of Spanish back home.  Our goal is to complete the 12 weeks by this fall (2 years worth of college Spanish back in the states).

Every day is 5 hours of teaching – all in español – and homework at night.  Starting at 8 (school bell goes off!) it’s non-stop teaching and conversation for 2 1/2 hours, a 30 minute “break”, then another non-stop 2 hours before we head home around 1:30 pm.  We’re mentally tired after getting home!  I spent almost all day Saturday and yesterday memorizing new words (verbs, adjectives and nouns) and doing written assignments in the textbook.

The school is just a little further from our apartment than our previous school, but it’s up a hill and because the individual teaching rooms are at the top of the building, we have spectacular views of the city.

To get to our school, we climb a bit, and after getting to the top I’m reminded again Xela is over 7,500 feet!

Every teacher has his/her own private room.  Leslie’s new teacher is Aury.

My new teacher is Judith.

Finally, the school’s visible from our apartment roof top.  The school’s the tall building with the “penthouse” room at the top.  The teacher’s rooms are all the windows on the top floor.