Settling In

Yesterday after I landed in Cartagena, I took a taxi (from a booth) strait to the language school that organized my program. It was a little awkward getting out of a taxi in the middle of a new place and walking into a new building with new people dragging all my luggage behind me. I had arrived a bit late for the new session that had started that morning, and in addition there was some confusion with working out my expectations with what they offer. I had a few moments of high frustration, but I think things are pretty well figured out. I think.

I took the school's placement test, and answered pretty much everything correct except a few questions that tested the use of the subjunctive. For that reason, the teacher who is apparently in charge of the advanced students seems to be convinced I need a through review of grammar, focusing on the subjunctive. She said I could go to an hour of a grammar class starting at 9:00, after which I'd do two hours of a conversation class with her and one other student. And yesterday I did participate in a conversation class, which I enjoyed.

After that, I took a taxi to my host family. I wasn't quite sure what to expect. The last time I had a host family (in France), it didn't go great--I was super shy in the beginning, and by the time I was feeling comfortable about things, the family had given up on me and pretty much ignored me for most of my stay. But this family has been wonderful. I stay downstairs with a couple; their three grown sons live with their families in apartments upstairs. Between them, there's a six-year-old and a two-year-old girl who are fun and seem to like me, and a baby boy who I don't see much of. I also met the maid and one of her daughters yesterday--the daughter and the six-year-old decided to help me unpack. And they literally unpacked my suitcase for me (and got such a kick out of deciding where to put things...which I may or may not have changed slightly a bit later).

The family has been so friendly--they took me on a driving tour last night, gave me a ride this morning, showed me the bank, gave me soap. When the grandfather found out I'm Mormon, he said there was a lady in the neighborhood who was also. And then tonight, when one of the sons and his wife were home, we walked over to the guard at the gate (it's a gated community) to ask about her. It turns out she's moved, but they think they know someone else to ask. They have been so kind.

Back to the language school. I went to the grammar class this morning, where we dutifully conjugated verbs for an hour. I sat there thinking things like, "Hmm...I've actually taught this same lesson before," but that was usually followed by, "well, I guess I could always use a review." I guess it was good, but nothing I couldn't have gained from opening my verb book and looking through conjugations one more time. Which I should probably do. I think I'll start going over some verbs on my own. Couldn't hurt.

Anyway, this was followed by the conversation class. I had been interested in doing some volunteering while here, and our teacher decided that the best thing would be giving presentations on job skills at an organization for teenage mothers. I felt kind of weird about this (why listen to a couple of gringas?), but I guess that's what we're going to be doing. Starting with one tomorrow.

After, I teamed up with three other students who I met in the grammar class--two Canadian teachers who came together, and one French woman who got burned out from her high-powered job, quit, and has been traveling on and off for the last two years or so. She's also discovered a love of photography, and after lunch, while we were waiting for the Canadians to finish a dance class, she asked if she could take a portrait of me. She's working on a project taking portraits of travelers to place side-by-side of something that represents traveling to them. For the latter, she was drawn to my gold toenails that I had done before I left. She said she'd email me the photos. I'll post them when she does.

After the dance class, the four of us wandered around Cartagena a bit. And here are the two photos I took. They are not particularly artistic, but they did document the day:

One of the Canadian teachers with the French photographer

After I took this photo, I found out this was once the slave market. Now, it's lined with booths that sell candy.