During our week we had Spanish lessons in the morning from 10-12 and then a lab from 3-4, a good amount of time to get some much needed practice. Unfortunately, Spanish was not the highlight of the trip, at least for me. I am pretty sure Nick would agree, although it was good for him to learn a few of the basics.

This was my first day in Spanish class (I was placed in level 4), Monday morning 10am. Remember I haven't spoken a peep of Spanish in 8 years!

Instructor: (all in Spanish obviously) Good morning, ah, you're new. How are you? Where are you from....lalalalal

(followed by)

Okay today I want you to read the newspaper, pick out an article and then do a 5 minute presentation on the article.

Jen: What the F***! (I didn't really say that, don't know how to swear in Spanish!) Excuse me, a 5 minute presentation?

Instructor: Yes, just pick any article relevant

Jen: I'm sorry, but I might be in the wrong level

Instructor: You'll be fine, just try!

This is pretty much how Spanish class was for me during the week, always a couple steps (or levels) behind. Yes I started to unlock some of my Spanish that I learned oh so long ago, but wasn't as productive as I had hoped.

The problems was that Nick's level 1 and my level 4 had the same schedule. If I was in level 2 or 3 ( I probably should've been in level 3) then we would've had class and surfed at different times which would've sucked. So I stuck it out, did my presentation, it was a lot of um and ums as the teacher helped me get through it (no notes as well).

The classes were way to academic based, doing grammar worksheets (these were easy, in school I was good at the writing, but never the speaking!), writing, etc. This wasn't very helpful for me who just wanted to practice having some conversations, this would've been much more helpful.

After Wednesday, Nick and I retired from our Spanish classes, that's right we didn't drop out, just played hooky. And in the end managed to speak a lot more Spanish then in class. We did an awesome ATV tour into the mountains (will have it's own blog entry) as well as a Canopy Zipline tour along with a great day at a pretty whitesand beach (Jaco is a blacksand...kind of nasty beach) which was nice. These last two days out of the classroom were much better spent.