Knowing Spanish makes conversations much easier

I'm actually really glad that I took the time to learn Spanish while I was here. This way I haven't had to break a whole bunch of bad habits when speaking like other people have. But at the same time it has been really hard to connect with people. I think I'm finally starting to reach the point where I can have an affective conversation with someone in Spanish. I've started talking to the gate guard for about 5 minutes everyday after class. I talk to my taxi drivers and shawarma makers. I even talk to the guard outside of a Chinese restaurant because he looks so bored everyday. It's great practice. With all this said, I still am only at about an intermediate level. But I'm proud of myself.

Last night my host dad and I watched Spiderman 3 while drinking beers. I actually understood most of the movie and I've never seen it before. It was pretty cool! Then a bunch of the family went out to eat at one of my favorite restaurants here because I recommended it :). Of course dinner was at 10pm, but hey, it was still fun.

I spent this week trying to figure out what to teach my classes. We have 7 days left of class and I only have 7 students who returned for one class and 2 for the other. I'm thinking I'll do prepositions with a scavenger hunt for my basics and a newspaper project for the intermediates. I am really excited to have more students with more of a desire to learn. I completely understand that some students don't want to come back for 2 weeks when they've just had a month off. And the office probably only called some of them to tell them classes were starting again.

On Saturday I went to Cotacatchi. It is a city known for leather making close to Otavalo. It had interesting things but I'm not a huge leather fan. I'm glad I went but I don't think I'll go back unless I know someone who is dying for a purse or shoes.

This Wednesday I'm heading on an 11 hour bus ride to Guayaquil. Then to the beach on Thursday for my mid-service conference with WorldTeach. I'm excited!