Thursday - Day Thirteen
Well school was better today. It's funny how you can improve your attititude with a day off sometimes. I could have gone to my first class for a couple of hours yesterday, but I didn´t see the point. Yeah I could go over the homework that I didn´t do last night or I could spend the time trying to get caught up with my journaling. The morning was the same as usual, going over grammar in Citlali's class and then it was off to conversation. I was still a little peeved about Tuesday, but I went and had a much better day. I was speaking more fluidly (well a little which is good for me) and it was just me and another gal and Elena, our teacher. Without the guys there we had a lot more fun chatting. At the end of the time Elena told me that I understand more than the others did in Spanish. I said that I can understand a lot but I have a hard time talking and expressing myself. She said that everyone has their strengths and areas that they need to work on. I felt much better about that class after this.
In Agustín's class we were watching a video about haciendas and although I know about quite a bit about haciendas from studying history, it was really hard for me to follow things this day. I was happy when I finally figured out that he was talking about sugarcane plantations here in Morelos. It's funny, but because I had never knew that Mexico had the climate for sugarcane, I didn´t even associate the word and pictures that he was drawing with this idea. I kept thinking "Why are they talking about sucre - sugar?" Finally, I was able to put the pieces together and figured out what was going on. Then it was on to a new test of my comprehension skills. I have always thought that videos would be good for ESL student's because they are so visual, but your really need to set them up before hand with vocabulary to have any hope of them understanding them. I wonder if this is that language framework planning that Dee was talking about. Agustín set up a lot of words for us and did a pretty good job of going over what was in the video by pausing it and talking about what was being said, but I was just feeling slow that day.
This also makes me wonder if Cortés' hacienda is around here. I wonder if we will have time to see it if it is. I need to find out.
After class Dee told me that everyone was planning on going to Luche Libre (sp?) or Mexican wrestling that night then going dancing afterwards, but I really wasn´t in the mood for this. I was tired and really wanted to just stay home and do some quiet work. I probably should have gone to the wrestling. Dee said it was really fun and everyone else who went, our housemates that is, said that they saw a whole new side to Dee there. She was all for buying stuff just to throw at the wrestlers like other people were doing and was quite loud in voicing her opinion about the quality of the fights. They all had a good time. It was mainly the clubing afterwards that put me off. I really didn´t want to be out that late, but it turns out that everyone had to come home early anyway. It is the rainy season here is Cuernavaca and so we get rain almost every night, but it was particularly spectacular this evening. The thunder was the loudest I have ever heard and the rain sounded like a river coming down outside. So basically, everyone just wanted to get home so they didn't drown. Some of the streets were like rivers they said when they got home. Even that seemed to be pretty fun for them.
Anyway, it was a slow day for me but not too bad overall. Hopefully tomorrow's will be more interesting for you all. ¡Hasta luego!