Monday, June 21, 2010

First Day of Class

Today marked the first day of class, and we are jumping straight into the lessons. Spanish was first this morning, from 8:15 to 12:15. Even for the beginners’ course, the entire class is taught in Spanish. If my count is right, our instructor, Harry, spoke a grand total of 3 English words throughout the full course of the morning! Even when it would be easy to translate a simple noun, Harry stayed true to his tactics and filled the board with diagrams of birds, firefighters, and other figures to convey the definitions. Of course, most of the instruction was focused on basic conversation, verb conjugation, etc.

In the afternoon, we had a lecture and lab on electrical safety and basic precautions throughout a hospital. The lab that followed involved the construction of an extension cord from basic components. My background in electricity is limited to an Intro. to Electrical Engineering course and to what I’ve picked up in a few projects at home and elsewhere, so it’s nice to gain these skills and apply them in context.

I think we are all anticipating an intense four weeks of class. The challenge is intimidating but also inspiring. With our resources and time, it feels like the only limitation to how much I learn and prepare in the next four weeks is the amount of energy I dedicate to it.

Like I mentioned before, we had some time to enjoy ourselves over the weekend. Rafting was a blast! We went through rapids from class I to IV through scenery some of us compared to Jurassic Park. For a boat of beginners, the six of us did pretty well. Of course, the guide directs the boat and calls out when to row forwards or backwards, so doing well mostly translates to staying in the boat! At one especially rough point, we were caught off guard and more than half our crew ended up in the water. I was fortunate enough to have a grip on the rope around the boat perimeter and stay on. This is definitely worth a try during any visit to the country.

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