Yesterday proved to be the beginning of our stay in San Miguel. So far we seem to have fallen into a nice schedule and routine, which is wonderful with los ninos. We start our day with breakfast around 8am. Una tipico desayuna esta frutos, yogurt y juevos con pan. It's great as both Perrin and Sam eat up the fruit and yogurt and are set for the morning. Balin and I drink our cafe, brush our teeth and then head to school. It is so fun to walk the three blocks to school together, it's like we're kids again. Meanwhile the kids play for a little while with Sandra and then they go on adventures. It sounds like they have been to the park twice with a stop at "la tienda" to buy a pretzel or some other treat. At least that's the story according to Sam. They seem to like their day well enough and by the time we return from school around 1pm they are more than ready for their 2 hour siesta.
While they are off playing at the park, Balin and are inundated with spanish verbs, nouns and conjugation. We spend our first 2 hours discussing grammar and going through our homework from the previous evening. Our teacher's name is Socorro and she's an interesting character. I'm not sure if she likes us or not...maybe the kindness has been lost in translation. She is good though and I come home with 7 or 8 pages of notes that I organize and work through during my study time.
The students in our class are all either Americans or Canadians and are all older than we are. There is a couple from Hawaii, he's a tour guide there and they're staying for a month. Another couple is here for a week and then will return to Iowa. Maria is from Victoria, BC and was recently widowed. Her husband was Guatemalan and had always wanted to come to San Miguel to winter. Tracy is from Minnesota and has left her husband and three children for 6 weeks to learn Spanish. She's very kind and fun to be around. There's another couple here who have a house in Tijuana (much to the surprise of every Mexican) and also in Anthem, Arizona. They brought their labradoodle to San Miguel with them so I get my dog fix daily.
Part of our routine in San Miguel is to come home after school, have la comida con la familia and then take a couple hour siesta. Balin is able to work during this time while the kids and I get our beauty rest. After our naps we head to the square to enjoy a snack, el bodillo, and a drink with our classmates. I'm not sure what Sam thinks of this time as he becomes pretty agitated after his snack is gone and starts whining to go home. When asked why he wants to go home he says he just wants to play there. It's so funny as he and Perrin barely have any toys but they could play at the house for hours. I was thinking that we should have given him a name that meant traveler so that he would have been more inclined to travel - pero no.
After our walk around town, we come home and do our homework, Balin works, kids play until dinner. Dinner consists of a few items, much smaller than lunch, ending with tea. This evening was particularly nice as we were able to sit at the table with Ernesto, Marina and their son Juan and have a conversation for an hour. I found out that Juan is moving to New York City next week and is the middle of completing his MBA from a university in Spain. Ernesto is an engineer and works for the city of San Miguel and their water department. Marina has 8 brothers and sister, one of whom is blind. She grew up on a ranch and started work at 4 am, having to milk 15 cows, make 100 loaves? of cheese, and many more chores. They had no running water, electricity or phones growing up and she only studied through the 6th grade. Mind you, all this information was given in Spanish....I was impressed too! Not bad for the second day. :)
By the time dinner is over it's 8pm and it's time to get the kids ready for bed. We read a couple of stories, brush teeth, wiggle a lot and then settle down for the "rule" talk. They are sleeping in the same room, in the same bed and it turns out the kids have different night time routines. Perrin evidently likes to talk to herself and play dollies before she goes to bed (we knew this but I don't think Sam did). Sam, on the other hand, likes to have it quiet and DARK when he goes to bed. Muy interessante. So it takes about 5 times of going into their room and asking Perrin not to talk and for Sam to roll over and pull the covers over his head. Maybe tomorrow we'll try earplugs on him. That might do the trick. He's so much like his father. :)
It looks like Balin is finished with his homework and would like his computer back so I will log into tomorrow and share about life in San Miguel. Buenos noches y hasta manana!
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