Yo soy Jeeni

I just came from my second sit down meal at a restaurant. I successfully ordered in Spanish and they brought what I intended to order! Yay. I was prepared to ask for my bill in Spanish as well, but my waiter wouldn´t come close enough to get his attention. Finally, after sitting and waiting for over 30 minutes, the guy brought the tab. It wasn´t a big deal or anything considering I have no where to be because I´m on VACATION! Plus I am reading an exciting book...

I ordered a Cuban sand which and freshly squeezed pineapple juice. So good. I figured I should order a Cuban because there was a good chance it would actually be prepared by a Cuban.

Last night was my first restaurant experience. I didn´t want meat and rice so I found a Lebanese-Panamanian place and ordered the sampler plate. It came with humus, babaganosh, pita, doma, etc. but definitely had a Panamanian twist. Needless to say it was yummy.

Enough about food.

After I checked out the Spanish school, I went back and signed up the next day. It is expensive, but considering I am cutting the umbilical cord soon, if figured some Spanish would be a useful survival tool.

I signed up for 16 hours of instruction from Tuesday to Friday. I already had a beach trip planned for Monday and a girl has to have some priorities. The classes run from 1:30 to 3:30 with my grammar teacher and 4:00 to 6:00 with my conversation specialist... or so I thought.

I showed up for my first class excited and confident. I took two years of Spanish in High School and a semester in junior college. Thinking it would all come flowing back, we started on some basic verbs. Yikes. I don´t remember Spanish being so difficult!! My first teacher was great (except for the fact that she was leaking snot.) It was so distracting and then she would touch the page of my book with her wiping figure. I was grossed out...

The second half was with a guy. He was a certified Spanish teacher, but he had never taught English as a second language. He was talking and talking really fast, flipping pages of a book and then talking more. I stopped him a few times and told him I had no idea what he was saying. He would say something in Spanish, then he would leave (I presume to ask what he was supposed to do) and then come back and start all over again. This went on for 45 minutes. I was nearly in tears I was so frustrated.

Finally, a woman, the head of the school, intervened. I explained to her what was going on, she explained to him what he was supposed to be doing... He tried. She had to come over again several times and explain more. Finally, he sorta got it. I think he thought he was going to improve my already existing great Spanish... She had to keep telling him I was learning pronunciation, diction, vocabulary, and simple things. When I left they assured me I would have a different teacher the next day.

The next day I had the same snotty lady for the first class. Her name is Elvira and she turned out to be super sweet and funny, so it kinda makes up for the ooze. Plus the second day she brought a tissue with her to wipe her nose instead of using her fingers.

This is Elvira.



At the beginning of my second (second) class, the head of the school sat me down and apologized for the guy teacher I had on my first day. She explained that he was a professor and teaches Spanish at the university, like a English teacher teaches English in the US. Very advanced.

Instead I had an awesome lady, Lupe, who speaks Spanish, English, and French. She was terrific. She has been working with lawyers for over 20 years and offered to teach me words in Spanish to use in my profession. I assured her that in the future I would love just that but as of right now I need to know how to ask for directions and order food. She said that she loves teaching beginners and ended up being a terrific teacher. She then demonstrated her love of teaching by becoming very excited about basic Spanish verbs.

This is Lupe.



I finished my last classes on Friday. I was a little bit sad, but I was also glad to be done. I thought I would enjoying learning Spanish because I have been in study mode for so long. I was wrong. I realized I wasn´t enjoying myself when I excused myself to go to the restroom during a lesson, just so I could have a break. I remember thinking, wait a minute, I am paying for these classes and now I am trying to find ways to avoid them...

As a result of the classes, I have a nifty notebook filled with all my notes from class. It is small, so I can take sneak peaks when I want to say something. Plus it is safer than whipping out my iPhone in order to look up words, especially on the streets. Meivis told me that minimum wage is more or less $300 a month here in Panama, depending on the type of work. I feel guilty and uber privilleged even owning an iPhone.

I have been trying to use my newly acquired Spanish as much as possible. For the first time today, I took a cab by myself and gave the directions in Español! I am still having a difficult time understanding when people say numbers. I get 15 and 50 mixed up as well as 60 and 70.

Experiencing Panama one day at a time,

Jeeni

PS I am literally laughing out loud right now. A guy in the Internet cafe fell asleep at a computer and is snoring quite loudly, everybody in the place keeps laughing.

This is Mr. Sleepy.