28 octubre 2011

La vida en la frontera

Ayamonte by night

It's been a month since I arrived back to Spain and to say the least, Ayamonte has not disappointed. I've been more active than ever (future blog might feature the amazing running and biking routes along the wetlands, river, and beach) and since it's my first year off college I have so much more motivation to study. To improve my Spanish, I am going back to high school! This year, I am sitting in on advanced math and Spanish language and literature classes with the oldest students. I'm at the high school all day anyway most days of the week, and it's a free opportunity, so why not?

On top of that I wanted to take advantage of the language school here which offers German, French, English, and Portuguese classes. Seeing my English is already pretty good, I don't want to offend the French speaking their language, and the German classes were full, I've started learning Portuguese. It is rather convenient since Portugual is just a 5 minute drive or 10 minute ferry ride from here. I already understand a lot of the language since it's so similar to Spanish, but speaking it is veryy difficult. My goal is to change that.

Las compañeras en la terraza
Above is a  picture of my roomies and me on our terrace on a typical weekday night. The lights in the background are from the Portuguese town on the other side of the Guadiana River, Vila Real San Antonio. Our house is a diverse mix of girls and I'm so glad I found them, although our girl from Kansas City dyed my hair a very chocolately color and I had to tolerate an entire day of my students voting rather they liked me better as a rubia or morena.. gotta admire the brutal honesty of the Spanish people.