Time has flown by since I finished training and started a regular schedule at work. Now, at the end of my second week here, I finally feel like I’ve found a sense of rhythm and a certain level of comfort with my day-to-day life. I usually get up at about six in the morning and take the metro downtown, grabbing a pastry on the way before getting to work around 7 or 7:30, depending on where my class is scheduled. Like I said, many of my classes are one-on-one at large businesses, so I’ve had to figure out how to get to different parts of the city using the bus or the train. I’m lucky that this job forces me to get out of the center, where I’m surrounded by English speakers, and fend for myself in navigating the city. After getting lost about a half-dozen times I’ve become pretty confident about getting around here. My work day is totally dependent on when my classes are booked, so it can end anywhere from 1 to 9:30pm. So aside from the weekend my job has taken up most of my time, but I’ve managed to have a few interesting experiences anyway.
- On Monday morning, after refusing to even think about work over the weekend, I woke up to realize that I hadn’t prepared a thing for my first solo assignment at a bank that I had no idea how to get to. I went to the center extra early to try and piece together a lesson but got there to find the place still locked. While waiting for the other teachers to come I put together a make-shift lesson plan in my head, and then about 10 minutes before the appointment I was told by another teacher that the place was about 30 minutes away by train. Out of desperation I ran out to the street and hailed down a motorcycle taxi, who after looking at the address I scribbled down in my notebook handed me a helmet and told me to get on. Having never been on a motorcycle I clutched onto the guy as hard as I could with a bear hug (despite the fact that he was shouting at me to let go the whole time), while he weaved through cars on the highway at ridiculous speeds. I got there 20 minutes late to find that my student was also late, and avoided being caught unprepared by listening to his excuses until our time ended. As an added bonus I think I’ve gained some serious street cred – local people’s reactions to my moto-taxi experience have ranged from bursts of laughter to serious concern.
- During the weekend I went along with Augusto, my padrino (assigned buddy in AIESEC), and a few others from the club to a birthday party. The place was full of exchange interns from abroad and I had an amazing time – the local students dragged me to the dance floor and took turns teaching me salsa and meringue, and we danced until six in the morning.
- I finally worked up the nerve to try the infamous perro caliente (hot dog) from a street vendor. Though my stomach has a pretty impressive track record of avoiding traveler’s diarrhea in sketchy countries, it finally met its match here in Venezuela; for the first week I could only stomach about half of a normal meal. But after a week I felt confident enough to try the street food. The hot dogs here are loaded with about five different condiments and some kind of crispy potato chip, and on the stand there’s an assortment of about a dozen different sauces that people douse it with. It turned out to be pretty good and I think my stomach’s toughened up a bit more.
- Yesterday I went to a party at a co-worker’s place, and we spent the night drinking and listening to music by the pool until we crashed on the couch at five in the morning. We got up, made breakfast together, hung out at the pool until we got hungry again, then spent an hour making another meal. We spent the evening eating outside while admiring the view of the city from about 12 floors up. No one besides my friend from work spoke much English but I had an amazing day with them. I discovered some shared tastes in music, learned some new phrases, and even managed to convince them to jump off of a concrete platform above the pool while satisfying my jumping quota for Venezuela.
[view of the city from my friend's apartment]After two weeks here, I’ve been pretty happy about my progress in Spanish. Though I still can’t really form sentences beyond “Hi, my name is…”, “I’m hungry,” and “What is that?”, my vocabulary and listening comprehension has been improving quickly. If people are speaking slowly I can usually figure out the topic of their conversation and I can also make sense of most signs and advertisements on the street. Today I was watching TV at my friend’s place with English subtitles, and was amazed at how many new phrases and words I picked up. I’m planning on adding movies with subtitles in my study routine in the future. The hardest part so far is dealing with the "rr" sound, which isn't in the English language but is in almost every sentence in Spanish. My friend suggested I try saying "Rapido Corren los Carros" (rolling your tongue with each "rr") for practice.
That’s all for now. I’m having a great time here and I couldn't be happier about coming. Hope everyone's well at home.
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