The Midpoint

March 9th – wow. I’ve been putting this off for a bit, but already half my time here’s come and gone. Though it’s been about a month since my last post I haven’t done a whole lot to write about aside from the four-day vacation I had for the national holiday, Carnival. I’m not sure if the festivities are related to Brazil’s Carnival, but it’s a bit like our Halloween. People get dressed up in costumes and go out at night, but instead of trick-or-treating they throw water or paint or eggs at strangers. I took advantage of the long weekend to finally get out of the city and visited a friend’s place in Maracay, a smaller town about two hours away. There I was treated to a home-cooked meal and finally got to appreciate Venezuelan food done right. The next day I took a bus through the mountains to a beach called Choroni, which is a favorite destination for Caraqueños on holidays because it’s relatively close to the city. The bus took us from the middle of the city up into the top of the mountain and back down again through narrow roads that were built into the cliffside. The verdant mountain of bamboo and other trees, and the winding one-lane roads and bridges that forced cars and buses to carefully negotiate each pass reminded me of the Hana Highway on Maui. As we passed by small villages the kids would come out chasing after the bus, pelting us with water balloons and on one occasion, what seemed like an industrial-sized hose. My friend and I had to stand for the entire bus ride but I was happy to be traveling local-style, listening to Salsa music and the occasional reggatón or Shakira song that everyone would sing along to. Eventually we arrived to a small beach town that was more reminiscent of Jamaica than the Venezuela I had seen so far. In the beaming sunlight and warm breeze, everyone seemed to move along slowly as they made their way to the beach, stopping by at shops here and there for an empanada or a drink. I drank water from a coconut for the first time in over a decade and remembered how refreshing and amazing the real thing tastes.



We arrived at the beach to find the place overrun with tourists, with a mass of what must’ve been at least 500 people crowded together in little tents alongside the water. Famished, my friend and I sat down at a restaurant where a guy brought a large plate of four or five beautiful fish, still raw and unprepared, looking like they were caught just a few hours prior. After we made our selection he retreated to the kitchen, and not ten minutes later the same fish came back battered and fried along with a salad and a side of fried plantains: the best meal I’d had in a long time. We spent a few hours swimming and enjoying the sun, and though it was packed with people it felt great to swim in the Caribbean again. Compared to Maui the water was cold and the sand rough, but it was a beautiful beach nonetheless. Before it got dark we hopped on a bus back to Maracay and spent the night there. The next day we visited a national park, which unfortunately we were unable to explore because of the national guards stationed there, and ended up at an abandoned biological station that has been left open for years. I always get a kick out of exploring old buildings so that was a great time, though I didn’t get to see much of the park itself aside from a short walk through the jungle near the station.



Since Carnival I’ve mainly stuck to my routine of work during the day, studying Spanish at night, and relaxing with friends during the weekend. I was really disappointed in my progress at a certain point when I had felt that I’d reached the limit of what I could learn just by walking around the city looking at signs and advertisements, and by ordering food or drinks. I’d always thought that just living in a country I could soak up the language easily, but given my job as an English teacher my exposure has been pretty limited – my vocabulary related to pastries, coffee and empanadas however are pretty solid. Since then, by a series of fortunate events I’ve acquired some dictionaries and grammar books that have helped me to continue learning. Because I spend so much time teaching grammar the way I think about language has become much more organized and structured; and when I learn new expressions and vocabulary I can’t help but categorize them using grammar-speak, like “Oh so that’s how you form the present perfect” or “that’s the past participle of the verb” – but anyone trying to teach me hasn’t any clue of what I’m talking about. And while my experience as a language instructor has definitely helped me to learn Spanish, I’ve come to the conclusion that obsessing over grammar rarely leads to positive results. With my students, the ones that learn to converse most quickly and fluidly are not the ones who always complete their grammar exercises or know the terminology; they’re the ones who are unafraid to use what they know to communicate as best they can, without worrying about whether it comes out right. Even though I know that, I still have a really hard time using Spanish with the people I’ve gotten familiar here since they all speak English – it’s incredibly frustrating and difficult to force yourself to spend time trying and failing to piece together sentences when you don’t know the necessary verb or preposition or tense, when you can just use the language you both know. So naturally, my speaking skills have improved little, though my listening and reading comprehension have gotten much better – at least I think so. At the end of this week I’ll be taking a short trip to Ecuador to take advantage of a visa loophole, which will also serve as a real test of how far my Spanish has come. I hope to be able to write on that when I get back.