5 semanas

Time for a new post. I've been studying Spanish for 5 weeks now and am starting to feel somewhat comfortable with the language. I still have a long way to go however.

I have a new spanish professor and he's quite interesting. He's from Venezuela and he's in the US on political asylum. He used to be a defense attorney in Caracas, and then was a politician, but was forced to flee when Chavez took over. He's been in the States teaching Spanish ever since.

Unfortunately I don't have much to say about my Spanish class itself. There are four people in my class, two from State and 2 from AID. We have 4 hours of lectures each day, then we spend time doing drills in the computer lab or having one-on-one conversations with the instructor.

Whenever I have free time however, I still manage to get out. I recently joined a kickball league that plays on the weekends on the National Mall near the Washington Monument. Apparently kickball is very popular among young professionals on the East Coast. Also, once a week, I join a group of Spanish students for a cultural night (dinner/movie en espanol). Last week we watched a movie about Che Guevarra in spanish. Viva la revolucion!

Moreover, a while ago I went to Nationals Stadium to watch the Barber of Seville on the jumbo-tron from the outfield. Opera in the outfield. Que interesante! Finally, last weekend I flew out to Mexico to spend some time on the beach in Rocky Point. Because I spoke some Spanish there, this should be tax deductible right? Business expense? On an interesting note, on my flight back I sat near to Senator Jon Kyle. I should have told him to support the public option.

M