First Day of School

Today I started Spanish class at the IBERO Spanish School. Yesterday was a holiday, so classes started today. There are many, many Spanish schools down here, and I chose this one based on recommendations from blogs and guidebooks. One thing I like about the school is that they organize activities, like dinners, films and field trips.

The class reflects the demographic of most travellers I have met and seen here: young and carefree. My class includes students from Europe, the UK, the US and Australia. They are all in their 20s, some right out of university, with one couple looking to be in their early 30s. I was getting a little lonely by myself and it is nice to meet and converse with folks. But it is a bit odd to not meet anyone my age. I organized a group to go to lunch afterward, in a nearby cafe. It was during that lunch that I realized that people in their 20s don't really know what to say to someone so much older than they and someone who is married. My ego was bruised for about a minute and then I remembered what it was like when I was in my early 20s and found myself in social situations with someone almost my parents' age. It was weird and awkward, at least at first. Nevertheless, I am meeting several of them tonight to go salsa dancing.

One other thing I observed from my class. Those of us who have already learned a language (we were asked this in class) have a definite advantage. We know what it is like to learn words that have masculine and feminine articles, something blessedly absent from English. We know what it is like to conjugate verbs, whose endings depend on the articles. For some reason, the Aussies in my class are having a particularly difficult time. None of them had ever learned another language.