El Fin de Semana

Nothing atypical happened at school on Thursday: more verbs, more rules, more exceptions to the rules, more confusion, more clarification, repeat.

Thursday evening, however, another student arrived to stay in the second bedroom. I had been wondering if someone was coming, but I kept forgetting to ask. Her name is Ali and she’s from Inglaterra (England).  She flew to Guatemala via Spain and when she landed in Guatemala City they discovered that her luggage was still in the airport in London, so she had absolutely nothing except what she had for her carry-on and an “emergency necessities kit” provided by the airline for such occasions. She’s friendly, though I don’t know too much about her yet because I spent the entire evening studying for my Friday exam. I do know she’s a fan of the queen. She’ll be studying at PLFM for 2 months, which means she’ll be with the family for two more weeks after I leave. It’s neat to hear an authentic English accent again!

Friday morning I discovered how to have consistent hot water in the shower. This may not seem noteworthy, but it was one of the highlights of my day!
Though I’m not sure why, there were extremely loud firework “bombs” that were set off at La Merced (the yellow church that is close to the school) sporadically throughout the day on Friday. Being so close to the source, it made for a challenging day of studying.

Mi examen no fue muy bien. Mi maestro usó mucho vocabulario que yo no comprendí, y yo estuve muy frustrado y enojado. Él necesitó a me ayudar mucho. Yo recibí noventa y uno porciento.

(My exam was not very good. My teacher used a lot of vocabulary that I didn’t understand, and I was very frustrated and upset. He needed to help me a lot. I received 91 %.)

Though I’m able to put together sentences like that, I am by no means competent in conversation yet. Listening to full sentences and simultaneously trying to understand their meaning is very challenging for me. My background in Hebreo, Griego, y Latín hasn’t prepared me well for conversational interaction.

I am so glad it’s the weekend so my brain can recuperate a little! ¡Feliz el Fin de Semana!

Adios!

P.S. Looking back on my blog titles, I realize now the first one should be: “El Día Numero Uno” …

“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the LORD say this – those he redeemed from the hand of the foe, those he gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south.”

Psalm 107:1 – 2