Wednesday, May 25, 2005
School
I had kind of hoped that some spanish would come back to me from 10 years ago after spending a week or so in the country. The only things coming to me were german and estonian words though. I guess that's the problem when you only learn some basic things in a language.
I have been walking around my neighbourhood the last week to familiarise with it, but that gets kind of boring when you can't talk to anyone.
I decided that it was probably was going to take a bit more then just walking around to refresh my memory. So last Sunday I spent searching the web for a school that wouldn't cost a fortune and was not too far away from my apartment.
Yesterday I went to check out one of the more likely candidates. When I rang the bell the door was opened the secretary of the school who greeted me like I was a long lost friend. I guess it will take some time to get used to this after 8 years in Switzerland.
I'm not sure whether she really understands the nature of the school, because she would only speak to me in Spanish although she can speak English.
Anyway she explained me that there's a maximum of 6 students in a class and that you have to pass an exam every 4 weeks when you take group lessons to get to the next level. The school also organises cultural events and trips in the evenings and over the weekends which you can join if you don't like to go by yourself.
After we made a short tour of the school I decided this was the one for me so I asked when I could start. She kind of hinted that a new group will start next week but I anyway needed to take a test to see where I fit into the program. After I took the aptitude test I was immediately put into a class with 3 other people who were just starting the third week of the first level:
Ulrich a swiss guy, Scott a canadian and Hillary an american girl. I had kind of feared to be in a class of students in their early 20's but luckily they are all around my age.
I gotta do the first test thursday next week so that'll be exciting, especially since I need to revise the 80 pages in the book I should know from the first 2 weeks.
![](http://photos21.flickr.com/25540162_055f3addf9.jpg)
I have been walking around my neighbourhood the last week to familiarise with it, but that gets kind of boring when you can't talk to anyone.
I decided that it was probably was going to take a bit more then just walking around to refresh my memory. So last Sunday I spent searching the web for a school that wouldn't cost a fortune and was not too far away from my apartment.
Yesterday I went to check out one of the more likely candidates. When I rang the bell the door was opened the secretary of the school who greeted me like I was a long lost friend. I guess it will take some time to get used to this after 8 years in Switzerland.
I'm not sure whether she really understands the nature of the school, because she would only speak to me in Spanish although she can speak English.
Anyway she explained me that there's a maximum of 6 students in a class and that you have to pass an exam every 4 weeks when you take group lessons to get to the next level. The school also organises cultural events and trips in the evenings and over the weekends which you can join if you don't like to go by yourself.
After we made a short tour of the school I decided this was the one for me so I asked when I could start. She kind of hinted that a new group will start next week but I anyway needed to take a test to see where I fit into the program. After I took the aptitude test I was immediately put into a class with 3 other people who were just starting the third week of the first level:
Ulrich a swiss guy, Scott a canadian and Hillary an american girl. I had kind of feared to be in a class of students in their early 20's but luckily they are all around my age.
I gotta do the first test thursday next week so that'll be exciting, especially since I need to revise the 80 pages in the book I should know from the first 2 weeks.
![](http://photos21.flickr.com/25540162_055f3addf9.jpg)
Sunday, May 22, 2005
In the beginning.....
I arrived in Buenos Aires around 9 am after being inside a plane for about 15 hours. I had checked in extra early in Zürich so I would have a good seat, but it seems everybody else in the plane had better connections than I did, because for the flight from London to Sao Paolo there were only middle seats available. Turned out I was sitting between a arm-rest-hogging Englishman on one side and a slightly nicer Brasilian. British Airways definitely can't be complimented on the amount of leg room in their 747's but somehow I managed to catch some (drug induced) hours of sleep.
After our stop in Sao Paolo I had 3 seat for me alone but I couldn't sleep anymore.
Passport control and customs were no problem an after a 45 minutes cab ride I was finally at the address where I had reserved an apartment for the first month. After waiting around for about an hour for the owners, signing the contract, paying the rent and getting the instructions about where to leave my garbage I finally could take a shower and a nap.
![](http://photos23.flickr.com/25543911_cd4ea07d6d.jpg)
After a short nap I gave Vanina a call and we met up for coffee the same evening. It was funny seeing her after 10 years. Felt like we had seen each other only last week after 5 minutes though. Turns out she only lives 8 blocks (a 10 minute walk) from my apartment with her boyfriend Christian.
After our stop in Sao Paolo I had 3 seat for me alone but I couldn't sleep anymore.
Passport control and customs were no problem an after a 45 minutes cab ride I was finally at the address where I had reserved an apartment for the first month. After waiting around for about an hour for the owners, signing the contract, paying the rent and getting the instructions about where to leave my garbage I finally could take a shower and a nap.
![](http://photos23.flickr.com/25543911_cd4ea07d6d.jpg)
After a short nap I gave Vanina a call and we met up for coffee the same evening. It was funny seeing her after 10 years. Felt like we had seen each other only last week after 5 minutes though. Turns out she only lives 8 blocks (a 10 minute walk) from my apartment with her boyfriend Christian.