The first half an hour at my hostess', Paqui's villa in Malaga was a wee bit painful after the previous mess in Morocco and the 40 hours without any sleep, I have to admit. Paqui is a 60 year old sweet lady, a mindblowingly excellent cook, who refuses to cooperate in English at all, no matter how hard you try... Now, with me having absolutely no way to express what I want in Spanish, there were some interesting moments me trying to explain that the reason I needed a washingmachine was not because I didn't have one in Hungary and only managed to bring dirty clothes with me, but that I spent the last week and a half in the air, on the road, on a camel, airport, tent, desert, bus etc……. J But, managed in the end, god bless the hands, with which you can tell whole stories without speaking any common language. So, for 20 eur per day, I get accomodation, breakfast and lunch - needless to say, the food is so good, that one of my newest cuests is to understand whatever Paqui says so that I can take her recipes with me when I leave.
The casa I am staying at is on a street that ends at the beach, 200m from the school (sooo bloody far…), and it is more a villa than a house, beautiful and HUGE! Today while I got lost on the way to school (to be very specific, I had no idea which way I was supposed to go so decided to try my luck and bump into it eventually… it worked!) I saw all kinds of shops nearby, post office, banks, restaurants, amazing parks and gardens, and of course the sea, all of it within 10 mins walking away. One challenge I have with the home: it is rather cold with the single windows and no heating whatsoever. Even though the weather is beautiful: 16-18C, sunshine, blue skies during the day, the 12-14C during the nights is a wee bit cold without any heating or a proper pajama.. Oh well. The center is half an hour walk away and – forgot to say - I have a Japanese flatmate among others (the rest I don't have an inventory of, yet..), and so far I saw two poodles around, too...
First day at school was FUN! I got giggles when I left in the morning with my backpack, a sandwich packed in serviettes, already half an hour late from the official starting time when I got out of the door…. Ooooooooooh good old times – and they are back!
To start the studies, all new students had a shorter or longer conversation with a teacher depending on the level of Spanish each of us had. Then a written test followed, and, guess what! Since I understood almost everything that was said and knew the basics of the grammar, I got a level higher than an absolute beginner! Yaaaaaaaaaay! I was so proud of myself… :D The agreement is, that I do my best to catch up with the others in my class and see in a week if I manage… There are 7 of us on the same Spanish adventure, a Swedish, a Belgian, another Hungarian lady, an American, an Austrian and a French, an interesting mix I have to say. The others all have been learning Spanish for a while, a few months to a year they said – yep, there is a wee bit of catching up to do on my end. There is free wifi in the school and a little café, lessons start at 8.30 and go until 2pm – after which I am back home just in time for lunch..
Next up is a hunt for a pre-paid simcard, then a walk on the beach before it gets dark, and a few hours study before bedtime – I seriously love the fact that I don't have anything else to do than sleep, eat, go to school and study…. Life is still awesome dear friends. J
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