So we just got back from our first salsa lesson and that was SO much fun but first let me recap on what happened earlier in the day!
We all arrived at Sol Latino at 8:30am to take our Spanish placement exams. Fortunately, the teachers told us that the placement exam is very no stress and not to worry if we don't know how to answer certain questions. After the written portion of the exam, I had a really brief oral conversation with Jose Carlos (who is the husband of Erika) and we formed my lesson plan for the remainder of the time that I'll be in Xela! My biggest focus is definitely on preterite and imperfect in Spanish because I really like telling stories and describing what happened in the past but I need more practice on conjugating verbs in past tense and making conversations more fluid. Once I get through the past tense, I'm also going to start practicing future tense as well.
After our placement exams, a few of us went to a bake shop that has some of the best donuts I've ever tried. I got one that was cream filled and I devoured it, and I also bought a bag of donut holes as a snack for later. The bake shop was actually very busy when we went because it is actually only open on certain days (Tuesdays and Thursdays I think?). On top of that, they only have certain amounts of each food item so if you really want something specific you better get there early.
Next, we went back to our host house for lunch and we stopped by a cafe called La Chatia to do some research for what we wanted to do for our free day in Panajachel this upcoming weekend. Paragliding seemed like a good option but we were also thinking of checking out some of the surrounding areas around Lake Atitlan such as San Marcos and San Juan. I also worked on some of my vlogs and got some fresh orange juice which was really good. Then we headed over to Salsa Rosa for our first salsa lesson and it was really fun! Having danced ballroom when I was in middle school, it was very natural for me to get back into my old steps and have fun again. We learned a lot of cool moves and it was really nice for helping us bond as a group!
Katie, Mitchka, and I are going to eat dinner in a little bit with our host family and then we're gonna head out to a bar for Trivia Night around 9pm. Our first real day in Xela has been amazing so far :) -Scott
Update June 11: Here's the accompanying vlog to this blog!