Daily Grind

we posted some less dramatic photos of our regular haunts. Our tiny little studio apartment yet somehow to us it is majestic. You should see all the yummy food we keep in our frig. I guess I will take a photo of that later.
a day in our life is like this... We wake around 8am and get slowly get ready for our first 10am Spanish class. Andy usually makes yummy oatmeal or we eat yogurt or cereal. We walk the few blocks to Spanish in a sunny warm climate always in the 8os or 70s. we have had a bit of rain in the evenings here but it rarely cuts into the sunny warm days. one day was partially grey and that is all the grey I have seen in 2 months. The weather channel caught my eye the other day when there was wild snow in southern California and Texas. Then I made the mistake of checking the weather in NY. yikes. Lets just say I curbed the beginning of the anxiety attack by running out of the computer cafe and going to my happy place. Under the sunny skies of Merida. Funny too, because this is suppose to be the cold town in Venezuela, which means a little cool in the evening and theres never humidity. OK, how much more can I say about climate. a lot, because it means so much to me. but I wont. Don't underestimate the power of sun and warmth.

OK, so we go to Spanish until 12. Zarha has had all private lessons and it looks like that will continue. she is doing great. At first her teachers said she didnt talk much and we said that was true in English too. Now her teachers are very impressed with her rapid understanding of Spanish and she is using it. She is even writing a story in Spanish now. They gave her a test! hey, I didn't get a test. She did great and I got to hear how smart she is. smile. Actually its now zarha who wants to stay at the school longer to continue with all the levels of spanish that they offer. We are thinking of going to Colombia for several days, but maybe if we dont do that we will stay in Merida and study Spanish for another week. We have a 4 hour break midday we check Internet, go to the excellent market, it is 3 stories and the photos are not capturing it, we eat lunch and sometimes nap. What a life.
then we have Spanish from 4 to 6pm. Andy and I only have one other student with us in our respective classes. The ratio is excellent and the teachers are really experienced!

Some evenings, I go to a yoga studio across from the school. the official class is during my Spanish so I do yoga on my own. That works better for me, becuase the kind of yoga I found here was not what I wanted to do. I found a gym yesterday and they have spinning and pilates. will check that out next week. They have hour massages there for 5$. what is that about! wow. maybe I read it wrong.

In the evenings we do homework and eat. We are such good eaters, you all would be proud of us. parasites are going around. we are either trying to rid them from us or trying to keep them out. It really only bothered me for one day. Andy's have been lingering and zarha does not seem effected.
we can get remedies here but I think I will wait till I am back in the states and I will do the lemonade cleanse.

today andy went hiking and zarha and I are going on para gliding, ten thousand feet in the mountains! Andy wanted to save the money...yeah right. hahaa.

ok, enough boring details. but there you have it. our routine for the month. we are meeting some interesting people and we got invited by our Venezuelan waitress last night to her thesis defense of Monday. She is a visual media grad student.

I have not been able to get in touch with all the interpreter and deaf contacts here. but I did check out the university of the Andes. It is beautiful. They are starting to teach sign language this semester and asked if I wanted to teach. However, it is not for a degree program here it is only for personal interest.
I will not be here long enough to teach but I will go and find the classes and teachers next week.

hope you all are happy and keeping warm,
love to all