Early days in our Spanish school.

During our first month back in Granada we were busy trying to figure out a new language, new schedule, new culture, new people and we really wanted to enjoy the whole experience.   We are relatively self-motivated, not afraid of working hard and had expected to be able to learn these new skills in the same way we had mastered new tasks in the past.

WRONG!  Learning a new language for the first time, as an adult, is one of the most difficult things we have ever tried to do.  The culture in a new environment grows into a feeling of normalcy over time and the people grow into friends and acquaintances in a similar way everywhere we’ve been.  Time and fording the language barrier are the most important components to a real understanding of new people and places.  The language requires the commitment of time and energy; it is not enough to want to speak it and to take classes and study, you also have to spend hours every day listening and trying to participate in conversation.  Before we embarked on this journey we had been told to expect to be somewhat comfortable and able to get along in the language by the end of the first year and not to expect fluency until we had been living and speaking exclusively the new language for two years or more.   With the benefit of partial hindsight, we probably agree with this timetable.

One of the benefits of taking formal classes in an accredited language school is that you meet a whole bunch of other people from all over the world who are trying to accomplish the same thing you are.  During the second week of our classes the school hosted a big paella dinner and we had a chance to meet a lot of the other students.  One of the professors Antonio, “sin gafas” (Antonio without glasses, not to be confused with Antonio, “sin pelo”, Antonio without hair) was the chef, and our class, all three of us, were given the opportunity to help by accompanying Antonio sin gafas to buy the ingredients.

We had a class to familiarize us with the vocabulary of paella ingredients and basic question and response phrases useful in the market so that we knew how to ask for things, then we each took part of the shopping list and walked up to Plaza Larga.  We spent a wonderful hour meeting the ladies who run the Pescaderia (fish shop), the “gitano” (local gypsy) lady who has the best fresh fruit and vegetables in the Mercado, the family that runs the Panaderia (bakery) and the man who cuts the meat however you want it in the Carneceria (butcher shop).

We returned to school with all the stuff and with a bit more confidence; everyone had been helpful and patient with our attempts at speaking their language and it made us want to learn more so we could actually carry on a conversation with them.  We helped prepare the food coached by both Antonio and the beautiful Russian girl Victoria who runs the kitchen at school.  Speaking only Spanish, of course…..

First time language learners, here we go.....

It’s a beautiful Monday morning and the first day of Spanish classes.  We arrived ten minutes early which required we wait for forty minutes (our first Spanish lesson).  We had chosen to take classes at Castila for a several reasons.  Our TEFL training had been located at their beautiful facilities, we had previously spoken with several of the staff and the school had the certifications we were looking for.  Importantly, Castila came recommended by several other people we knew, and we had already corresponded with Allison, the administrative assistant, through InterNations.

It wasn’t the cheapest school but we were comfortable with the quality of education we would receive for our money.  The classes were guaranteed to have 6 or less students each which we thought would be a very comfortable learning environment.  We had arranged for a 12 week intensive course thinking that would be the minimum we’d need to obtain a decent grasp of the language basics.

A group of 6 or 7 of us were finally herded into a room and given a 3 or 4 page multiple choice and fill in the blank test and told not to answer any questions we were not absolutely sure of.  Needless to say, we were done very quickly and found ourselves sipping coffee, waiting for those who could actually answer some of the questions, for an hour or so.

It turned out that there were three of us beginners, we were joined by a lovely lady from Perth, Australia and our first professor decided he would conduct class under the fig tree in the garden.  For the two of us and our new friend Leslie it was a wonderful environment for a language class.  We were supplied with our books, all written in Spanish of course.  When they say immersion, they mean immersion.  It was a very interesting experience to be given a text book and course guide for the class and not be able to read a word of it.

The first couple of weeks our Spanish class was not too bad, they stuck to the basics.  Early on, the focus was on vocabulary acquisition, with a bit of pronunciation.  Verb conjugation began but only with the most common verbs in present tense.  Our class schedule was 9:30 am to 2:00 pm Monday through Friday, under the fig tree, with optional cultural events every evening and on weekends.

Every other Monday evening at 6:00 pm they would have a “Copa de Bienvenidos” or welcome cocktail with a discussion of all the activities slated for the following two weeks.  We would have a printed copy and they would explain everything in detail.   Everything was written and spoken only in Spanish, of course. We spent a lot of time with our Spanish/English dictionary, which by the way, we were not allowed to use in class.

Tuesday was movie night, Spanish movies with Spanish subtitles.  The idea is to see and hear it as much and as often as possible so your ear becomes attuned to the language.  What it really means for rank beginners is a serious headache from listening so hard and trying to process so much. 

Other activities like seeing some of the historic sites, taking hikes and even weekend trips to other parts of Andalucía were all on the program and you could do as much or as little as your brain and budget could handle.

During our third week of class the school enjoyed an influx of thirty very young students from France.  Leslie had moved on to enjoy some vacation time before heading home to Australia so we were on our own.  We were bumped up a level and spent an entire week learning food vocabulary and trying to keep up with the group we had been moved into.  We had not yet learned several key components of the language (like past tense) that this class had already learned and we were definitely out of our depth.  By Friday we were completely frustrated and decided to spend a couple of hours in the residencia with our wonderful friend and house manager Mercedes.  She doesn’t speak English but is very patient and worked through some of our lessons with us at the dining room table.

The following week with the youth group back in France, and we were back in business.  They reshuffled all the classes based on current level, a couple of new students had arrived so our group expanded and we went from being classified as “beginner” to “elementary”.  We were becoming accustomed to the Spanish schedule at this point and were were really beginning to enjoy our everyday life in Granada.

Buying into our wild idea completely.

Late summer turned out to be a time of momentous decisions for us.  The Peace Corps contacted us and asked if we would be willing to delay our service for a full year, to which we agreed.  With Marilyn’s accident it was going to be difficult to obtain medical clearance in time to serve earlier.  I was informed that since I had turned 50 I would need to have a colonoscopy in order to clear medical.  Oh joy!  At this point however, we were beginning to wonder if serving in the Peace Corps was actually going to be in our future given the delays in our medical clearance process.

As Marilyn continued to improve from her hand surgery and whiplash we began discussing what we would do if we were unable to serve in the Peace Corps or if our service was again delayed.  Trying to time the sale of our home and ridding ourselves of all the things we used every day was going to take time and it would be a process that once started, could not be stopped.  After much discussion, we came to the conclusion that we still wanted to live abroad, see the world and experience new cultures.  Our friends were beginning to think we were crazy at this point and some of them wondering why we would want to live abroad or spend so much time together.

What followed was a series of life changing decisions as we now bought into our wild idea completely.  We decided not to replace Marilyn’s car and instead try to share one vehicle.  This was going to require some serious coordination which we figured would be good practice for us.

We also decided to go ahead and put our house on the market and try to get it sold by the end of the year.  This would give us a time frame in which we could organize all of the other things we needed to do.  Most importantly, we made the decision that we were going to just go, rather than wait for the Peace Corps bureaucracy to drive our actions.

From our reading and research we had developed the thought process that we might be able to “follow the sun” by living in Europe during the summer and then in South America in, well, the summer.  We really hate to fly however but we had discovered this really interesting fact; cruise lines relocate ships from the Caribbean and South America to the Mediterranean in the spring and reverse this process in the fall.  There were some fantastic deals available that made a 3 week cruise cost the same as flying.  Since we would be in no particular hurry and the cruise provided the added benefit of covering 3 weeks of living expenses; this became one of our preferred travel strategies.

We then took a lovely 3 day break during which our friends from the TEFL course, Nathan and Frannie, visited us.  I’m not sure we got out of the pool other than to eat or sleep for those roasting hot late summer Arizona days.

 Both Nathan and Frannie were freshly returned from several months in Granada and we were able to catch up on the news of our other friends there.  We really missed Granada!

Back to work, put the house on the market and immediately we found we needed to make several more important decisions.  Where were we going to go?  When were we going to go?  How were we going to get there?  What were we going to do when we got there?  It may sound like we really had no plan at all but that wasn’t true; it was the details and advanced planning required that we really needed to address and all of these details dovetailed with each other.

By early fall and after hours of discussion we decided to begin this adventure with a return to Granada, Spain and take Spanish language classes.  It made sense to us to try to acquire another language and Spanish is spoken in a lot of places in the world that we wanted to experience.  Now began the research on language schools in Granada (there are over 40).  We were familiar with Castila because they provided space for our TEFL program and we knew they were a quality program.  While they weren’t the cheapest program there was the benefit of familiarity for us and they would be able to arrange housing for us until we were able to find a place.

Now we had to decide when.  That would be determined to a large extent by our travel schedule because Castila initiated beginner level classes every other week.  We had put this largest of decisions off as long as we could.  It was time to commit…. so we signed up for classes beginning in early May and committed to an intensive course for 12 weeks.  We found a 2 week cruise that left San Juan, Puerto Rico (a place we wanted to visit) in mid-April and traveled to Malaga, Spain which is only an hour and a half from Granada by bus.  We wanted to spend a few days in Old San Juan and by working backwards like this our departure date was identified.  Our departure would be on April 11^th; my birthday.

We put the house on the market and decided to join a very interesting group called InterNations that was forming a new Phoenix chapter.  InterNations is a networking group for people who are either living abroad or simply interested in traveling abroad.  It is a group of widely diverse people of many different nationalities and they are a friendly group of people.  In fact, not long after we joined we were contacted by an American who had been living in Granada for 3 years offering whatever assistance or guidance she could.  Amazingly, it turned out she worked for Castila and her assistance was both invaluable and appreciated.  Gracias Allison.  Te echamos de menos.

We felt were definitely on the right track, and the train was now running at full speed.