Monday's A-Comin'

So here we are… 3 weeks in.  Jake’s school work is picking up, and he’s got his home studio completely set up in the extra bedroom.  He moved the TV monitor that was in our bedroom into his now studio room, and is using it as his studio monitor.  (I guess big screens are important with scoring and editing stuff, so you can see all the tracks at once.)  So far he likes to work at home better than the studio lab at school because of his fancy set up.  So I certainly don’t mind.  He can move whatever he wants around the house as long as it puts him at home more! J  Plus, I love when he’s making music in the house. 

This morning he showed me everything he’d set up for one of his assignments, configuring tempos, meters, and measures to the precise time frame for each visual cue to a 90 second clip.  He’s been a bit hesitant to elaborate on his work so far, so it was fun to see him excited to share.  I have to keep up on all this as well, so I have something to converse about with his peers.

Last night was the first time, I hung out with his classmates without him.  Jake’s been having terrible allergies the last couple of days.  We did our best to trying to communicate with the pharmacist the ingredients of his usual medication that we didn’t bring.  (So… if anyone is thinking care package… we’re thinking Claritin D!)  After a couple days without any meds, his body just gave up and he was done for yesterday.  So I went to choir rehearsal by myself hoping they would let me into the school without my escort.  I got in, and the students greeted me as if I was one of their own. 

After choir I met up with Bonnie and her friends.  Super fun people to hang out with.  Whether they are talking in Spanish or English I’m entertained.  I was pleased to report to them all that I will be starting Spanish classes on Monday!  They will soon be challenging me to only speak to them in Spanish.  But for now, their grace of English is upon me. Not to mention my Spanish is as much painful for them as it is for me. 

After weighing options for me to work on my Spanish, I decided that a structured intensive class format will really help me stay focused and motivated.  So I took the plunge and committed to 12 weeks of intensive Spanish classes at a language school from 9am-1pm, Monday thru Friday.  I am considered a beginner, so I will be pretty much starting from ground zero.  But knowing half my day will be in Spanish, at a level that I can comprehend, gives me hope that I will soon be able to order my food at a restaurant without getting a blank stare, go to the bank and not have to wait for the one English speaker there to become available, understand the conversation between the grocery checker and the customer in front of me, and say more to our roommate than “hello”, “good morning”, and “see you later.”

Side note: I don’t think I’ve mentioned that we have a roommate.  Part of the conditions of living in Bonnie’s parents’ house is that Bonnie’s grandfather is living here temporarily.  He’s a really sweet catholic man from Peru.  He’ll be headed to the U.S. on October 1^st to visit family, and then to Denmark in December to visit Bonnie’s parents, and then to Peru after that to visit more family.  So he pretty much splits his year between visiting/living with all his family members for a few months.  However, looks like there was a mix up and he’ll actually be coming back in November for a month before leaving for Denmark.  So hopefully by then I’ll be able to impress him with my new Spanish skills, and learn more about him than simply what time he eats meals and goes to bed.  His name is Edgar. 

So, as of Monday I actually have a schedule and something to focus on while I’m here.  12 weeks of school is sort of a big commitment not only because of the time, but because it costs a good chunk of change!  So to compensate I’ve gotten a little job teaching a couple young girls English after school Monday – Thursday.   Mom said specifically that she wants it to be an informal educational setting since she doesn’t want to put pressure on the girls with more schoolwork.  So basically, she’s asking me to come over every afternoon to play with them in English, and help them with their English homework as needed.   I thought it was a pretty sweet gig considering not many parents want an English tutor 4 days a week.    That way I can work for just one family and really get to know them instead of having to piece together a few different jobs with different kids.  The only bummer is that it’s not close.  We live at the farthest east stop on the metro line 5, and this family lives at the farthest west stop on line 5 (outside of the city).  So a 30+ minute metro ride, and then they have to pick me up to drive me to their house.  But hey, 30 minutes where I don’t have to transfer lines or think about anything but reading a book, doing Spanish homework, or whatever.   

So it all starts on Monday.  I feel excited to have a schedule, and things to invest in.   Though with not much to focus on, thus far, I have cooked more meals for my husband than I have since we’ve been married.  Haha… of course, I’m exaggerating.  But the nightly routine of actually taking an hour or more to cook up something that involves dicing, mincing, and simmering is a new phenomenon in our household.  We’ll see how long it lasts.  J

Speaking of gender roles in the household, I can hear the washer finishing its cycle with our colored clothes.  Time to go see if our undies are done hanging in the wind, or better make some room on the clothesline.