First Week of Spanish

The first week at the APPE Spanish School in San Juan was fantastic. I went from knowing how to say "Hola" and "Gracias" to conjugating verbs and describing my family in 4 days. Again the term "school" takes on a whole new meaning in Outtatown. We walk to school in the morning and slowly make our way to plastic tables and chairs on the covered porch outside. If it's cold we take our chairs and move to the lawn in the sun. This is school for us Outtatowners.

On our first day we had a level placement interview; an awkward few minutes during which one feels completely incompetent. I started counting in French by accident! But the awkwardness was worthwhile, because the students in each class are all at about the same level. With a 4 student per teacher ration the learning goes pretty fast.

I love the fact that I can now communicate more easily with the members of my family, barter at the market and buy chocolate covered bananas (in Spanish called: Choco-bananos) by myself and I know it will only get easier as time goes on!

By Emma Purser

This is the first day at APPE!

Heather, Jill and Mel enjoying the sun while learning some Spanish.

Chris, Lindsay K., Shanon and Linday M. chatting in Spanish.

One of the APPE teachers helping the girls out.

Pinata time!

An APPE teacher blindfolded Rebecca and gave her a stick to whack the Clown pinata.

There she goes!

Next Jason got a chance at breaking open the pinata!

But Marisa was the final one to spill open the candy contents!!