In another attempt to try and upgrade my awkward and somewhat offensive attempts at the beautiful Spanish language, I decided to head back to Spanish school while I was in Costa Rica. I am very happy that I chose Dominical and the AEC Spanish school as the place to study.
The guide book is pretty sceptical about this place, making it sound uninspiring to say the least, but that is what appealed to me as I need as little disctraction as possible. Also, the idea of studying on the beach, was just too appealing to resist. I found it to be a lovely, friendly little town, and a perfect place to practice Spanglish with patient locals.
The school itself is small and very friendly. They are laidback and conversation practice was really fun. Maybe slightly too much focus on how to propose and how to ask someone on a date from my teacher, but I have learnt now to always say I am married!! There is also a lot of wildlife in the area, and on my first day I saw a Red Mackaw and a Toucan, so its a beautiful environment to try and engage some aging brain cells.
I particularly like that the guy who runs the tours spoke no English at all, so I didn´t know where I was going or what I was doing most of the time. But, he was nice enough to chat away to me anyway, and patiently wait while I scramble for words. He also gave me a mango on my last day, which frankly is the nicest way to end a day.
I stayed with a family there, which was really interesting because it was so different to Guatemala. I have to say I preferred Guatemala because I liked how important family is there and how traditional it was. Staying with the Costa Rican family felt like being at home – the TV on all the time (although I´m a big fan of the cheesey soaps here), eating infront of the TV and not really that much conversation. They also had a mental dog that ate my only skirt. The house and the walk to school was beautiful. This was the house
And this was my journey as I started my day
However, the best thing about being with a family is that the food is incredible. It´s a lot of rice and beans, but really really good rice and beans and massive portions. I have put on a stone in a week. The pineapple in Costa Rica is also amazing and there was lots of it. So, overall it was still good to stay in a house rather than a hostel for a week.
Finally, the beach was just what I needed after a tough morning in class. I could practice while staring at the beautiful sea and the (lets face it, gorgeous) surfers. This was my view during afternoon study.
The sunset there is my second favourite so far too, and every day me and my fellow students couldn´t resist taking more and more photos of it, even though we had over 100 already!
I learnt a lot in a week and my confidence really grew. I think I can even describe myself officially as able to speak Spanglish now after managing to befriend one of the notoriously difficult taxi drivers in San Jose, which is pretty good progress really.