Dan and I made the mistake of being in the area of Mercado Central around 6 pm today. School had just finished, and the streets were packed with uniformed teens – Queen St Mall-style, except that each of them was armed with a little plastic bag of water or a foam squirter, and they were mercilessly attacking each other. Caught in the cross fire? Tough luck. It’s a war zone.
The other war, the quiet war, is being waged within me, as I wrestle with my Type-A-personality desire to perform well with the fact that learning a language is a slow, embarrassing and arduous process. My classes are going really well and I’m absorbing as much as I can but this sponge can only memorise the meaning of so many new words a day, and I’m confronted by so many more that are falling by the wayside.
My saving grace is my patient and talented husband, who speeds up my tarea (homework) by translating faster than I can search words in a dictionary, and helping me remember crucial rules.
It’s not all just a tough climb uphill. Today’s lesson included some linguistic analysis about why some “irregular” verbs are not so irregular when you understand some of the phonetic patterns of the language. Phonetics! My happy place!
Yesterday after morning classes, Dan and I explored the peaceful general cemetery, with its box-shaped stacked permanent-coffins, and Sucre’s pink castle – La Glorieta. The latter is a sprawling mansion whose architecture aimed to capture each of the various European styles enjoyed by its mega-rich (but very philanthropic) 1800s owners. Needless to say, the result is eclectic.
We joined a gym yesterday and I managed to survive a class of Body Pump without giving away that I didn’t understand too much about what was being yelled at us except “eso es!” (“that’s it)”. Fake it ‘til you make it.
Today was the first afternoon in Sucre that wasn’t cloudy or raining. It’s actually quite a different city in the afternoon sun – the plaza is more crowded than ever and the golden warmth makes you feel simultaneously relaxed and lively.
One final little anecdote: today Dan and I lunched at a truly local hall where seven or so different ladies set out their dishes and you. Incredibly, 26 bolivianos (approx $6) got us two large plates of picante de pollo (chicken) with a plentiful array of carbs (potato, rice AND pasta) and a large jug of lemonade. No prizes for guessing where we’ll be each lunchtime from now on.
VRPS
[Sucre]
The Two Swords 