After a very relaxing weekend, it was time to hit the ground running with classes. I have class here everyday from 8am to 12:45pm, Monday - Friday. We then break for lunch. In class the past couple days my teacher and I have been going over lots and lots of vocab. She said it's important to first learn all the words I can and to speak as much as possible. We will learn conjugations and tenses later as the summer continues. After class today, I and some of the other seminarians played basketball with the seminarians that go to school here. It's a lot of fun to play with them. We Americans have a large height advantage, but they have an endurance advantage since we are at an altitude over 7,000 feet. We play basketball every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday. If I keep playing with them at this altitude, when I return to the States I should be in the best shape of my life! At night it is mainly time to study and pray. However, it is the NBA playoffs and the monastery TV gets all the games. So the seminarians and I will watch the games at night when they are on. So far nothing is planned for the weekend, but I'm sure we will set something up. Possibly for class tomorrow my teacher and I will go down to the city. We will go to experience the market. She said it will be an opportunity to visualize the names of the words I'm learning. We are also, this week, are supposed to visit a pandaria (bakery). Apparently one of the bakeries specializes in American donuts! Speaking of donuts, we had them for dessert last night. One of the young monks said they only have donuts once a month. It looked just like an American donut, but didn't quite taste like one. Don't get me wrong, it was a solid attempt and had good flavor, but it wasn't quite a strawberry frosted from Dunkin Donuts :)
I hope all is well with everyone at home. You are all in my prayers. Please also pray for my teacher Gilma. She had a small motorcycle accident today. She had a little scrape on her arm and a couple holes in her clothes, but she is doing fine.
Paz,
Cris
Your trip sounds very interesting, the cultural differences will help you in your vocation. I found my business travels to Asia and Europe helped me understand the different ways that people see and understand the world around them. Bless you and I'll say a prayer for your teacher too.
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