Spanish Class
It's raining and the power's out this morning. It's nice. Except that I'm roughing it with no coffee as the house is all-electric. Ah, here is the power. Excuse me; it's time to brew.
I'm getting ready (can't you tell?) for my third day of Spanish class. Having signed up for the four hour a day version, it turns out this is the maximum my poor brain can handle. I'm not used to school. The course is designed for immersion, with most of the kids also staying with local families that speak only Spanish. So far I would recommend it. Link is here.
I'm in class with one other American, a redhead from San Francisco, and our professor Carla. The beauty of this is that either one of us can stop the class in its tracks if we don't get something. Our instructor has yet to utter a word of English to us, which has led to some pretty hilarious moments of incomprehension.
Went to the mountains on Sunday to John's palace retreat and took photos. The house overlooks the valley's southeastern end and has great views. The place is quite remarkable, with two stories and a flat roof where I set up the tripod. I took half a dozen shots then switched to the big lens and the extender. About eight shots into it I noticed something in the viewfinder that shouldn't be there, and sure enough, while changing lenses something must have blown into the camera body onto the sensor.
Took a bunch of pics anyway as we walked around later and salvaged a half dozen or so. Last night I managed (I think) to blow out the offending debris and will take some test shots later after the rain to make sure. Mas manana.
