The adventure begins

Well, I´ve been in Boquete for a couple of days now, and I´ve survived the first two days of class without much difficulty. Overall, things are going pretty well, and I´m starting to get my bearings a bit with the town and the people in the area. I suppose I should start with a little about the family with which I am living.

The House......I think I mentioned before that the house is pretty nice, and after several days of cold showers, I actually figured out how to get the hot water to work. Now I´ll be living the good life with mucho agua caliente. My room is pretty nice unless you want to sleep past 6-30 AM. Apparently the kids start school pretty early here, and since my bedroom window is about three feet from the school courtyard, things are pretty loud by that time. I´m hoping they don´t have school on the weekends.
The family......The dad´s name is Aristides and he is a cartographer. He seems to be very intelligent, very quiet, very friendly, speaks perfect English, and looks a lot like Morgan Freeman. The mom is ,Juanita, owns-operates the adjoining beauty shop. She´s also very nice and a great cook. In fact, right now, I´m miserably full from eating too much at dinner (nothing new there). There is a 12 year old named Aldair who enjoys Karate and playing the games on my cell phone that I have never seen. He goes to the private Catholic school in town and likes to quote Smeegle from Lord of the Rings (in Spanish, of course). Also, he seems pretty intent on one day having his very own BMX bike.
Things are going well with the family. Apparently there was some teenager from NJ who stayed with them a few weeks ago. They tell me that he didn´t shower, brush his teeth, or pick up the room, so I guess I´m looking pretty good after that guy. As usual, my biggest problem is just understanding them. Of course, the speaking seems SO FAST and they accent is very different from the Costa Ricans from last year. While I´m getting used to that, I´ll just have to enjoy the communication barrier while trying NOT to feel too dumb.

The school.....Classes are going well, and over the last two days, the 4 hour class sessions have flown by each day. I think I mentioned before that my only classmate is the new English (and pregnant) wife of one of the owners of the school (Julio). It´s fun to listen to her speak Spanish with her English accent. The instructor is named Bladimir. He looks to be in his later 20´s, lives in the larger nearby town, David, with his French wife, and is a published poet. He also seems to be a great teacher, so I´m really enjoying the classes and discussing such topics as Genetic cloning and organic farming.

Socializing.....I´m starting to meet a few people around town, as I am hanging around with Carlos, the other owner of the school. He´s a pretty nice guy who shows me where the good and cheap places to eat are (1 to 2 dollars for a large plate of food). Also, he´s helping me out with activities in the surrounding hills (more on that later) and introducing me to people in town.

The weekend......So I thought I might head to the beach for the weekend, but I´ve decided to take it easy instead. I´m still fighting a sore throat every day and a weekend of taking it easy sounds pretty good. Also, I don´t want to miss the big Ultimate Frisbee game happening on Sat.

So that´s about it for now. Over all, things are starting to come together after a couple of days.
Hasta Luego.