Day 4

Day 4

My friend Amy Wood called me one Saturday in May to talk about ESL stuff. She is an ESL teacher at Homewood High School and also happens to be the sister of one of my childhood friends. As we were talking I asked her about her summer plans. She said that she was going to Mexico to learn Spanish. I thought, “what a coincidence, me too!” I then asked her where and when she was going and she said, “Guanajuato, and am leaving on July 6”. Not only did she say that, but that 3 other B’ham people that I know would be coming as well. I definitely don’t think that this happened by chance. In all my research of Language Schools, I found that Mexico has a plethora of them in almost every city that you could imagine.

Last night I was able to reunite with my fellow Birmingham friends. We had the best dinner and probably one of the most expensive ones for Mexican standards. I definitely spent 270 pesos which is equivalent to about 27 dollars. I need to also include that the restaurant was Italian. We ordered wine, appetizers, the main course and ended the meal with several desserts to split amongst ourselves. One of the deserts was called “Three Chocolate Boom”. We ordered it partly because of the fabulous name and boy was it quite boomy.

It was just so refreshing to see familiar faces! We had the best time catching up!

After I left the restaurant a little miracle happened. I have been taking a taxi home every night with my Spanish proficient roommates since arriving here. Guanajuato is VERY safe, but as I talked about before in a previous entry, the streets going up to my house are very small and windy. They are not lit, so it is somewhat unsafe to walk them alone at night. This endeavor of hailing a taxi, asking how many pesos it would be to take me to my quarter and then bargaining with them until they settled for 30 pesos, honestly scared me to death…nonetheless telling the driver the location of my house. My B’ham friends helped me actually get in the taxi and they coached me on Spanish directions before getting in.

Once in it was only me and the taxi driver. This experience actually turned out to be one of my best experiences yet. For the entire 5 minute ride back to my house we conversed entirely in Spanish. We talked about how long he has lived in Guanajuato, why I was here, and why I was only here for one month. He then asked me if my husband was sad that I had left him for a month. I told him that Brian was super supportive and wanted me to learn Spanish. We then talked about normal things in taxis such as the weather, population of the city, ect. The miracle was that after only 3 days of Spanish classes ever, I was able to carry on a conversation. Was my Spanish in the conversation perfect? Absolutely not! It was totally broken Spanish, but I was able to give and receive information. It was a complete miracle! I tipped him 20 pesos (66 percent) because I was so happy! You normally don’t tip Taxi drivers when the price is settled before you get in the taxi either. It was just such a great day!

Thanks again for your prayers!!!

Love, Katie
Me, Melissa and Jimmy. We all have the same hair stylist at Salon U. Call Leeza for a great haircut :) 870-8708.

The Birmingham Crew: Jimmy and Melissa Summers, Me, Amy Wood and Susan Cronier