We are Learning the Language

Dear Family and Friends,

Chuck and I have been back in Cuenca for about 3 weeks now. With the holidays behind us the first item on both our agendas is to learn to understand and to speak Spanish.

Chuck is taking private lessons from Mia. She is located at the language school in the Carolina Book Store. This is an English bookstore run by our ex-pat friend (Carol) from the Carolinas.

Chuck has been taking lessons for one week now. His teacher is very helpful and besides being his instructor she has assisted him on numerous projects. (Getting our internet up and running, finding out information about the finish on our kitchen table and chasing down my stolen cell phone).

I started school yesterday. I chose to go to a more structured program since I am not as far along in my Spanish skills. I am attending Estudio Sampere. It is a school established in Spain. They have four schools, three in Spain and this one in Cuenca, Ecuador.

Here is their sign on the wall outside the school.


I am in the beginning level which is right where I belong. The classes consist of grammer, conversation and culture. I go 4 hours a day, 5 days a week. I will be attending for the next three weeks. There are two other students in my class. They are both from Switzerland.

Here is a picture of my classmates and one of our teachers.


Actually there are only about 12 students in the school at this time and I think all but two of us are from Switzerland. So when I am not learning Spanish, I am hearing a lot of German. What fun!!

The school is small and is located in a very beautiful setting.

This is the walkway I use to get to the front door. It makes me feel like I am in an old European country.


Chuck and I are each learning Spanish in a way that suits our individual learning style. We are anxious to become intergrated into the community.

We are out to prove that the old proveb "You can't teach an old dog new tricks" does not apply to us.

Gotta go grease my brain now.

Nancy