¡Por Jorge, pienso que lo tengo!

Or should I say “By Carlos, I think I got it!”  Who said living in the past wouldn’t pay off?  Not only did I translate a passage from Spanish to English 99.9% correctly (my use of saber and querer in el pretérito were a little off), I didn’t screw up one tense in my “What I did this weekend” essay using both el pretérito y el imperfecto!  Sure I screwed up some other stuff, but who cares!?  Pobrecito Carlos, he doesn’t know what to do with me sometimes.  During an exercise this morning on the two past tenses, I had to translate sentences into Spanish and he kept pointing out other little grammatical stuff that I got wrong, but I didn’t care because I was so excited that I got every single tense right AND knew the reason it was right.

And today’s conversations were even better than yesterday’s.  First of all, we spoke for two hours straight. According to our lesson plan we do an hour of conversation, then some reading and review of homework, and then he laughs at me and teases me about mis errores (yes, that’s part of the lesson plan!) and then a coffee break, but this morning we just kept talking and talking.  And he may as well have been speaking English to me because I understood everything he said about his experiences with both the cruel official military and kinder guerrillas during the civil war in the 80s.  What he thinks about the power of education amongst the Maya (he is Mayan).  We talked about his conspiracy theories and I egged him on.  At least I think I did.  But even more importantly, he understands me.  Even when I’m trying to communicate difficult complex thoughts or philosophical points.  Often, after my long, slow diatribes in response to questions, statements and opinions, I ask ¿entiendes? and he always does. “Perfectamente, Patricia.”  Miriam said this as well, but I thought she was just being nice or could infer what I meant from my choppy Spanish.  But today was the first day I truly believed that I am being understood. Whatever that means.  I may actually lose my ability to communicate en inglés!

It was just such a satisfying session today.  The more I study with Carlos, the more confident I feel speaking to Stef (mi jefe).  I was even able to tease him Tricia-style today about his passport photo being a mug shot.  And he got it.  I think so anyway, unless he’s just humoring me because I’m working for free. 

Tomorrow is Independence Day in Guatemala and Xela is supposed to have the most spectacular fiesta in the entire country, there are festivities this entire week celebrating their independence from Spain.  Of course, Carlos pointed out that Guatemala is far from independent, but he still enjoys the feria.  I think he might make me drink some cerveza tomorrow morning during our class, or a cuba libre, watch out Carlos, because my Spanish only gets better con bebidas fuertes!  Or so I’ve been told.

In about an hour, I´m going to meet a few people I met from Casa Doña Mercedes to check out the festivities in Central Park.