Monday, February 24th, 2014

I went to bed at 10:45, it took a while to get to sleep, got up once during the night and finally woke/got up at 7am.

I had breakfast at Panaderia y Restaurante Laureles (Circular 74A #39B-117) the same restaurant my brother and I ate at a week ago.

Then it was just a 5 block walk down to UPB (Universidad Pontifica Bolivariana).  I showed my Cedula, they took my picture and directed me to go straight ahead, turn right and go to the red building - #9.  I was then directed to the 2^nd floor where there was a sign that identified it as the office of languages.  They sat me down at a table with 2 young ladies for a few minutes until the English speaking language coordinator would arrive to talk to me.  In the meantime in talking to the 2 college students I learned they were there to take the Level 10 test in English which they had to pass in order to graduate in April.  The petite cutest whitest one is majoring in Psychology and the taller more average looking one with darker skin is majoring in Economics; unfortunately I don’t remember their names.  We chatted for about 10 minutes until the coordinator arrived.  I wished the ladies good luck on their test and Gustavo gave me a flyer with information about their curriculum.  My class meets Monday thru Friday from 10am to noon and there are also extra free services including academic tutoring; conversation, grammar and culture clubs; and auditing of regular classes.  Their group class with 3-10 students costs 440,000 COP per month or $220.

They allowed me to sit in on the last hour of class consisting of 3 men and 3 women.  All but 2 ladies spoke English.  One tallish attractive lady was from Australia, one was from Brazil so her mother language was Portuguese.  One of the men, Dr. John, was from Chicago (Lincoln Park).  His specialty was orthopedic medicine and he took a year off to live here and learn the culture and Spanish.  

After class as I was leaving the building I ran into the 2 young ladies and they informed me they passed their test.  (I wonder if they waited for me to get out of my class to tell me that.)  The cuter one was crying because she was so happy and/or relieved.

The place definitely looks like a college campus with kids walking all over.  Their “quad” was tree covered with tables in the center and food booths on the outside edges.  I had my camera with me but forgot to take pictures.  Aargh!

I think I’ll talk to Jhon about private lessons – I think he charges 15mil an hour and it’s certainly much closer to home.

I caught a Simon Bolivar bus back to the apartment.

I moved some more things upstairs.

I have a chess tournament tonight at 6 or 6:30 so I’ll be leaving the apartment about 4pm, having dinner at Viva then taking a bus to the Stadium.