Love, Novela [Completed]

Re: Some first steps

From: novela-harmon@bethel.edu
Date: Fri, Aug 25, 2017 at 7:44 PM
Subject: Some first steps
To: grace-k-nelson@bethel.edu

The first dance class was yesterday. Besides salsa (or "rumba" more precisely), we will be learning merengue, bachata, and some others I don't remember now. I've listened to Latin music a little, to learn Spanish, but not enough to really distinguish between the styles (you'd probably do better than me at that). We started with the basic salsa step. It was kind of like an exercise class at first - all facing the same direction repeating a movement together. But then we paired up, some of us with other girls since there were a few more girls than guys.

Some of the girls in the class have obviously done some salsa dancing before and are more advanced. I suspect they just wanted to spend more time with Alejandro. (You should hear how they drag his name out - "Alekhaandrro" - even though he said we could call him Alex. OK yes it's fun to say, but still.)

My 9 a.m. class - Economic and Political History of Mexico - always starts at least 15 minutes late. There are a lot of readings and they are challenging, about early Mexican presidents and wars and other things I had never heard about, in pretty dry and sophisticated language. I end up skimming the readings and feel bad about that, but then when I realize the other students - the ones who showed up, that is - are either sleeping or too hung over to care that they didn't do the readings at all, I realize I'm not doing so badly. The teacher - Guillermo (apparently all the professors go by their first names) - seems impressed with me since the other students had a linguistic advantage. I'm definitely learning a lot about Mexico's history that I never even knew existed. I guess I'm just now realizing how little I knew, especially for having studied Spanish language and cultures for several years.

But the other class, Composition, is just awesome. Alex is one of the best teachers I've ever had. I've never wanted to work so hard for a class, and at the same time hardly feel like I'm working. He has us writing about different aspects of Mexican culture, so we are learning about the culture and improving our written Spanish at the same time. He only spends part of the class time in formal teaching, and then we do activities (even playing hangman!) or just discuss our experiences here. It seems like we're just goofing around until I realize how much I've learned. I'll probably see how many more classes I can take with Alex before the end of the semester (there are two more sessions of two classes each).

That biology lab sounds like a bummer. Sorry. Hopefully you'll get better partners the rest of the semester.

Love, me