I can honestly say that nothing too exciting happened last week. No major fiestas (although there WERE fiestas)…no earthquakes…no tomales…but, as always, it was still an interesting week. School continues to be a slow (painstaking, at times) process. One day you think you’re doing pretty well and the next day you can’t remember your own name…in any language! It’s quite interesting how the brain works. When you activate that language learning chip in your brain, the brain sometimes works overtime. The result is that other languages that you studied in the past seem to be fresher in the mind. For me, it was Greek. This past August when I was studying Spanish in New York with my friends and colleagues Michael Roth & Jon Meier, at times when I was trying to write Spanish, I found myself writing Spanish words with Greek letters. On the other hand, sometimes the language learning part of the brain doesn’t want to work at all and you have a hard time remembering how to talk and write in your mother tongue! I had a couple of days like that last week. I felt like I was banging my head against a wall. You just have to slow down enough to maintain your sanity until your mind & body work through the confusion and frustration. After a day or 2, you’re ready to enjoy studying another language once again!I started 2 intercambios over the weekend. An ‘intercambio’ is basically an exchange program in which you practice talking English & Spanish with a native Spanish speaker who would like to improve his/her English. I meet with one of the instructors from the school, Manuel, on the weekends. And, during the week, I meet with Luis, a 22-year man I met on the street on Friday night. Both are born and raised in Oaxaca. It’s fun and helpful at the same time. It’s great to talk with variety of people with different styles of speech.

On Saturday, Sarah & Adia were looking for the library to attend a kids program and they stumbled across a Lutheran Church. So, we attended on Sunday. The people were very friendly, helping us to follow along with the service, which was a typical Lutheran service, i.e. a similar liturgy and similar song melodies. They didn’t have a sermon. Instead, they had a Bible study for the adults while the kids had an age-appropriate Bible study…just like we do at Sure Foundation in New York. It’s a Lutheran Church of the Mexico Synod. We enjoyed our experience…

That’s all for now…
Steven, Sarah, & Adia Gabb