Day 3 – Estoy estudiante!

Day 3

We must wake up early to register for class.  This time we take the Metro (subway) and it is an easier commute.  We get off the metro, take a short PumaBus ride and we’re there.

The teachers interview us individually to determine our level.   She asks me some basic questions, and I think I’m doing great. I try to use the past tense, awkwardly.  She tells me I belong in Basico 2!  She also makes it seem like I may end up in Basico 1 if I don’t do well on the written test, although she said this to me in Spanish, so I may have misunderstood.   It’s a multiple choice test and then there is some writing as well.  I take the test slowly and hand it in. I thought I did well on the test, but you never know.  I wait for the verdict in an open breezeway with David.  The woman who graded my tests comes out and confers with another women, as if there is some kind special circumstance.  Uh-oh.  They ask me if I will take the test for Basico 3.  Apparently I perform better on paper than orally. I take the test, it has a larger writing component.  I spend a long time because I really want to be in Basico 3.  I passed and I get a Basico 3 book and a picture ID, neat.

My ID card

Meanwhile, David has been waiting for quite some time.  After his interview, he isn’t given a placement test. Basico 1.  He’s a bit disappointed, but he hasn’t studied Spanish for more than a few days in San Cristobal and Oaxaca in 2009.

We head back to the hotel, and begin the trying task of finding an apartment.  We have a list of possibilities from CEPE and a few online resources.  I start calling, it is hard enough to communicate in Spanish in person, with the benefit of hand gestures.  But on the phone it is nearly impossible.  I call and fumble through a few conversations.  I email a few people.  I grow very weary of this activity.  I have at this point made friends with the bartender downstairs and he anticipates my order for una copa de vino tinto as I enter the bar.  He pours the glass of chilled red wine to the tippy top and it almost spills as I walk back to the room.  This tedious task of trying to find an apartment requires a tall pour.

Soy chorizo lunch on campus vegetarian restaurant. And I had a juice with pollen too.

I got a few books from the library before we left, a lonely planet mexico city and Food Stalls, Fondas and Fine Dining in Mexico City.  We found a Lebanese place in the second book and off we went to Condesa, which is very fancy.  There’s bike sharing in Condensa, like in Barcelona.  The streets are lined with trees and there are twinkling Christmas lights everywhere.  Apparently, Mexicans can’t really afford to live there or eat at the restaurants.  A couple young men played an oud or some kind of guitar while we dined, al fresco, once again.