Cuenca - 1 week in

One week down (well, almost - 5 days).  This week has been really busy.  I've been in school all week, which has been great.  Though with it having been so long since I took spanish, I had allot of catching up to do and still do.  Mostly, I don't have all the vocabulary, so I'm making flashcards like a mad woman and studying allot more than I thought I would.  It's humbling for sure, they don't give that much homework, but being in a different language and all, it takes me ages to do it.  I'm getting quicker though.  :)

My class only has two people, including me.  My co-student is Edwon, he's ~65 yrs old.  He's funny in class and it's pretty cool that he'd come to cuenca to learn spanish at that age, but we don't hang much outside of class.  :)  The school has activities in the evenings, like a cooking class in somebody's home, salsa lessons, or museum tours (they will change every week).  That's been great, cause I've been able to meet other people from the school that are -- well, my own age compared to Edwon.  :)  Most of them are about 20, just babies.  One guy is 32, so I'm not the only one in my thirties, woohoo!  They're all allot of fun, I'm glad I was able to meet them and hang out with them this week.  We usually go to the school activity and then grab a few beers afterwards.  Tonight should be fun, we're going to go to a salsa club and show off some of our new moves. 

I haven't gotten to explore much of cuenca yet, unfortunately, but that's the plan for tomorrow.  So far this week, I've been in class at 7:45am every morning, then doing homework and studying till the activity that evening.  I had quite the adventure earlier this week though (sort of), trying to find index cards of all things.  every paper and copy shop is pretty sure the place across the street has them.  It's pretty funny.  They do exist here apparently, everybody knows what they are, but nobody actually has them.  I also learned that they have more paper and copy stores than we have starbucks, per block.  Luckily, my hostel neighbor found something similar at one of the paper shops, so I should be able to find some afterall.  Also, walking around the city, I noticed something a bit funny.  there are a ton of doctor and lawyer offices.  The funny part being that, they are always the same office.  Nearest I can figure, the more lawyers in the office, the worse the doctor?  Just kidding, but it did strike me as an ironically funny pairing.