Spanish Struggles and Remote Work Success

Gorgeous park by my house

Well, it's Friday! I'm really looking forward to the weekend and being a non-working tourist so I can just walk around and explore Antigua more. I am also taking a Spanish class tomorrow morning at 10, but at a new school.

Spanish challenges
Yep, I'm possibly switching Spanish schools. Well, I really just want to change teachers, but I can't see how to do that gracefully and stay at the same school. The problem is my teacher is stressing me out. I think I'm actually getting worse at Spanish because he is constantly jumping around from topic to topic and then randomly shooting grammar questions at me that I struggle to answer out of context. Am I wimping out of a challenge? I don't know. I think we're just not a good fit.

I had class with him tonight and decided to tell him I want to take a break (sounds like a line for sure) because I have a friend coming in town for a week. In reality, I already signed up for a week of classes at another school nearby, La Union. I went there today at lunch and it had a great vibe and the woman was really nice and professional. We'll see if it's better. If not, I'll resume with Neri in a week. Ironically class was actually a lot better with him tonight. Isn't that always the way?

Rooftop terrace of Ixchel. Wait, why am I changing schools? 

Working remotely
I take an hour of Spanish a day, but most of my time here so far has been spent working, which I could complain about, but come on, I'm in Antigua! I'm actually really grateful that the remote situation has been working out since it was my first attempt at being a "digital nomad." It hasn't been all that hard, gracias a Dios. The biggest hassle, I would say, was bringing my large monitor with me (it's 23"), in addition to my laptop. The reason I did that is that my laptop is only 11" so I can't really work on it in a productive way. So I packed the monitor in my suitcase face down between some clothes and hoped for the best. Other than that I also brought all the cords to connect these things, plus my headset, and some basic office supplies. It all fit in the one suitcase I brought.

The Antigua branch of Bridge

Here in Antigua, I'm in the same time zone as Denver, so I'm actually more in synch with my coworkers now than I was in Florida. They say the Internet connection might even be better, which is funny to me because I had a really high-speed connection in St. Pete and they're right, this one is faster (and it's probably only 5 Mbps).

Security was another concern of mine relocating to somewhere unfamiliar with my work computer and giant monitor. Part of the reason I chose this house is because it's a bit out of the way, plus it doesn't have many rooms and it looked secure. I got off to a rough start here at the house, but now that I changed rooms I like it a lot and I feel extremely safe here. I don't worry about leaving my computer or other stuff here all day because the only people here are the owner of the house and the two housekeepers, Maria and Lupita, who seem to be like family to her.

Money spent today
170Q  ($30) - for this week's 3 days of Spanish classes

Notes: Maria says I should visit Semuc Champey.