Update from Somo

The waves have returned! I had today off so I headed to lookout to see that the waves were crashing in! Down to the surf school I went for an awesome, exhausting two hours! The waves further from the shore were ideal for surfing, but because I am with the school and the current is so strong, we have to stay together. We surfed the less powerful waves but they were still fast enough that we could get up on the board to practice!

The past few weeks have been great! I am into a good routine now. In the mornings I stretch and do some exercises, and often go for a short run. This way I get my exercise in incase the day gets too busy, and my body always feels better when I have stretched first thing. It is a great set up to have the freedom to for an hour in the morning, I am thankful for this! During the afternoons, Maria and I usually play board games, read some books etc. and communicate in english. I am hoping we can do some more activities soon, like go to the park to play games and get into another atmosphere. It will increase her vocabulary to converse in a different setting.

I have been out Snorkelling twice which has been great! I am too scared to take my underwater camera out there, just incase something malfunctions. I won`t have a camera for the rest of the trip in that case! I have swam through schools of fish, and been to check out Octopus caves! One time when Jesus was trying to catch one, it left its cave so I chased it, and it inked at me! Haha! They are amazing swimmers. He has caught 3 of them to show me up close. One got stuck to my arm with the suction cups on his arms! One of them changed colour three times in less than 3 seconds, the last time it adapted to the colour of Arancha`s skin because she was holding him. So kewl!

In the evenings I always get out for a rollerblade or a bike ride on the bike path. The evenings are always a perfect temperature here! The bike path goes passed all the farms, so I get to see cows, sheep, goats etc. frolicking about and I get a real kick out of it! I think this one farm has a ton of pregnant dairy cows, because they all have very strange bodies, their knees give out when they walk. At least I hope they are pregnant and not malformed or handicapped! Can any of my auntes shed some light on what pregnant cows look like please?!?

The family goes to a beach here quite often, in Loredo. All their friends go to the same place, so I often go there to read, snorkel, or socialize. It is fun to get to know everyone and very relaxing. I often bike there so that I can head home, I tend to get hungry more often than everyone else! The sun here has a lot of heat in it, and the ocean here is much warmer than at home!

I have tomorrow off as well, so I am very excited to get out on the waves. They will be smaller, 1.5 metres instead of 2.6m like today! Hopefully they are still powerful and the current isn`t too strong. Today I had a new instructor, he doesn`t speak too much english but he is very nice and fun!

In the last 10 days I have gotten more serious about learning Spanish. They speak so quickly that it is still difficult to distinguish the words. I am catching onto the general idea of the conversation, and spending lots of time with the english/spanish dictionary to increase my vocabulary. Hopefully this week I am meeting with a Spanish doctor who is studying English. He is in the 5th course which is "conversation" so he wants to meet with me to work on his skills. Half of the time we will speak in English and the other half he will help me with my Spanish! This will be a big help. I know that the only reason I caught onto Portuguese was because Gabriel helped me with it everyday that I spent with him!

That is about all that is going on here! The benefit to having no gym here is that I spend more time exercising outdoors. My allergies aren`t acting up anymore, so it is nice. Plus I am getting quite the tan! Hehe!

I will update this more often, I have been slacking lately. Bye for now!