Cazhuma Spanish School for the Wandering Gringa/o

Captain's Log, Day 60: There is a part of my life in Cuenca I've neglected to mention. In the last five weeks, I've been taking my first intensive course in Spanish---the key to my future in conservation efforts in Latin America. Cazhuma Spanish School helped me find my apartment and set me up with a patient professor who was willing to sacrifice five weeks' worth of prime after-work-relaxation-time (5 to 7 most nights) to fit my schedule. I hadn't ever taken a serious Spanish course before this (though I did have a background in Italian), and at the end of five weeks, I'm reading the local papers with ease and using the pluscuam. subjunctive. Hats off to you, Cazhuma.

A little bit more about my erstwhile home and school here in Cuenca.

You can visit their school site here: Cazhuma Spanish School
And their tour site here: Cazhuma Tours

For Spanish, they offer group classes and one-on-one tutorials. They also offer a studio apartment sub-let for people working or living in the city just three blocks from the school, and tours both around the city and the country. They're open 9-7 on weekdays, and have a two-computer lab for students to use during business hours. If you're looking to improve your Spanish while living and working here, they've been an affordable, amiable, and reliable organization to work through. Not to mention they've been incredibly patient with my crazy schedule and life!

Every evening around five, I'd make my way up the stairs of their house on Padre Aguirre.

...usually still in my work uniform. This is my professor, Monica! She's just about the best.
We hang out outside of school, too.

We talked a lot about animals. Whenever she asked me for a verb, I tended to offer up "pajarear." To birdwatch.

She was excellent, too: the pace of the class was FURIOUS, as per my request. We covered a TON in just five weeks.

Cazhuma also offers Salsa lessons every Wednesday! Javier, the instructor during my time here, took me back to Edmund's Ballroom and CCBDC parties at Pomona...and let me know which local Salsa bars were the best.
A key part of my Cuencan education, to be sure.

From where I'm sitting at the computer terminal, this is my view of the classroom hallway: the Cazhuma school itself is in a beautiful refurbished colonial-style house in the city center. My classroom had a window that opened into the central courtyard and upper level balconies: so many sparrows and finches flitting about the plants to distract Monica and me.

I'll be sad to leave this routine behind, but I have a notebook and the basic skills I need to continue onward with my Spanish education over the next eight months. Thank you, Cazhuma, for giving me a LANGUAGE. I will use it well.

Que vaya bien, Cazhuma. Gracias.