Ive enrolled in Spanish classes for a few weeks. Ive been going since Monday and already its all been coming back to me pretty quickly. The school I go to is the same place my brother was taking classes, so they gave me a pretty decent discount. I am in a 4 hour a day class by myself with a teacher that speaks no English, which is great because it forces me to form my own sentences in Spanish. Randomly enough, she also studies a bit of German.
Getting to the school is half the fun, it takes about 40 minutes to get there. I walk about 20 minutes to the bus stop, am on the bus for about 5-10 minutes depending on traffic, then another 10 or so minutes to the school. Finding an actual crosswalk anywhere is like winning the lottery, and they arent really big on the 'pedestrians have the right of way' thing; when i first got here crossing the street was a major source of anxiety, but now its kind of fun, like playing real-life Frogger. Some people actually speed up and lay on the horn when they see someone trying to cross. But its the only way to cross, Ive seen women in skirts & heels and the elderly dodging cars with the best of them.
The bus system here is rad. There is no official system, so all the buses are privately owned. They are actually referred to as Diablo Rojo (the red devil for those of you who dont speaky the spanish). People buy old school buses and deck them out however they want. Some are boring and I try to avoid those. The fun ones are painted with sweet murals or themes, and the insides are all painted and done up too. One had a disco ball hanging above the driver and was blasting salsa music. Another had streamers and glittering stars all over the ceiling. The best thing of all is that a bis ride costs a quarter and it is probably the most reliable bus system Ive ever been on, Ive never waited more than 30 seconds for a bus. Sure beats those $2 crap bus rides in NYC.