Cuenca Updates: Monday-Tuesday April 9-10, 2012

Monday Apr 9/12 update

Today was our first day of Spanish class. Bella wants afternoon classes because she isn’t a morning person. I will switch to the morning class next week as it helps the teacher even out her numbers and I prefer to have my afternoon free to get things done. The class was not supposed to be for beginners but we did not feel out of place at all, even though everyone else has some sort of previous Spanish exposure (one lady even lived in Spain). The class is called Street Spanish and it will give us a working knowledge of Spanish terms to use in most situations. Today we started with “restaurant” terms and basic requests. It is amazing how close, and yet so far, that Spanish is to French, even in the conjugations.

Across the street they have boarded off the entire Parque De La Madre for complete renovations of the walking track and paths. Today they seemed to be mostly trimming trees and I could see they were going to cut down a huge dead tree and I wanted to capture that in a movie but the class interfered.

We then went grocery shopping, had supper, and sat down to try to watch Dancing With The Stars on the computer. We supposedly have a live streaming feed from a Florida station but it is like watching a herky-jerky bad YouTube video, not fun at all to watch so we may try to watch a different version tomorrow.

That was today’s excitement. Hugs to all.

Tuesday Apr 10/12 update

Bella had an appointment again today with the massage therapist that conflicted with her book exchange times, so I went in her stead. I had my book to change as well as 2 DVD’s. Greg and Leona were there so we chatted a little.

The book exchange is owned by a couple that hoped to use this purchase as their basis for residency. Due to that legal cheating with the two price system (actual purchase price vs price shown to Government for tax purposes) the tax price wasn’t enough so they ended up buying a house as well. They hoped to open a small restaurant in this location at the top of the stairway between Parque De La Madre and El Centro, right on Calle Larga. However, until they got their residency squared away no permits were given, yet.

Bella’s second appointment with this masseuse wasn’t any better than the first one so she has not booked any more appointments.

Since I was downtown again, have camera – will travel. I wandered over to Parque Calderon but there was nothing unusual happening so I decided to head west about 6 blocks to the San Sebastian Square that is so darn pretty. Some of the shops are long and narrow, with barely enough room to change your mind, and most access into the huge courtyards in the center of each downtown block (where you often have parking lots). I found the Iglesia Del Cenaculo church open on the way, so I peeked in too and loved the interior. You know I like church bells, right?

It is also no secret that I adore palm trees and San Sebastian has one of the tallest in the city in its gorgeous park. There was this young man doing a sketch on the steps and he was quite talented. I was fortunate that the waters in the fountain were still so I was able to get some nice reflection shots of the beautiful church.

On the south side of this park is the Museum of Modern (read Weird) Art. The price of admission is a donation and I wandered happily through it. In one of its central courtyards I could hear the hummingbirds chirping and one did tease me above a tree for 2 seconds, but they stayed away, even though I waited a good ½ hour to try to capture one on film.

They have a nice little auditorium with a balcony that has some really impressive art, including 3, 12 foot high, scroll-type artworks of charcoal on paper. They look quite old. A couple of frescoes in there were impressive too.

Walking back I spotted an interesting little computer shop and was delighted to find a fancy keyboard like I have at home for $13 that has extra keys on the left for things like Windows, Excel, Page Up, Page Down, Cut, Copy, Paste, and Undo and Re-Do. I sure missed having that easy access to copy and paste. It also has a ton of shortcut keys across the top, plus some movie and sound navigation keys. I am a happy camper.

Bella is also watching the individual dances from last night’s DWTS on a YouTube feed.

My sister Leonie has reported that our stepdad Lucien’s funeral went very well and we are thankful that he had a good send-off.

Enjoy the many pics today. That was today’s excitement. Hugs to all.