Completion of her first year!

Fran at Hierve de Agua yesterday with a friend

Last Friday Fran finished her first year at school!  As you may know (if you are a Facebook friend) the year was complicated by problems the whole class experienced with not one, but two professors, which lowered everyone's GPA.  One professor simply stopped showing up less than half way into the class.  They made the students make up the hours, but everyone was given the grade that they had at the time he disappeared ... no exams.  The other professor, well, it's an extreme version of a common story.  He was ready to retire and simply didn't care -- never explained anything.  So everyone in the class flunked his final exam.  When he gave it again, only half passed.  The highest grade was 80, Fran and her study mates got 78/79.  This professor (just for a little comic relief) also had some serious gastro-intestinal problems which caused him to release great amounts of gas into the classroom, which the students did their best to ignore.

Nevertheless, it was a good year, because lessons are not just learned in the classroom.  Fran learned a few important ones, and will be making adjustments this next year.

She has a little more than a month off.  We thought long and hard about whether she should look for employment during this short period, but decided that it was more important for her to triple up on English lessons.  So she is studying a couple of hours with me every day, and an hour in the gringo library with Jae.  She is also going to apply to be an intercambio at the ICO (Instituto Cultural Oaxaca) an hour per day, and has put up announcements that she is available as an intercambio for the Northamericanos who are beginning to arrive for Guelaguetza and beyond.  Her enthusiasm is strong, so I think she will make good progress in this short period of time.  She seems to be overcoming her shyness about speaking her 3rd language (Spanish, Cuicateco, English).

At some point in the next couple of years she will have to take an official course in English and pass a test in order to get her degree, but it is great that she is building up her skills to make that process more worthwhile.  If we can get it together (at that point) to pay a little extra and let her take a quality course, I think it would be "vale la pena" -- well worth it.  English classes in Oaxaca tend to be pretty bad, and there are only a few good places.

Fran and I are enjoying having more time together, and it is so good to see her around more.  She helps me a lot, and we have been talking more about life and its demands.  I do look forward to the breakthrough moment when she actually starts communicating with me spontaneously in English.  Meanwhile, I continue babbling my mediocre but adequate Spanish at her, and she seems to understand!

We both thank you for your continuing support and hold you close to our hearts.  She keeps blooming and learning!  Thanks to you!