Primer Día de Clase (day 3 of 27)

First Day of School - September 3 
I reported to the Spanish school at 9AM sharp. The building and garden are immaculately cared for. Certainly, this is a very hospitable environment for learning. The office staff  gave me a warm friendly welcome, every word in Spanish. I expected to meet lots of students and make friends. But, there were 3 students today, including myself. Apparently, this is quiet season.

Maestra Carolina and I, overlooking the garden.

Placement Test - La Prueba
I think I have become accustomed to the super-intense nature of Silicon Valley work culture. Because, for me the funnest part of the first day of classes was the written/oral placement test, prueba, to assess my skill level. Gloria, la maestra, administered the test completely in Spanish. According to her, I did muy bien, advanced level compared to their average student attendee. [Thanks to Profe Lemon, Spanish professor at Ohlone College]. Below shows final question #17 of the 3-page written test, asking for a short written paragraph. Translated to English, it says:

17) Yesterday you were a witness of an accident. Describe it. 

I thought to myself - what a unusual prompt! and I responded in kind. My four line response, translated to English:

Yesterday, I saw (vi) a horrible accident. 

A car and a truck collided (chocaron) at the traffic light (semaforo) on 

the main street (calle). There were customers (clientes), who were sitting outside of the cafe. The car injured (herió) a customer.

• Chocar is the Spanish verb meaning to collide. It is an onomatopoeia - a word that sounds like what it means. 
• Semaforo is the Spanish noun for traffic light. For EECS readers - recall the word semaphore used for arbitration, as in the traffic light problem. 

Barbed Wire and Glass Slivers

After school, I walked to my homestay house. It is a very pleasant 20 minute walk that provides perspiring exercise. I saw an attractive yet unwelcoming house. Attractive because of the house and the protective wall have matching brick-and-plaster siding. Unwelcoming because of the densely-spaced and knife-size glass slivers installed above the black metal gate, and along the top of the wall. 

The glass slivers appear to be made from broken bottles

I think this property is [near] impenetrable, because there also is chain-link fencing mounted above the brick wall, and barbed wire along the top of that!

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