My new camera finally arrived! I'm anxious to try it out, but the weather and a really busy schedule this week are working against me. Maybe I'll have some pictures to post after this weekend :)

Slacker

I have become very lazy about my Spanish review, relying on podcasts intended to teach conversational Spanish instead of working my way through my old textbooks and really hitting the grammar hard. I hereby vow to do better!

El Niño?

Weather experts predict there will be lots of named storms this year. I hope they are destined for Florida, not the Yucatan!

Progress

I made my airline reservations tonight! I am booked on the same flights as our group leader, Sr. Pérez.

The fitness program is off to a good start. I lifted 9,000 pounds during my orientation on Saturday and 14,000 yesterday. That's a total of two elephants already - not bad for having been away from the gym for so long! Today I'm feeling muscles I forgot I had in the back of my upper arms (triceps?) but I'm looking forward to doing it all over again tomorrow. I'm planning to lift three days a week, giving the muscles a day to heal between sessions. I also did a tiny bit of cardio (less than 30 minutes on the treadmill).

Would you trust this bag?

I've wanted a Panasonic Lumix camera for the last couple years, and this trip has inspired me to finally buy it (anything for better blogging, of course). In the past I held off because I always believed that you should buy digital cameras from the companies that have been putting out quality camera equipment for generations (e.g., Pentax), but in the interim many of my friends have become Lumix owners and they all seem very happy. (How can you go wrong with a Leica lens, after all?) I'm getting the DMC-ZS5 12.1 MP model, with 12x optical image. Now I am having anxiety about taking it near the water; it wouldn't be the first time I've put a camera in the drink (or put a drink in a camera, for that matter)! I think this case might be the answer. It's very inexpensive, but has received rave reviews from users and has a guarantee that covers the contents if it fails due to manufacturing defect. The style pictured has an acrylic lens cover, which should result in better underwater pics than an all-vinyl bag. You can see their whole product line at http://www.aquapac.net/usstore/aquapac-us-store-1-0.html They have cases for cell phones, gps, mp3 players....just about anything you could want to take to the beach or out kayaking.

Happy Easter!

It was a cold, rainy, lazy day here. I hope all my friends and relatives had a wonderful holiday!

Hunting elephants and swimsuits

Today I took another giant step in preparing for the trip - I signed up at the gym after a three-year absence! I want to make sure that I am ready to climb pyramids and snorkel with the teens and 20-somethings. I only have two months to prepare, but I think I can fit a lot of cardio conditioning and weight-lifting (my favorite gym activity) into that time. I adore the Fitlinxx system at our gym. I get a real kick out of logging onto their internet site to watch my stats increase and see how many elephants and Volkswagen bugs I've lifted :D

And of course I haven't forgotten the absolute MOST important preparation for the trip. I began the hunt for the perfect bathing suit today! I hope two months is long enough to complete the quest, lol. Two or three years ago I toyed with the idea of getting a custom-made bathing suit from Zena but decided against it. The company is still in business and I was able to find the link again (http://www.zenaswimwear.com/index.htm), so I am taking that as a sign that I should follow through on the idea. What a luxury - a swimsuit that actually fits! There are almost limitless choices of style and color, though, which will surely slow the process down. Decisions, decisions...I hope I can make one in time to get delivery before the trip! For snorkeling excursions I'm thinking about getting SPF50 shirts and shorts or cropped pants from Coolibar (http://www.coolibar.com/women-s-swimwear.html). I just came across them while surfing today and am so happy I found them; it will be a relief not to have to cover all this cuerpo with suntan lotion every single time I'm in the water.

Speaking of snorkeling......I have never actually done it. I am expecting the worst part will be the risk of having my picture taken in a bathing suit and being seen in public with wet hair. Somebody tell me I'm not wrong, please?

Committed!

It's really happening; I filed the medical and liability waivers with the school on Tuesday, and gave them a deposit on the trip. No chickening out! Of course before I signed on the dotted line I got assurance that I could get a private room with a bath and a/c. I just can't adapt to the idea of living with a family of strangers or having a roommate other than my husband at this point in my life. I'm sure that the accommodations in the residencia (apparently a converted small hotel) will be very basic, but it's all part of the adventure, ¿no?

I actually began my preparations long before filling out the forms. About a month ago, while I was still sitting on the fence, I started reviewing. My last Spanish course ended almost a year ago and I have the retention span of a gnat with ADD! Because I've been working on my own, I've been relying heavily on web resources and would like to share them here for anybody who is interested in learning Spanish without benefit of formal classes. All free, and available in the comfort of your own living room:

studyspanish.com - This website was highly recommended by my first Spanish instructor, Catalina Lemos. Work your way through pronunciation, grammar, and verb drills by selecting the lesson topics in the menu bar on the left, and you will be able to complete a basic conversational Spanish course in your jammies. There is no need to sign up for the paid portions of the course; just read the lesson on each topic, take the basic quiz and the oral quiz, and do the verb drills.

spanishdict.com - Another great site, especially for quick reference. The translation feature ties into three different internet translators, so you have three times the chance of getting a translation that actually makes sense. The dictionary has sound, so you can hear the proper pronunciation of almost any word you input. Best of all, spanishdict.com offeres a free iPhone application - no more lugging your Spanish-American dictionary along when you travel!

radiolingua.com - I've downloaded many, many podcasts from Radio Lingua to my computer and my iPhone. The basic Spanish offering is "Coffee Break Spanish," which is a series of 15-20 minute lessons taught by a dude with a Scottish accent - kind of a shocker when you first hear him, lol! The only shortcoming of the Radio Linqua programs (for me) is that the instructors use the pronunciation and verb forms of Spain, rather than Mexico. They do point out the differences as they go along, however. A listing of all the Coffee Break Spanish podcasts can be found here:

http://radiolingua.com/2009/08/introducing-coffee-break-spanish-step-by-step/http://radiolingua.com/2009/08/introducing-coffee-break-spanish-step-by-step/

Their more advanced offering, "Show Time Spanish," is also available at radiolingua.com, and both series can be downloaded for free from the iTunes Store.

The origins of my adventure

Three years ago, when my husband Tom and I first started thinking about spending winters in Mexico after his retirement, I decided to try to learn to speak Spanish. Thanks to a good foundation in English and having actually studied Latin in high school, the vocabulary and grammar of Spanish came easily to me. Three years and 26 credit hours of Spanish courses later, however, I have yet to master spoken Spanish. In a month or so I will receive an Associate of Arts degree in the language, but I might as well be mute when it comes to actually speaking Spanish aloud.

¿Qué hacer?

Immersion! I will begin a month of instruction at the Soléxico Language and Cultural Center in Playa del Carmen, QR, México, on June 6, 2010. The trip is Tom's ChristmabirthaValeversary present to me. Okay, he might also have an ulterior motive in sending me away for this month at the beach (I think the idea of having his own private interpreter appeals to him) but I'm okay with that :D.

I plan to use this blog to record my preparations for the trip and my adventures in the Yucatan Peninsula, as well as to gauge the improvement in my written Spanish. I hope to be able to post bilingually and roll my r's like Charo by the time I leave Mexico on July 6, after four weeks of inmersión in Mexican culture and the clear blue waters of the Caribbean. Wish me buena suerte, por favor...