Another week passed!

Time is flying by, and I arrived this week to find the Christmas decorations all up in the coffee area! Can't completely escape.

Am continuing on same grammar theme but seem to be gradually embedding it. If I get it wrong, Jose, my teacher this week,  just stops me so I can rephrase. I discover this week that one form of ' I will come' as of come to supper, actually means I won't come, so have to listen so carefully to how things are said. Also I have been helped to say things in the correct way, so they are courteous, so I don't sound like a gringo! I noticed in the ICT suite that the exercises I am doing are advanced so that's reassuring.

I have also been able to ask for clarification of things I hear in everyday interactions, which is very helpful, and I have now used the telephone. On Sunday I have to call a taxi, well there are really only two outcomes! One morning we sat in the coffee area and looked at my creativity blog. Jose was very interested after I gave him a little pack of postcards of my embroideries. His wife is doing a painting course.

Sometimes we watch the wildlife from the window, and this week we saw a pair of toucans, various other birds, butterflies and a squirrel that has been very active all week.

There have been three more students this week but apparently only me next week. I have been asked to swap to the afternoon as they have a group of teenagers in the mornings. It's fine for me as I can still do the activities and often the weather is better in the morning.

The weather has generally been ok with some lovely sunny days but this afternoon as I returned from shopping it began to rain and currently is torrential. I had thought to go out for supper but will pass on that unless it improves. 

I had a lovely walk earlier in the week, through some attractive countryside, looking  for the a Jaguar gallery.

I made friends with another dog, which unfortunately couldn't speak English or Spanish  so I just kept walking til I found my destination. 

The paintings weren't really my thing, so was pleased to escape when some other visitors arrived. I passed another finca called Guindon Farm, which is the home of one of the original Quakers. There was a sign about partnerships to protect the panthers. Apparently there are a number of large cats in the forest; Jose said the forest is so large that they are far away from the small part where the tourists enter.

That's just as well as I went on a night walk on Wednesday, where there are apparently pumas. At one point two of us heard what we thought was a growl but it turned out to be a distant motorbike! However we did see a blue legged tarantula, and various other spiders, one of which hangs from a tree looking like a stick as it folds itself up. It throws out a web and captures its prey like a net! Last night I decided to look up a bit more information, then had to get out of bed and check all the corners of the room and under the bed as I realised I had left the screen open a couple of times. Some are very scary, but I think they are happier in the forest.

This one has the very uninteresting name of forest spider! But spends two hours every night weaving its web.

We also saw a Palm pit viper, one if the most venomous snakes, which fortunately was at a distance and high in the tree! Overall it wasn't a bad evening once they remembered to pick me up- I had waited an hour, and when I arrived army ants crawled over my shoe and up my trousers. They give a nasty nip!

Otherwise I have been to a film, the cookery class, yoga and today went to the farmers' market to get fruit and veg, which I carried back in my rucksack with the fileta de basa (no prize for guessing what that is) and my small bottle of casa de diablo, for the weekend! 

I then had a visit from one of the maintenance men to fix the phone as it didn't ring yesterday. They work so hard, cleaning, mending and painting. Apparently everything needs painting annually because of he humidity. This week a new plant arrived on the stairway,  but it is rather large for the space and not quite in the middle which upsets my sense of order!! It annoys me every time I come up the staircase now.