and "espanol habló aquí". (Spanish spoken here).
They were't kidding! The teachers were all warm and encouraging ( here is Ernesto giving me personal grammar instruction)
and except for the Monday morning orientation, Spanish was used by the teachers for instruction ( all instructors are native Spanish speakers who were able to revert to English if necessary, but didn't always know our words) and English was gently discouraged for the students.
I was given a verbal placement test with one of the teachers first thing, and was grouped with two other gals for the week. Michaela is from Brisbane, Aus., recently graduated from college, planning to be a lawyer and is in her third of four weeks of class during a six month travel adventure.
Joanna is from New York City, in her first week of class, but has been to Tulum many times in the past and has recently purchased a condo unit here in a local complex with her spouse. We got to know each other through the process of Spanish instruction with our assigned teachers - here is conversation class leader Daniella with Micheala.
We worked with Daniella the third hour each morning using question/answer conversation on ever changing topics ( where we are from, family, travel, movies, etc).
We started each day with two hours of grammar instruction with Mauricio,
a muy guapo young hombre from Mexico City who now lives in Tulum. He is an art teacher and works as an artist in local theatre. In addition to creating interesting white board lesson drawings as a Spanish teacher with Meztli.
he offered up lots of history and culture info, most of which we could understand.
In addition to the morning three hours, I opted in to an additional one hour per day of private instruction. Lily was super patient, and a good teacher.
Using only Spanish she listened to my story, understood what I was hoping to accomplish and in four days I feel like I am better able to form more complete sentences at my ever improving beginner level. On the fifth day I worked with Sara, the school owner/administrator. I came away from that session knowing that the teachers have good communication with each other to help us at our level, and confident that I am progressing to the higher beginner level of Spanish comprehension.and communication.
This is the first ever Spanish instruction I have paid for and feel it was well worth the money AND the time. The class time was perfect "excepto fue mucho calor" (except it was very hot) - even with the shade and a good breeze blowing much of the time. (Tulum is on the Carribean coast in what is known as the Mayan Riviera.).
In addition to the classroom instruction, there were optional opportunities to learn through social activities each day.
Every morning there was yoga before classes started. I'm getting pretty good at following the Spanish instructions ( no Argentinian accent here like the yoga class in Cancun, and every so often the instructor would follow up with the English version when she could see we were not making the right move). After four straight mornings, my yoga related vocabulary grew to include body parts, directions and yoga positions ( Perro Bajo is downward dog, Position Niño is child's pose)
Each day after independent siesta hours, we were invited to return to school for a different activity:
Day 1 Cultural: we learned about Dia de los Muertos - the three day celebration Oct 31-Nov 2 centered around remembering and celebrating family and friends who are no longer with us here on earth ( perfect for me!) through lesson ( I wouldn't call it lecture because it was casual and entertaining) and art - we fashioned skulls out of clay.
Day 2 Vocabulary building: we played the game "name something that starts with the letter "?" supplying Spanish words in five categories: people's names, countries/cities, animals, Fruit/veggies, and things.
Day 3 Salsa Dancing: see my last post dated June 2
Day 4 cooking: Each student was asked to bring an ingredient. I pulled "3 paquetes de tostada grande" and bought them from two different small convenience stores ( there are dozens of these small stores all over town, and I went to several nearby for the shopping experience and learned that not all convenience stores carry tostadas.
We learned how to cook poblano chilies directly on a gas stove,
peel them and stew them in a large pot recipe with cream and a LOT of cheese.
We all agreed the dish was absolutely delicious when eaten on soft tortillas or my crunchy tostadas.
Nothing better than authentic Mexican cooking for dinner while getting to know the other learners. One dude, from Portland, OR is on a 12 month trip around the world with his girlfriend - taking a sabbatical from work. I think my 2 month tour of Quintana Roo, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico sounds good, too! Some are only here for the class for a week or ten days. 
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