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Donna & Neils Travels
So, after our boat trip we were back in Ushuaia and decided to book onto a Spanish course. We went for 20hr week intensive course and boy was it just that, we even had to do homework, which is something we hadn't done since our college/university days.
We also decided to book into the B&B that was associated with the school so that we might be able to practice with the other students. The guy who owned the B&B picked us up on the Sunday night and he started speaking Spanish straight away so we were a bit lost. Then he told us (in English this time) that we had to speak Spanish in his house and that English was not allowed. It turned out that this was bulls*** as everyone spoke english, especially when his back was turned. His name was Esquell and tried his best to help you but when you tried to ask him something simple in your broken Spanish (like how are you) you got a 3 hour lecture on how to pronounce it properly and the ins and outs of Spanish Grammar, so in the end you gave up speaking to him and dismissed him as a bit of a twat, only kidding he was really nice actually.
Being in the B&B for 5 days we got to know lots of people who were staying there as well, especially a Belgian called Michelle who had decided to learn Spanish in South America and was staying in Ushuaia for 4 weeks taking Spanish lessons and then moving on to another destination to take more Spanish lessons, now thats what you call commitment. He was a really fun guy though and had a brilliant relaxed outlook to life.
As I mentioned, the Spanish was very intense but we had a great teacher, Ana, and we got to practice a lot in class. There were only 3 of us and according to Donna I was the teachers pet, as she always asked me to go first. But this backfired on Donna when she mentioned it to Ana, as Ana then started to pick on her to be first. It was great fun and we had a lot of laughs, usually at our expense. The third person was a Dutch woman called Lissette, and she was just as bad as us, but like us had the ability to laugh at herself and not take things too seriously. Now we can ask for things in sort of proper sentences but we still get lost when they speak too fast.
It wasn't all school work though, we got to see some more of Ushuaia, including a trek up to the Glacier, at the rear of the city, which had some beautiful views over Ushuaia and the Beagle Channel. Also, we went on a tour to see 2 lakes about 30km from Ushuaia, again fantastic views.
We really enjoyed being based somewhere for a while, not having to worry about waiting to get the next bus and being able to unpack our rucksacks. It was also great to walk around the town and bump into people we had met in previous days, some of whom had really interesting stories to tell. One in particular was an American, called Mike, who had travelled from Colorado across to Canada and up to Alaska on his motorobike and then decided to do the rest of the journey back down to Colorado, through to central and south America, finally ended up in Ushuaia, on the same bike (Only having 2 punctures and a piston ring break on the whole journey).
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