I had contacted several spanish schools before arriving in SJDS and based on their responses we had decided on Nica Spanish School. Turns out they were located right across from the Casa Oro Hostal so we stopped by to say "hola" and make arrangements to meet our homestay family later that day. Our classes would start the following morning. Our family is a young couple with a one year old daughter. Jessica and Carlos just happened to be walking down the street while we were at the school, dressed in their Sunday best, heading to the celebration festivities. They made a quick detour and took us to their home, which actually was a little more like a small hotel with a common kitchen and outdoor kitchen area. At dinner we determined that this could be a little difficult for John as they spoke very little English, but they talked alot, spoke slowly and clearly, and repeated themselves often -- all good things when you are trying to learn a new language by immersion.
Ximena, their daughter, was absolutely adorable and the center of attention of course. For a one year old we were surprised at how steady she was walking around the patio which had an uneven surface. Jessica told us she was never fond of crawling and went right to walking. 
"Desayuno, Lisa, John, desayuno." Breakfast was served at 7:30 and either Jessica or Carlos would call us down. Classes started 8 am or whenever we arrived really as the classes were one-on-one, private instruction. We had planned on taking 2 weeks of classes here. John was studying with Fernando and his brother Christian was my maestro. Being back in school was a little draining - 4 hours of classes in the every morning. The seven simple tenses - presente, preterite, imperfect, futuro, conditional, imperative, participle present and past - then there are the compound tenses and subjunctive ... just learning the names of the tenses was a new chore. Many of these were refreshers for me. Conversation was my issue - putting a sentence together on the fly left me tongue tied. I really wish I had learned Spanish years ago. As for John he was just starting out with the basics.
For the next two weeks our weekdays were simple; class from 8 to noon, return to our casa for almuerzo with our familia, then study for a couple of hours, head to the Gato Negro Café (a very cool coffee shop/bookstore run by some ex-pats) for a afternoon caffeine pick-me-up and then back to studying. Dinner was served in the outdoor dining area - Jessica was a fantastic cook and we would share childhood stories, and talk about all sorts of things - in Spanish of course. Classes were good but for me the dinner conversation was the best and really helped me improve my conversational skills. We thank our lucky stars for our Nicaraguan familia - muchas gracias Jessica y Carlos y Ximena!
