COINED is a language school with branches across Central and South America. I was happy to see when I arrived that the school was in a beautiful and traditional building, with gorgeous wood floors and architecture (it's not actually the building in the picture, but you get the idea...). There's something about studying in a pretty environment that makes the brain gymnastics a little easier.



I have two teachers, both named Cecilia (that creates a little confusion when they have a difference of opinion about some grammatical rule: "But Cecilia told me this." "I don't remember saying that!" "No, the OTHER Cecilia."). They are both incredibly sweet, and great teachers. In the mornings I have 4 hours of class with two other students, Dagmar from Germany and Charlotte from South Carolina. They're both younger (~20 years old), but very nice and enthusiastic. In the afternoons, I head to a two or three hour private lesson, where I usually spend at least half the time talking in Spanish and the other half the time listening. It's very interesting to try to have a conversation in a language that you've only been studying for about 15 hours, and say anything meaningful. My instructor is very good at reading between the lines...

This is a picture of another instructor who is legendary for her dry erase artistic expertise. She filled up the whole board with marker animals!