Jessica Alba is not too bright...

I´ve just concluded my 4th day in the language school here and have decided to write a few lines before I´ll start the long walk on the beach back to my ¨"dorm room".

The school here is literally 20 meters (about 20 yards for you Americans) from the beach, located just outside the city of Playa Flamingo - if you want to call it a city.

It really only consists of a few resorts and dive shops, a single super market, a pharmacy that carries only the medications and supplies for tourists, and a few restaurants with menus aimed at the American customer. And 5 real estate offices - an industry that seems to be booming here. Interestingly all prices - from the menus in restaurants to the displays in real estate offices - are in US dollars, and are only converted to Colones on the final bill. Even the ATM offers a choice between colones and US dollars when you withdraw money.

Every day I have 4 hours of Spanish, from 8am to noon. I was supposed to have private lessons, but since they seem to be running above capacity at the moment, I decided to join an intermediate group for the first week and am now learning together with 2 ladies. Since none of us speaks much Spanish, it´s often quite entertaining what we cook up when trying to tell our stories in Spanish.

Unfortunately school at 8am means getting up at 6:30 just to catch the bus (or ride the bike) to school in time. The majority of the students are staying in a small Bed&Breakfast about 3km outside Playa Flamingo right at the beach. If you weren´t lucky enough to show up here with a spouse or friend, you get a roommate for the duration of your stay - in my case Ken, a lighting operator for the movie and film industy in his mid-40s who fled Vancouver for a month. He´s been working in the industry for a few decades now, and just finished shooting X-men 3 before he got down here. Since I am a movie nut as well we´ve had countless of conversations about movies already - after all he worked on movies ranging from ¨"The 13th Warrior" to "Best in Show" and other gems like¨"Dark Angel". He has robbed me of many illusions about actors and actresses and enlightened me on others. Jessica Alba - albeit cute - is apparently not too bright, Neve Campbell is as much of a sweet heart as she comes across in movies, and Christopher Guest really makes his movies up as he goes along.

Pictures as soon as I find an internet connection that isn´t on dial-up and can accomodate the upload. Not that easy here.

All pictures will be stored on my site at http://markpet.smugmug.com