When people would ask Paul and me before we moved what we would do all day once we retired and moved to Mexico, the first thing we always responded was that our job would be to learn Spanish.

Every day we work on it every chance we get. At the store. With our neighbors. When answering a misdialed call on the phone. When talking to our painter or our maid. When talking to waiters. When calling for something to be delivered. At the bank. We are frustrated a lot but it only serves to make us more determined to learn Spanish - and learn it as well as we can.

One of the tools we used up North turned out to be a good foundation for actually being able to communicate down here. These were the CD's we listened to by Michel Thomas. The teaching program is similar to the way we are being taught here in Mazatlan, and there is something wonderful about being able to build sentences you will actually use on the first day. Both Paul and I listened to them back and forth to work in the car and whenever we would drive anywhere together.

Our current teacher also uses translation drills as a major teaching tool. Sheet after sheet of English sentences to translate. New words are in small print in the margin so you continually build your vocabulary.

Anyway, I am making a leap this week, and I'm a little nervous and a lot excited about it. I am leaving my beginner class and joining Paul's...but he has been in class for five or six weeks...so I have a lot of work to do to feel okay about my skill level as it compares to his. I probably spent four hours at it this morning and need to spend most of the day tomorrow in order to feel ready for class Thursday. Can you tell I'm nervous?

I will probably be spending a lot of my time with my nose in my books, but progress really feels great! Wish me luck!

(by the way, if you want to see a video on learning Spanish that is really funny, visit Rosanna Hart's blog here)