Meet the Señoritas of Fall 2011

We are already two weeks into the semester. The señoritas are settled into their living arrangements with 6 of 9 living with families in the neighborhood while 3 are living in the Central House. We have students in beginning, intermediate and advanced Spanish classes.

Four are taking a humanities class at one of our affiliated universities. While they are taking the same class, they are all in different sections. Their collective reaction? "I promise to always, always, always talk to the new student especially if he or she is from another country. I have never felt like such an outsider." By the end of the evening, however, the natural warmth of the Yucatecans kicked in, and they all returned home with nicknames, Facebook links and cell numbers.

All nine are involved in some kind of community based learning project, too. We used to call this volunteer work but no longer. Several are teaching English to adults while others are helping young children at a nearby orphanage with their homework in Spanish. Two of the young women are involved in a domestic violence education and advocacy program. One is working at an animal shelter. (I thought I was going to throw up when I took her to the site, but I made it through the tour. The student, on the other hand, is thrilled. I practically made her sign an oath that no strays will find their way to the Central House.) One student is working with pre-school children and another is giving piano lessons at an after-school arts program.

Half the group have already made friends and are going out regularly while the other half are much more reserved. In some groups, the partyers vs non-partyers sometimes devolves into a mess, but this group seems to have a "live and let live" attitude...for now at least. We will see what happens.