I'm back from the retreat and can now look forward to at least a week of staying here in this city. Today we finally began to make measurable progress towards getting me into language study again. By this time next week things should really be rolling in the right direction. I'm glad-- I can tell that I've lost a significant amount of speaking ability over the past month, due to an unfortunate combination of no lessons and too much time with Americans.

But even more exciting than the progress on my language learning was the late-breaking news about music. I borrowed a guitar today, because I'm going to start practicing with another girl about once a week, and while picking up the guitar I was told that if I wanted I coud probably start taking some music lessons-- most likely classical guitar or 'ood (a tradition instrument closely related to the lute). If I wanted? And in addition to all this, I was told that someone will very soon be loaning me an accordion for as long as I will want it. Good news for me, though maybe not so much for my neighbors.