Week at Flunez finished!

So I've finished up a pretty awesome week with Fluenz. To summarize, solid teachings, slides, meals, and activities sprinkled throughout the week. Included was a reservation at Pujol (top restaurant in Mexico located in Polanco where we were staying and was in walking distance). As some of you may know, I'm a little obsessed with food, especially when I'm travelling, was Pujol the top restaurant I've eaten at... no, but was still a very cool experience. The place was packed and it can take weeks to months to get reservations.

A few highlights, two kinds of Mole featured below, I've seen this picture a lot on websites and suspect this is one of their signature dishes and likely to be around for a while. This was accompanied with some tortillas. 

I didn't really feel much could be gained with posting every item, but most were quite delicious! It was accompanied by 3 wines that were from Baja California and all were REALLY good (I don't say this about a lot of wine).

I did wanna bring up one of the dessert featured below which was a pastry with Tonka bean, which I randomly had discussed with the group the day before, illegal in the US but not in Canada (at VERY high doses - contains Coumarin - rat poison). I agreed to send some beans to Linda if she requested... I think they'd get through the border.

Below was the crew for the night, on the right is instructor/coordinator Fabiola (aqui falta Jennifer que estaba enferma).

Below is a pic that gives the vibe of Polanco, mansions everywhere, bushes carefully cut.

The Thursday night we had a private tour in the evening of the National Anthropologic museum which was massive and really beautiful, most of my classmates where SO excited about this.

Final summary pic, we had an assignment to talk 1.5 min in anything we wanted to in Spanish. I went over my journey when I started in 2019 after the Gorgas Course and how it seemed like most people spoke Spanish. And also when I had tried to see a menu, but because I didn't stress the "u" (menú), they had no idea what I wanted. 

So, what do I think of Fluenz? Worth the hefty price? Well I think part of this depends on where you are in your life and with your Spanish. The advantage of Fluenz over tons of other schools (I've probably been to over 20 and worked with so many teachers), is that they very much individualize the learning for the student and continue to adapt and monitor things before and after each class. I just don't know where else you can find that attention!

However, personally I think you can find a solid teacher via something like italki (always go with one of  most expensive teachers you can find first). After learning most of the basics by so many other methods and you are at least B2, fluenz may be a great way to consolidate things - this what I found which it REALLY did.

I did learn that I just about completed the most advanced class they had but was told that they have a team of linguists who continually work on new slides/topics for the students. I could see myself doing this yearly for a Spanish tune up and great opportunity to visit a new country/city as well as meeting a really solid group of interesting people.

So where do I go from here? I am setting up shop in Mexico city to start my salsa journey and take more Spanish classes (but just 2 hours a day). I'll likely be here for another 3 weeks.