Pre-Staging Information

Just a quick correction. In a previous post, I had mentioned that our group will be the 9th to visit México (México 09). I found out some more information, and it turns out that we are the 7th CONACYT and 4th SEMARNAT group, so they are calling us the 7th Omnibus group. There used to be two groups of volunteers who left for México every year (around March and September), with the groups somehow divided between CONACYT and SEMARNAT. Now it is just one group leaving in March, hence the mixed numbering.

We have been receiving more information about Staging next week, as well as an information dump regarding the first couple days of Pre-Service Training (PST) in México. It looks like all of next week will be some form of orientation, both in DC and in Querétaro, México, where our three months of language, cultural, and technical training will take place. We meet with the PC México staff and our host families towards the end of next week. It looks like we will be pretty well taken care of for awhile. PC staff will be with us in DC, and they will also meet us at the airport in México City post-Customs.

I should have Internet access either at the training center or at an Internet cafe in town once I get to Querétaro, though I am not sure that I will have much free time to get online. I will definitely try to make some time.

Spanish Placement Test

We received an e-mail yesterday with a written Spanish placement test attached. The entire test was in Spanish, except for a single English instruction "do not use dictionaries, buddies, etc." I'm thankful that I took the class at Instituto Cervantes and have used Rosetta Stone, but it was pretty obvious that I should be in a novice group. I completed about a third of the test and suddenly didn't recognize any of the words. Plus, it looked like they wanted me to conjugate verbs in non-present tense...which, I don't know how to do. Overall, it took me over an hour to complete what I could. They will use this test (plus a phone interview, if needed) to put us into competency groups so that we all learn at the same pace. I don't think I'll be getting a callback for that oral interview.