There are a lot of Spanish schools in San Miguel de Allende, and I visited 5 of them and sat in on 4 classes before deciding which school to enroll in. The one I picked, the Academia Hispano Americana, seemed to be the most "serious" of them all. The other schools had classes in 3 levels -- beginner, intermediate, and advanced, whereas the Academia has 6 levels. The other schools are also a lot more flexible -- you can mostly join the classes anytime, you can take any number of hours per day, and the classes seem to focus mostly on conversation. However, the Academia only allows new students at the beginning of the month, you have to attend for at least 3 hours a day, and they spend a lot of time on grammar.
I can see why some people would like the flexibility of the other schools, but I decided that it was time for me to be more serious about learning Spanish. I've been trying to learn since I was in college, more than 20 years ago, and I'm still nowhere near fluent. I've taken umpteen conversation classes, and I think I do pretty well at talking to people, but I'm sure I'm saying everything incorrectly. So, a heavy duty focus on grammar is in order.
After several days of testing and experimenting, I am in the Level 5 class, which concentrates on the subjunctive tense. If you've ever studied Spanish, you know how confusing it is, since it's a tense that's rarely used in English. I think I'm getting the hang of it, but I'm glad I've got a month to work on it.
If you've gotten this far, I'm sure you'd like to see a photo. This is the Parroquia, a famous and oft-photographed church in the center of town. Like everyone else who has ever passed through this city, I felt obligated to take a picture of it:
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