primer día de clases.

first day of classes. it was alright, but i think it´s gonna be very hard at first to adjust to all classes in a different language. it´s crazy cuz it´s stuff at the level that i would be learning it in english! i am taking a class about short stories and we are learning about the construction of short stories - i swear my english class at home was on an easier subject matter! however, i cannot be discouraged by the fact that i sound like a big dork when i speak spanish.

my friends and i were talking today about how we would sound to spanish-speaking folks. something like this:

heeee-loo, uuuuuumm, i...(pause for about 10 seconds) ate deeener uuuuuuuuuum with my family last night. The foody .....(another awkward pause)...... was pretty! No, no. I dont´know. I mean... (pause)........ tasty!

That´s seriously what we would sound like I think. With really awkward facial expressions and hand gestures. Basically, like complete dorks. I´m pretty sure my family here makes fun of me behind my back (not in a malicious way, but in a ¨wow, she´s got a lot to learn, that silly little american¨ way).

lunch at the dining hall was pretty good today. they have this wonderful yogurt here and delicious fresh bread with every meal. however, i also had very salty broccoli and potatoes that were all yellow. and rice covered with a sauce that vaguely reminded me of that which would cover spaghetti-o´s. anyway, i´m getting by, and that´s all that matters.

at my house, on the other hand, my spanish mom is like a freakin professional chef. yesterday, for lunch, she made an entire chicken that was cooked with a lemon in it, we had slices of ham (raw, it´s some kind of delicacy over here... and they claim that it´s really good for you, though i can´t imagine how cuz you can see the fat marbled throughout the entire thing), and soup, and tons of stuff. And she made me pasta with tomato sauce for dinner... very nice of her considering that they hardly ever eat pasta over here. she is trying very hard to make things that i like, and i was in heaven. if i wasn´t bursting at the seams, i would have finished the entire pan!

anyhow, i am going to check out the gym pretty soon... the rock climbing wall, weight room, and other various activities that are similar to those at ping.

i feel discouraged. although before i was saying how it´s funny how ridiculous i sound when i talk, it is really quite sad. i have not seen any improvement in my spanish since i arrived, and i think i have even gotten worse. when i type in english like this it kinda defeats the purpose. i start thinking in english again, which messes me up when i try to go back to spanish. a friend in the program who was also here last quarter said it takes about a month to fully understand everything. but i just dont´see it happening because even when i read things for classes, there are a good amount of words that i don´t understand. words like ¨to get dark¨or äppear¨ or many words that i would not ever even use in english. i just don´t see how it can happen, but every day is a constant battle with embarrassment and frustration. i try to take it lightly. it´s not a big deal. but it kinda is... my life lacks the normalcy. i try to walk down the streets silently most of the time because if i dont´talk, i can blend in (thank goodness i´m moreno! (brown hair and eyes)) Everywhere we go, even when my friends and i speak spanish, people stare at us. We are really aliens. a bunch of my program-mates have blond hair, and at night, many boys shout out rubios! (blonds!) it´s a sensation over... blond girls are very different. my friend larissa and i joke that we are going to make a moreno only club so we won´t get shouted at in the streets. whatever, i know i will feel better when i speak better spanish.

let´s try more photos.

another picture of the castles in olite

me with larissa and kristen

the really cool bunk beds in our madrid hotel

we love bus rides! i´m posing with a fish face cuz we just ate that crazy paella.

more buildings on the way into pamplona.

ok, enough for now! time for workout!