Random thought: Today Isabel told me that she has never had a zit and her daughter hasn’t either, nor her mother or grandmother or niece or granddaughter. Ha. Spanish skin…. My skin has not assimilated well to the culture. The olive oil situation that supposably keeps these people healthy is not doinng it for me. Haha.
I have been getting kind of depressed about this whole semester abroad. It’s mean, let me come to a new country for 4 months and expect me to leave knowing the language and ready to go home. No. Not gunna happen. Everyday I realize how much of the language I DON’T know and how much I have left to learn. Everyday I realize how much I don’t want to grow up and have a real job and big responsibilities and how I just want to be a student forever. Everday I realize that my time here is decreasing and I wish that I could stay forever… okay maybe not forever but 4 months is NOT ENOUGH.
Anyways…
I am fully enjoying classes and being busy and planning for all my upcoming adventures. This weekend we shall go to Portugal. Planning this trip has been a pain but its really exciting. We have Monday off so Friday me and some friends will leave and spend the day and night in Lagos, the Southern coast with beautiful cliffs and clear water. Then we will drive North to the capitel, Lisbon and spend 2 nights there. I am excited, the hostels are booked and the car is reserved. Thankfully my Spanish friend is coming so he can navagate the way while I (maybe) study grammar and art…. That’s my plan.
It has been interesting living here and absorbing the culture and language together. So weird how much language affects people. I am such a nerd but I like to look into differences between English and Spanish and negotiate the difference in how people treat each other and interact through linguistics. For example, a cultural difference, there is no way to say “I wonder…”. In English we say this all the time. I wonder when John will get here. I wonder what time the movie starts. I wonder what’s for dinner. I have asked several people, native speakers, how to say this and they get confused wondering why I would want to say that. You cant say that phrase in Spanish because…. Well why would you wonder if you could just know. So instead of wondering they would just ask straight out. I don’t know if this makes sense because I realize im not explaining it well but I think its great. :- ) Hm… I wonder if you get it. Entiendes?
Last night was my first night of Solidarios. We spent the night going around to different areas that are filled with homeless people… I absolutely loved the time beforehand, hanging out with college kids from the Universidad de Sevilla. These people are awesome people and a lot of fun… and so patient with my Spanish skills. So I went out with 3 others to an area known as the Macarena. It was on this route talking to an older Spanish, homeless man that I had my most horrible moment of study abroad/living here so far. Thankfully my companeros were very cheerful about the whole thing and made jokes the whole time after about how horrible this man was to me. He treated me like an idiot and totally embarrassed the crap out of me. I think I was being a little sensitive and I don’t understand why I was so bothered but now I officially have inside jokes to laugh about with my new friends. I am having a hard time understanding this service learning experience though, just hanging out with homeless people seems a little pointless in the long run but I think the relationships I am building with the university students is sooo worth it. It’s not that I don’t want to “help homeless people” its just that my practical mindset is feeling a little perterbed at the lack of progress that this “service” yields. And my brain is exhausted after a full day of classes, intercambio, homework and solidarios.
I might be getting a job teaching English/tutoring while I am here, I replied to an ad in the school so we will see what happens with that…
And that’s all for now.
Besitos a todos!
