Thursday, November 20, 2008

The adventures continue

Hey all! Quite a bit has been happening here. A few weeks ago I was starting to get sorta bored and one day I was really lonely, but the dam has burst. Last weekend I went with 4 others teachers for two days of presentations on Mountain Adventure/Trekking/etc. and then a day hike. The hike lasted 5 hours. We covered 6km (3ish miles) and climbed to a height of 1,900m (6,000ish feet). It was great. We had a rustic breakfast to start and then after, a big lunch was provided. It was funny; a day of healthy exercise wasn’t complete without a follow up of a couple of beers and a cup of coffee. I signed up for another trip next weekend. It is a day of presentations and then we’ll visit some local Cultural Heritage sites. I don’t understand the majority of the information presented, but it gives me an opportunity to connect with the teachers outside of school and to stay busy over the weekend. This weekend, I think I’m going to go home with my friend Marta. She teaches here in Puente Genil, but most weekends she goes back to her home town to spend time with her family. This time she has invited me to join. I’m looking forward to meeting her family and seeing a new town. I’ve been so very lucky that Marta was placed in P.G. this year. We keep each other moving. A couple of days ago we joined the gym together and she has promised to show me how to cook a few things. She thinks it is a tragedy that I eat store-bought ‘tortilla de patatas’. Tortillas here are basically potato omelettes, but a little different. It is practically the national food, so I’m gonna give it a shot.

Other than my weekend activities, my weekdays are filling in, too. I have started to give a private English class and will start a second one next week. It is a very interesting dynamic. I have studied Spanish for 12 years (it doesn’t seem possible that it’s been that long!), but now am teaching English and have to explain grammar that I haven’t thought about since I was in Elementary school. Plus, they tend to learn British English here. I have to be aware of the differences so I don’t lead them too far astray. For example: Say the words ‘little, Saturn, and thirty’ out loud. If you speak anything like I do, there isn’t the sound of ‘t’ in any of those words. They come out more like ‘liddle, Sadurn, and thirdy’. But when anyone gives me too hard a time about my accent, I just point out how they talk! In Southern Spain, they rarely pronounce the ends of their words and skip a bunch of letters in the middle. For example: Uno, dos, tres ends up sounding like Uno, Do, Tre. And the phrase ‘More or Less”/”Más o Menos” = ‘Ma o Meno’. And the word for ‘nothing’/’nada’ is pronounced na’a, without the ‘d’. It’s fun though. I am for sure going to have a Spain-spanish accent when I come back to the States. Plus, they tell me that if I can get to the point where I truly understand the accent in Southern Spain, I should be able to understand any Spanish there is! We’ll see if they are telling me the truth. In the two months I have been here I already understand SO MUCH more. The first week I remember thinking I’d never be able to understand anything on TV or a political conversation (you wouldn’t believe how fast they talk). The political conversation is still out of reach, but I started understanding a few words, then a few phrases, and now some actual conversations on TV. It is still exhausting trying to pay attention to a group of people talking, but I’m gaining speed on that too. Thursday nights a bunch of teachers get together for drinks and I’m to the point where I can participate in the conversation. I’ve been around them long enough now that I’m getting familiar with how they speak and that makes it easier to understand what they are saying. Other times, no matter how hard I try, I just don’t get it. There is one teacher I work with that is super cool and tries to talk to me, but for the life of me I can’t understand what the man is saying, try as I might! I’m not sure if he mumbles, or what. There is another teacher that I may never understand for the pure reason that she talks at the speed of light. I’ll admit I go with the ‘smile and nod’ method with these people. J It depends on the day as to how well I can communicate. One day someone will tell me I have a very good accent, the next they look at me like I have two heads when I open my mouth, the day after that I’m told I have an impressive vocabulary, and immediately following that someone talks down to me like I’m 4 years old because they think I’m incapable of forming a complete sentence. It’s quite the learning curve.

I can’t believe Thanksgiving is only a week away. If there is ever a time I love to be home, that’s it. My family will be able to shave off a few pounds of the required mashed potatoes this year. Marta and Sonia found out Thxgiving is my favorite holiday, so they said we could have a dinner here. I’m not sure about finding the right foods, but we’ll pull something together. I’ve heard about a bunch of Americans trying to find turkeys. It’s a pretty big deal to find one that is dead, feather-free, and lacking head and feet. As long as I have my mashed potatoes, I’ll be a happy chica.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the latest chapter of my adventure. Love and miss you all!

Besos,

Haley