Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Christmas vacation is almost here!

Time has been flying by. Since Thanksgiving everything seems like a blur. Last weekend Julia, Frieda and I went to Sevilla for a night to see Julia’s cousin, Tavo. He is from Mexico, but working in Spain for a month. He was in Sevilla with 8 of his coworkers. There were 3 Mexicans, 5 Brazilians, and 1 Chilean. It was super fun meeting all of them. There were so many accents speaking the same language. One time when we were in a taxi with Tavo, the taxi driver was telling us something about Sevilla. I didn’t understand a thing he was saying because he had such a strong accent. Come to find out Tavo couldn’t understand him either even though Spanish is his native language! It made me feel better knowing it wasn’t just me. We didn’t have a lot of time to spend there, but we were able to have a couple of meals and see a little bit of the nightlife. It was fantastic to be in civilization again! Puente Genil can get pretty small when I don’t leave every once in awhile. There was actually traffic, diversity of people, and multiple-story buildings. It made me miss Granada (where I lived when I studied abroad) even more. I’m going to have to go back there to visit soon.

During the week I´ve busy with my private English classes I’ve been giving. I’m learning an incredible amount about my own language because people are always asking me ‘why’ and I can’t bear to keep saying ‘just because’ or that it’s just about memorization. For instance, the words demanded, poured, and worked. All end in the letters ‘ed’. But, each one pronounces the ‘ed’ differently. Demanded ends with an –id sound, poured with a –d sound, and worked with a –t sound. I have actually learned how to explain what words get what sounds. It is fascinating to me. I’m such a nerd sometimes. :-)

This weekend is the last full weekend before everyone starts leaving town to start their Christmas vacation. I get almost 3 weeks off! Then I work one day and get 3 more days off. Most people I know aren’t returning to the States for the holidays. Frieda is close, so she’s going back to Ireland, but the rest of us are traveling. Giselle is going to Rome, Julia is getting passed every couple of days from one coworker to another, Laurel is going to London, and I’m traveling too. I am very interested to see how Christmas and New Year’s are celebrated here. I’m sure there are things that are the same and things that are different. I just have to focus on wrapping up this week at school and then my next adventure begins.

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