Mi Mascota Jirafa

My Pet Giraffe. That's the name of the book I nervously read to 20 some-odd kindergarteners today. The book was in English. I read each page in English, and then translated the gist of what was happening into Spanish, all while holding the book and trying to keep the giraffe puppet on my hand moving. Eventually, I had to hand over the puppet to keep things moving.

For context, today myself and four other students went to the school of our program director's daughter. We led the kids in numerous activities including my aforementioned story, songs to help them learn English, coloring, and more stories and songs. I tried to pull the "ladies first" card for who would start our frivolities, but I ended up leading the first activity. Hence why I was so nervous. While I thought I had trouble understanding the old men I went and played bingo with, they were nothing compared to these kids. I had no earthly idea what they were saying half the time. Mostly cause they're kids and I sometimes can't understand them in English, but also due to grammar worse than mine. Thankfully, they were very aware of that, and were accepting of the fact I couldn't always understand what they were saying. I sat at a little table with 5 kids after I finished my story to color. The kids would comment on my coloring job, asking what colors I was going to use next and other questions. They then wanted to know about me, so I told them I was from New York, but grew up in Tennessee. They had never heard of Tennessee, so I spelled it out for them and drew them a picture. They then asked if I could count to 20 in English. I was a bit nervous, but I managed to get the whole way through pretty well, only pausing a moment after 14.

That's a joke. I aced it like a pro. They then asked to hear me count in Spanish, which I again did just fine. I figured this would be a good chance to throw them completely for a loop. I told them I could count to 10 in German. Little Javier looked at me with amazement and said "Hazlo!" (do it!). I got to 9, but they didn't care. I had won them over.

I'm glad I went. I think it was a unique experience to see a Spanish elementary school that I wouldn't normally have gotten. And hanging out with kids is pretty fun....granted its no longer than an hour and we get to leave them with someone else when we're done.


Also:

Got a 91 on my grammar test.
#BOOM

How do ya like dem apples?

Don't think I've ever done that well on an advanced grammar test.

Let it Go

At first the title would make you think I've had some really deep philosophical break through.

In reality it's just cause I watched Frozen for the first time online today.

It was absolutley magical.

It was a reward for *hopefully* acing my two exams today.

Also got to experience an interesting twist: Mexican food in Spain. Like everything here, it was delicious.

Tomorrow I meet with my intercambio for the first time. Intercambios are students from Spain who are learning English that get paired up with us to help us with our Spanish, and vice versa with their English. Since I don't have a roommate, I like to think of it as an assigned buddy.

I have started to become friends with a good number of the students here. It's nice that now I don't really feel like I have to worry about "tagging along" or basically asking "WILL YOU BE MY FRIEND?!" whenever I would ask where someone was going. So yeah, that's really nice.

La Poesia

Not sure why literature professors in any country like to do this, but they seem to have a thing for assigning impromptu poetry writings in class. After reading the works of Alfonsina Storni we were instructed to write a four-line love poem in five minutes. Here's mine:

"Yo teo veo en mis sueños cuando cierro mis ojos.
Estamos juntos, al lado. Tu estas en mis brazos.
Tu respira ligera me da alegria.
Pero abro mis ojos y todavia estoy solo."

(I see you in my dreams when I close my eyes.
We're together, beside each other. You're in my arms.
Your light breath gives me joy.
but I open my eyes and I'm still alone.)

It got numerous "AWWW"s from the girls in the class, as the professor enjoyed reiterating to me. I don't remember exactly what he said but it was something along the lines of "if you can get 13 girls to do that for your poetry, you'll be just fine."
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Added 3/2/14

After this we were instructed to write three more poems. Here are mine:

Cuando hay nubes oscuras, tengo luz para ver
El sol todavilla brilla cuando empieze a llover.
En las calles, no camino; en vez de esto yo bailo
por una cosa: estoy enamorado.

---

La esperanza me sale; viene la tristeza.
Camino como un cuerpo, muerto en la tierra
que despertó para buscar algo
que no existe en todo el mundo.

---

Dejame con mis recuerdos de un tiempo pasado
cuando yo te conocia, y te abrazaba en mis brazos
porque has cambiado a una persona diferente
y solo mis suenos ayudan lo que me duele.

As a series, the copy the series of love poems by Storni that go from new love, to the peak of love, down to losing hope, and complete dispair.

I Run So That One Day I Might Run Faster Than That Trying To Kill Me

My host-mom isn't hard to please. As long as I try whatever food she makes, she's happy. If she finally drags it out of me that I don't like something after I shovel down as much of whatever it is as I can without looking in too much pain, she goes in the kitchen and makes me a whole new meal of 3 huge fried pork fillets and french fries without fail. Not to mention the fresh bread that's already always on the table.

To counteract this carb and fat overload, I began running yesterday. My 2ish miles on the treadmill yesterday weren't bad. In fact, I'm starting to think they were kilometers. My 2+ miles outside today were brutal.

Gotta get that beach body for when I come home and never go to the beach.

Quick Anecdote for the Loyal

In my homework assignment, we are working with "Ojala", which is used to express desires past present or future depending on the tense of the verb that follows. We have been given sentences describing situations in which we must respond in an appropriate way using "Ojala".

3.) (Translated) A house is ablaze. There are people inside.

I really want to write this for my answer:

"I wish I had checked for people first before setting it on fire."

Ojala que hubiera buscado personas antes de arderla.

My teacher doesn't check the homework, so I just might. And I kind of hope she calls on me to answer that one.

The End of the Honeymoon

Whenever you travel somewhere new, there's a period of time (usually about a week long) where everything in the country is new and great and Spanish etc. This is much like the honeymoon phase in a relationship/marriage. Well, let's just say Spain has come out of the bathroom with her hair rollers in and no make up on.

Honeymoon's over.

The first week/ week and a half of sun was just a tease. It rained the entire second half of last week, and is going to rain the rest of this week. Whoever said the rain in Spain falls mainly in the plains is a liar. Unless Sevilla is actually in the plains, which in that case would mean said person was spot on. I'm led to believe that this isn't true due to the fact that there's a saying that the "lluvia en sevilla es un maravilla". Basically, it never rains here.

Okay, to be honest I can deal with rain. It's a bit annoying, but I can live with rain. However rain mixed with a week filled with tests, presentations, reading, and general homework is just the cherry on top of a rough week. Not to mention speaking Spanish wears me out completely. Toss on top of that the continual struggle I have with these dang European power outlets (really, why can't we just standardize these things around the world?), and it's just quite the stress ball.

All of that being said, just because the honeymoon is over that doesn't mean I'm not still really enjoying my time here. My plan of eating super healthy while I'm here has gone out the window, but that's okay because the food is so delicious I'd rather eat homemade french fries and whatever else my Senora cooks and go run it off than eat super healthy, be miserable, and then go run on top of that. I've started taking some co-curricular classes. I'm not telling anyone back state-side what it is just for the sake of surprises....or in case I quit. Probably won't quit though since I dropped 50 Euros for the classes.

Homesickness comes and goes. I miss the little things in America, like yogurt that's actually creamy, and cold cereal with milk. I miss the people the most, mostly because I can speak in English to them. Gosh that's gonna feel so good in May when I can speak in English to everyone. I really do relish every moment I get to speak in English to people here. I miss TV. Watching TV is a much more active thing when you have to listen to it in another language.

To conclude, I am learning quite a bit, and my Spanish gets better each day. I've figured out that once I get the more obscure verb tenses down and expand my vocabulary, I'll be set. Even in the rain, I still love Sevilla and I'm looking forward to the next 12 or so weeks I have here.

The First Thing I Learned in Spain

While I came to this realization a few days ago, each day it gets further reinforced in my mind:

I am not fluent in Spanish.

This generally is not a good thing when I'm in a country that speaks Spanish. Sure I speak enough to get by, and can understand a bit more than I can speak. But there's just something that's still uncomfortable about speaking Spanish 24/7, and it's because I really can't do it. My vocabulary isn't as expansive as it needs to be for me to say everything I want to say. My grammar isn't good enough to be clearly specific which kind of past-tense I want to talk about. All this being said: I am not fluent in Spanish.

This made me stop and think about the ever-increasing number of Hispanics in the US. A whole lot of people get all up-in-arms over the fact that they prefer to speak Spanish, and often times can barely speak any English. "This is 'murica! They need to learn English!" Granted this may be true, in that English is the primary language spoken in the US and that it's necessary to be able to communicate with natives in their own language. But to the people who get upset when they hear Hispanics speaking in Spanish to each other at Wal-mart, just shut up. In a country where the family I live with doesn't speak barely a word of English, I relish each moment I go out for coffee with my new American friends and can speak English to them. If my family were to come here, I would not insist they speak Spanish to me lest they offend the Spaniards around me. I have come to have a new level of appreciation for what immigrants go through when they move to a new country that speaks a different language. Again, I think it's important that they do learn English just because in reality it would make their lives in America a whole lot easier (just as learning Spanish will make my life easier here), but I think I'm gonna start cutting them a bit of slack.

I wouldn't want a Spaniard to come up to me and yell in my face that "This is Spain!" and that I need to learn Spanish if I want to live here. I already know I need to do that, but good gravy does my head hurt after a day of speaking and hearing nothing but Spanish.