Language, Schmanguage

OK so I am halfway thru my first week of language school! I am loving my host family (whom I´ll describe later), but the actual language school part of it feels a little like a ridiculous 2 week cram session of my past 4 years of college! My teacher (whom I´ll also describe later!) is a bit of an old school drill sargeant and isn´t so much interested in talking as having me read entire short stories aloud, or completing, oh like 20 worksheets a day. Worse still, Elena called and talked to the director to be like she needs to practice talking more, so now my teacher´s like, but isn´t this helping? and drilling me at twice the speed to MAKE me understand why I need to have grammar drilled into my brain first. So, that´s that! Here´s a little bit more about my life at the moment:

1) My host fam: Diana, the mom, is awesome. She is 8 months preggers with a very active baby boy, and yet has time to introduce me to all her friends and paint my nails in a French manicure with flowers! Straightening hair is also a big thing to do here, which I am very grateful for lol. She really understands my Spanish as well, so that´s a big relief. Her husband is currently working in New Jersey in construction until April, but she lives with her mom Alicia, who is also very sweet and always make sure that I am eating enough. Diana has 2 children: Michelle (who at first I thought she was saying ¨My chela¨ or ¨chele¨ like my light skinned one lol but it is just a coincidence that her name is Michelle and she is light skinned) and Luisito, a very rambunctious 3 year old. Michelle, who doesn´t have much interest in talking to me, loves the show Patito Feo (The Ugly Duckling) which seems to be the Spanish version of Hannah Montana, only with more girl fights. Luisito only eats Cornflakes, likes his bottled milk with sugar, and drives his toy cars over everything. I am interested to see how he will fare as a middle child!

2) I am very excited that they have re-runs of Third Watch and the OC here lol. Only Third Watch is called Urban Emergencies and The OC is called Youth Beyond our Control lol. I am also surprised that I didn´t see Eddie Cibrian in any of the preview commercials--I figured they would have him plastered all over like a Latin American billboard. Oh well.

3) My teacher--her name is Sandra Lopez and she is very sweet. She wanted to be a journalist but when she went to college in 1990, it was right after the war so her mom basically told her she wouldn´t pay for her to go into a profession that she would more than likely be assassinated for. So, when I told her I was a journalism student, (and this happens frequently) it´s kind of like, oh well you´re lucky. And then I´m like yeah but I´m not really doing anything with that at the moment and they are like, Oh. Ok. (Followed by a look that basically translates to, Oh these ridiculous gringos.) She is also a teacher at the high school and so I think her style of teaching just emanates from that. The majority of my practice actually speaking Spanish comes from being with my family and translating for Shannon, a woman here thru AKF that is learning the language, but her difficulties are compounded because she has a Spanish accent and doesn´t pronounce her ¨r¨s in English, so the double ¨r¨s in Spanish are pretty much out.

4) For Lent, I am giving up speaking English lol. We´ll see how it actually goes. Writing in English and talking on the phone are going to be my guilty pleasures, but I really want to be able to speak with ease, so I´m hoping this helps! It´s do or die time, kids. Sink or swim. Mas o menos. (OK the last one doesn´t really make sense, but I can pronounce it really well, dropping the ¨s¨ like a Nicaraguan pro lol) I am also excited because they use the Spanish Vosotros, or vos, here in place of tu, so maybe when I travel to other countries they will think I´m from Spain! I´m crazy, I know lol. OK, Hasta luego!