especialmente para Señora : )

I spent a solid idk how long talking with mi mama española today! and finally i UNDERSTAND her! ahhhhhh it's the best feeling ever! i think she talks slower because la chica Japonesa (btw sidenote: they don't use muchacha here). ok idk if it's slower but she's def cut down on the hardcore lisp she had going in the beginning. we talked about that today too haha. but yeah. i love being able to just casually have a conversation with her. i am getting much better at putting words together! my writing has always been better than my speaking ( you know that well) but i can tell i've improved since arriving : )

from the get-go my English has taken some hard hits but seriously, i don't mind at all. that means i'm thinking Spanish better. but now finally, i can notice myself improving un poquito here and there. language is such a beautiful thing. it amazes me actually. espanol es MUY suave. i think English is an ugly language...ok mabes i won't go that far. but german i think super ugly and you're not to far from that. mi mama espanola made a comment about that during tea, that's why i bring it up. she said english sounds smooth (like waves) but i think that's true of spanish. it's all what you're used to i guess especially when they talk fast.

ANDDDDDDDD she gives me hope about my incapability to roll my "rr's" apprently she had a student here who couldn't but kept at it and by the time she left was able to roll her R successfully. now i don't know if this is possible for me, cuz i've tried. oh believe me, i've definitely tried. no se puede. but i'm gonna give it another go and see what happens.

mi acento muy americano

clearly...i know this. i've always been a better writer than speaker. but i do love to talk so it gets frustrating when i can't express what i'd always like to say...well for the most part i'm good cuz i can use the words i know, but it's the commenting on things that get hard once in a while. sooooooo 2 night ago, after dinner, yo, Pura, y mi hermana espanola were chillen at the table and i had brought my homework down to work on it. sometimes i go over it with them and ask questions so i'm prepared for class and understand everything so i'll have minimal questions later on. anywho. LANGUAGE BARRIER. i have issues understanding them sometimes and vice versa. i've met lots of people from all over and it's awesome to hear their accents when they speak spanish, i can only imagine mine in spanish tho. yikes! but Pura told me a had a strong american accent haha really its nothing i didn't already know but i thought it was getting better. it better be getting better! that's why i'm here! my one goal while studying here to to improve my spanish, especially the speaking portion! sooo tyda during lunch again, she continues to tell me...listen to more radio, TV, yada yada yada...I"M TRYING!!! and continues...speak less English...i know! i'm trying with that too! i speak more spanish with Pura but it's frustrating cuz we have issues understanding each other gahhhhhhh this probs sounds worse than it is but it's hard to understand each other. i understand literally everyone else better.. grrrrrrr.

so this past weekend when i soley talked in spanish for the most part, my confidence sky rocketed because it was good and i could understand everything and was able to say everything i wanted, only to be brought back down upon my return. coolio. and so month 2 begins...

weekend trips!!!

ok. i'm apologizing ahead of time. but for class, 3 of our profesoras require us to journal and i can't continue to repeat myself in both languages for multiple people anymore cuz i want my spanish porfolio to be legit and really good, ya know! so my weekend trip journals might be all in spanish...sorry!!! i LOVE talking about it but it's time consuming and after this past weekend i have this new motivation to avoid English cuz not much english was spoken this weekend with the Brasilians...they speak portugesua and well one of the girls didn't know any english and us americans (with exception to Samuel) don't know Portuguesa soooo we vowed to speak Spanish with each other!!! it's really easy to understand each other and other foreign people but the natives and their lisp ay dios mio i'm still struggling with understanding mis propios padres espanolas here!

the nerves & the lisp

As if arriving in Spain wasn't stressful enough with my nerves spiking, mi mamá was not present during the pick up of us lovely Americans.  I could not, for the life of me, understand much of what mi mamá was saying the first day.  Talk about language barrier.  It didn't help that I  was zoning out and not paying attention.  I was exhausted and hungry. But to my surprise (y gracias a Dios!) I could understand her better the next day!

I'm not at all used to the lisp with the "th" sound. I though i'd be okay cuz I've heard it before but I didn't expect to be this lost at all. Tonight mi mamá y yo were talking while she was preparing me dinner and was asking if i'd like this or that.  She asked me if i wanted "pitha" (English pronunciation "pee-tha") ...it was the "th" sound so in my head I was like"pisa? ...floor?...what?" I could not for the life of me figure it out. So she take out "pizza" so show me. OHHHHHHH!  I told her i was still getting th hang of this stuff.