Mirielle's Journal Week 1

Domingo 1º de julio

Desde el momento cuando llevé en Espana, supe que estaba en un mundo diferente. El pais estaba muy bonita y la gente muy simpática. Estaba perfecto, si no fuera por un a cosa... mi maleta. ¿Donde está mi maleta? ¿Qué voy a hacer sin mi maleta? Ojalá que llegue manana. Stephanie me dio un cepillo de dientes y otros artículos de tocador, pero no sé que hacer si mis ropas no están en casa pronto L

Despite the trouble with my luggage, I think I’m going to have a good week. My host family is extremely nice (although I have a hard time thinking of them as “mom” and “dad” since they’re only two years older than me… no problem with that). Maria-Jose seems very friendly and told me to enjoy my time here. Her husband, Roberto, talks faster than the speed of light. So far, I’ve managed to stare blankly at him, responding when I catch a word or think I should say “si.” Their little boy, Alejandro, is a bundle of energy. He must be used to hosting students because he was not shy at all. He immediately wanted me to play basketball with him. I was the net. Should be interesting...

I hope at the end of these four weeks that I feel a real sense of accomplishment. I’ve only had two semesters of Spanish and I have a hard time forming my thoughts quickly enough to say any coherent phrase. I’m very excited to meet new students and the extended family of my host family. On the walk to Plaza Mayor with Maria, she pointed out her parents’, Roberto’s parents’ and her sister’s homes; apparently they all live in the near area. I hope that the more I listen and respond, the faster I’ll be able to communicate well with the family. Right now, it seems like there is going to be a long road ahead, but maybe I’ll pick up on it faster that I think. The most important thing is to speak Spanish as much as I can, whenever I can. I guess we’ll see what happens.

Lunes 2 de julio

Hoy fui al examen para los clases. Era un poquito desconocido porque el examen de gramática estaba 30 minutos y el examen orale 2 o 3 minutos. Tenía mieda porque no sepa las resultades. Pero vuelvé a la casa y comí con mi “mama” y Alejandro, su niño. Ella preparó un tortilla español. Supe que es una plata tradicionala en España y ahora sé porque...¡es muy delicioso! Regresé al universidad en la noche para ver mis asignaturas. Soy en B19, y ojalá que no voy a ser muy difícil. Vale... un poquito difícil.

I’m learning more about the culture and traditions here every day. It’s really interesting to me to hear people talking on the street and greeting one another. Spaniards are definitely not as loud as Americans, but they share a lot of the same mannerisms. My extended family uses grand gestures when they talk about the simplest things and I have noticed that gestures are a big part of communication in Spain as well. I should really start taking notes about all the things I see. It would make answering those questions in the syllabus much easier. I also need to start taking more pictures. My poor camera is just waiting for me to use it.

Today was an especially exciting day with my host family. Alejandro apparently likes to choose two movies per week and watch them over and over again. And by watch them, I mean he watches five minutes of them, then asks me what the thing is on my thumb, or why I have an extra earring in my nose, or where my family is. The two movies he chose this week were Monster House and Over the Hedge (en espanol, por supuesto). I’ve seen both of them, thank goodness, so I could at least discuss the minor details with him. There are two things I like most about speaking with a 3 year old: 1) He never feels shy about correcting my speaking errors (or staring blankly at me, for that matter), 2) He absolutely cannot figure out why I can’t speaking Spanish as well as his Mom or Dad. Besides being the standard 3-year-old maniac, he’s still a pretty cute little kid.

Martes 3 de Julio

Hoy estaba el primero día de clases. Todo fue bien, pero creo que la clase de gramática va a ser muy difícil. La clase hacía un revición de verbos, condicional, imperativo, subjuntivo, pluscaumperfecto, etc. La problema es que no estudié más verbos que en el presento, pasado y subjuntivo en los EEUU. Creo que tengo que estudiar mucho para este clase. Au menos, mis professoras son muy simpáticos. Comprendé mucho, todavia cuando habló rapido. No sé que va a ser mañana.

I’ll go into a little more detail about my professors… The first one, Rosana looks to be about the same age as me. I guess that’s not totally out of the question, since I’m a little older than the average student here this summer (seems like a lot older). She lit up a cigarette immediately after class today, which seems to be a trend among the teachers here. I hope her students and their poor grammar aren’t driving her to smoke J Europeans definitely smoke much more than Americans in general and I’m reminded of that often, especially at restaurants. It doesn’t bother me at all, but I can’t imagine it would not be very pleasant for the students who aren’t used to being around smokers all the time.

My Global Communication teacher, Gustavo, is quite soft-spoken and a bit of a mumbler. He seems to have a good sense of humor, though. I understood him fairly well, which made me feel much better about my comprehension. My third teacher, Estefania, was extremely nice as well. She’ll be instructing our oral class. We didn’t do anything too complicated and I feel like I’m catching on pretty quickly in that class as well. My last teacher, Marta, is fantastic. She spoke the majority of the time in class, but all of the students were glued to their seats. She was extremely interesting, funny and easy to listen to; I can already tell that I will like that class most of all.


Miercoles 4 de julio

Hoy es el día de Independéncia para los EEUU. No es normal para mi que nadie va a celebrar este día. Normalmente, no hay clases, voy a ver fuegos artificiales y soy con mi familia para hacer una barbacoa. Creo que vamos a celebrar esta noche en la Plaza Mayor con algunos otros estudiantes americanos. Ojalá que este celebración sea como en EEUU. Si no es similar, no voy a ser triste, porque sé que es un pais muy lejos de mi pais y nosotros no celebramos el día de Independencia de Espana (¿puede ser Marta?). Iramos...

Classes today were much better than yesterday. I know people are switching and finding classes that are more appropriate for them, so hopefully the classes I’m in will stay at about the same pace. I can already tell how much progress I’m making. Even my host mom said that I was talking more than I have the last few days. It’s amazing how much a person can pick up in a few short days. I’m really looking forward to learning (and employing) all sorts of new words. I’ve certainly mastered the art of miming and/or talking around a subject to figure out the words I’m trying to use.

When I walk down the street now, I try to take note of all the different types of buildings that I see. I decided to write about the influence of the multiple invasions on the architecture in Salamanca, so that reminds me again to take more pictures. I think it’s so amazing how one building can be an incredible cathedral built hundreds of years ago and it can be right next to a modern apartment complex, which can also have molding that clearly shows Moorish influence. Since Salamanca had such diverse populations over the last 1000 years, you can really see the differences building to building. I think my favorite sight so far was the doorway I saw shaped like two keyholes, decorated in a style that appeared to be Moorish, but had a series of windows above it showing the Star of David in several pains of brightly colored glass. The best part of the whole scene was the giant light-up sign that had been affixed across the doorway for the copy shop that currently occupies the building. Yet another example of modern meets medieval.