my big day

Today was a big day for me. I started school, which I LOVE. Yesterday, though, I had a bit of scare when I couldn’t find it right away and I wandered around the ‘bad part’ of town wondering what I was going to do if this whole thing was a sham and how I would get my $1500 back. Anyway, I found it eventually (look up!) and it’s this beautiful 2^nd floor space of tile and skylights and murals and spiral staircases. The staff is all smiles and heavily-emphasized Spanish.

After I blankly smiled back at this curly-haired woman who chatted animatedly at me, I was placed in the beginner’s level. At first, I was minorly disappointed, but after the first class I realized it was perfect. I only have one other classmate and he is German. Yes, he is very cute. Yes, he also has a girlfriend, and it happens to be a rather sweet story. What I got from his German-accented Spanish- She is Uruguayan. They met in Germany. She studied there for 6 years, then moved home. He followed her and is now learning Spanish, his fourth language. He also speaks French and English. The good part for me is that because our native languages are different, we speak Spanish to each other.

AND…I moved into my homestay today, which I love just as much as my beautiful school. Above is a picture of my room. It’s green and I like it. I have one picture that Abby gave me of her and I in Amsterdam. It hangs on the inside of my wardrobe on the mirror. I’m glad I only have one, because it nearly brings me to tears every time I look at it.

I don’t have internet at my house, but I think that’s a good thing. I found a hotel across the street that gave me their wifi password so the excitement of internet can be blamed for this slew of blog postings. I also have a tv with 4-ish channels, depending if you count the blurry ones. I will use it to my advantage.

My Uruguayan mother’s name is Amparo and she’s about 60 and very sweet. She doesn’t speak a lick of English. Again, a good thing. We just had dinner together and the range of topics that were peripherally covered is almost comical – family, Miami and black people. Sometimes, when I am speaking Spanish I just start to smile at the pure ridiculousness of it. I know I sound terrible, yet I just keep talking like I am making sense. It’s much harder than I thought it would be; yet at the same time, I feel I am progressing at a much faster rate than I thought I would. I already feel like I added hundreds of words and phrases to my lexicon.