Diary/Diario

   May:

  Week 4 

Monday – 5-23 

      By now, uncle Carlos and uncle Mario have already built a drainage system to remove more water from the basement.  I think that the dryer is now installed as well.  I'm hoping we can have hot water because I want to take a shower, but if we don't it's not a big deal.  I didn't have classes today because its a feriado which is basically a no work day.  Labor day.  yeah that's it.  I'm happy to have a short week.  I counted that when I leave I will have been here for 140 days more or less. Which is equal to 5 months in days.  On Wednesday I will have been here for exactly 3 months and will have exactly 60 days left.  I can't believe I've been here for three months already, and only have 2 left.  And now is where I start questioning things.  I wonder if I'm where I should be in my abilities, or should I be able to do more?  I'm well accustomed to the rhythm of the language now, but I still wonder do I pronounce well, etc.  I know now that one simply can't become fluent in 5 months of living in another society, but it serves a springboard to learn more, faster, and more efficient.  There are so many word constructions or phrases, that I didn't even know existed.  I know that it has improved my skills.  I can speak with more ease, understand more, and I feel good about that.  I just hear the perfectionist in me saying, you should be fluent, be able to understand anything even without paying much attention....but it's not like that.  Basically I did some reading on the net to see what others thought about going abroad.  This is what I feel like sometimes:

 Unless you learned a language as a kid, or maybe after several years of total immersion, achieving and maintaining fluency is a constant effort. Personally I find that it ebbs and flows. Right now I feel really relaxed and easy in Spanish but then something will snap and I'll feel like some sort of caveman trying to hack out a sentence. It seems that you advance and then plateau for a while, then often even decline before your next big advance.

author unknown.  

     I have had many advances and been stuck in many valleys as well.  I guess the point is that I've been in less valleys and been on more plateaus since I came here.  There are days where you just dont even want to listen, but this happens in English as well.  I still have 2 months left and I suppose I will have to see where I end up.  I feel that I have a very good base and that I'm accustomed to a lot.  Now is the time to really reach out.  For any of you that watch basketball I feel like I'm the Chicago Bulls.  They began their season roughly but turned that around and ended up with the 4th best team in the Eastern conference and I believe the 12th best in the NBA.  Not bad for a bunch of rookies.  Well I'm just starting to warm up halfway through my season here.  

Tuesday – 5-24 

      Well I hope that los pistones ganaron anoche.....o sea......that the pistons won last night.  They should being that they are the champions.  Anyways I got my test back and got a 5.4 which is pretty good.  I expected worse, but I do think they take it easy on us americans.  So I seem to be off to a good start with my grades.  I'm a little worried about my linguistics class because we haven't had any thing to do to get a grade yet.  We've been preparing for group presentations which scares me even more.  The thing about this class is we've spent half of it preparing for the presentations, and the next quarter is for giving them.  The final quarter is when we will have all the tests and whatnot.  I don't think that is a very good idea, but I'm not the teacher.  And guess what, we're having another protest, but this time it has nothing to do with the University.  It's about the cisnes...or swans.  Their environment has been polluted and people are not happy about it.  When I left the university there were a bunch of trucks honking their horns as they decided to park along my street to protest.  Thanks guys, now I'm deaf.  I'm really excited that I get to set up a network in our new house because it'll be a fun project, and i'll get to learn something new.  I just wish I could be there to help string the cable because I've never done that in a house; only in my school.  But I've been busy researching what to get and how to do it.  I also called the helpdesk today to get a username and password.  I was really scared at first because I thought that I wouldn't be able to understand someone on the phone.  It's just easier to understand when I have the person with whom I'm talking right in front of me.  But actually it went really well and I know what I have to do to get one now.  

Wednesday – 5-25

      I found out that Star Wars has not yet opened here.  They have been selling tickets since the 19th.  I don't know if I will get a chance to see it here or not because the movie theater is kinda far away.  And I'd at least have to make two trips.  We'll see.  I finally got my password and user name for the internet and it works so I'm happy with that.  I've been using the internet a lot lately because I'm researching things for my presentation which is next week on Thursday.  I guess I should be practicing cuz I'd rather not stumble in front of the class.  I haven't had to read much since we are doing presentations in the literature class.  I guess I should go to the library to finish Alexander the Great, but I'd rather take a small break while I still can.  This last month is going to be hectic.  I have two presentations, a final paper, a history test and paper, and a series of tests in my linguistics class.  Sounds like a lot doesn't it?  I guess it's the same in every school.  They love to make you do a lot at the end.  They should make you do a lot at the beginning and then let it taper off.  That's what I would prefer.  

Thursday – Friday 5-26-27

      Well the workers realized that our yard flooded and wanted to help us out.  So they covered the basement windows with cement and then dug a small trench under our fence and installed a pipe to filter the water.  It's been raining nonstop for 2 days now and there's a small puddle in the back yard, but at least it's not a pool.  Also the basement flooded again, but not as bad.  Thankfully we still have our water removal machine.  I think that since it rains so much that it saturates the ground and the water will enter regardless.  We did hire a contractor I think to make a pipe go from our yard to the huge lagoon that's about 100 yards away.  My sister Rocio and cousin Loreto went to some fiesta with electronic music. I would have gone, but I was really tired and didn't feel like get my ears blasted out like the last time.  I hate it when it's too loud.  So I definitely by now only have a little more than a month and a half here(50 days or so).  I still have to buy souvenirs, and figure out what I'm not taking back.  I'm starting to notice that I'm having problems with my English now.  Sometimes when I right it takes a little longer and I'm sure my phrases aren't top notch.  Don't worry, I won't come back with an accent.  At least I hope I don't.  I also found out that when I get mad that I become more fearless to speak Spanish.  When I couldn't get on the internet after I already had a password and this and that made me mad.  So I went to the office to ask what was up, and it felt much more natural.  I don't know how to explain it.  It's like being mad brought out the Spanish.  I also realized that living 5 months in a foreign country doesn't make you completely fluent, but it's more of a springboard to get you to the next level, which may be proficiency.  I don't know, but I figure that being here is learning how to listen, learning how to speak and pronunciate better, because it takes years to become perfectly fluent.  I just know I'm on my way.  Hopefully when I graduate I will find a job where I can use my Spanish, because I'm not going to forget my computer knowledge as quick as I would my Spanish knowledge.  Thankfully I have a Spanish buddy to practice with.   

back