So this girl, Maria, from an exercise class I joined a few weeks ago has been asking me to hang out with her and our schedules just hadn't been matching up. This week we finally met up at a café down the street, and turns out she is super sweet.
I had kind of been putting off our meeting because Jill didn't want to go and it's a lot of pressure to meet up with someone alone in your second language and be able to hold a conversation by yourself. And let me tell you, her accent is as Casaricheño as it gets! But we really hit if off, so she invited me out for tapas at the cuartelillos - little bars that set up shop 40 days before Semana Santa (aka Holy Week leading up to Easter) to help fund the church and more specifically the procesiones. But this post is not about Semana Santa; it's about speaking my second language: Let met tell you, when I went to the café with Maria, my Spanish was ON POINT! I felt like I was really getting everything she was saying and not saying "cómo" or "perdón" after she asked me a question to give myself more time to think. There was some serious flow. But then I went out for tapas with Maria, her friend Vicky, and Vicky's daughter Andrea. (Andrea is 11, so that was interesting going bar hopping with an 11 year old, but that's not what we are here to talk about.) Let's just say my Spanish was less on point. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't like the café outing. The thing about speaking in a second language is that there are good days and there are bad days, and there's absolutely nothing you can do to change that. You can make a bad days less bad and less frequent with practice and put yourself in situations that will set you up for success. But sometimes your brain and/or mouth just aren't working or aren't working together. At the café, I set myself up really well. We met at 5pm, so I was not too tired, I drank hot chocolate, not alcohol, and we sat outside where it wasn't noisy. For the cuartelillos, we left to go out at 9pm, I had not taken a siesta, it was noisy, and I drank beer. I think I did pretty well considering the setup, but Vicky would give me this squinty eyed look like she was focusing really hard to understand my accent. Usually a beer can actually improve pronunciation, but apparently that was not the case today. My pronunciation would be ok, and then out would pop a really, terribly thick guiri accent for a word or two. Oh well. I am going to the movies with them tomorrow, so here's to hoping for a good Spanish day for me tomorrow!
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Went on a field trip to the Casariche industrial district to tour the factories. I saw a picture of one of the guys from Muay Thai in one of the factories...turns out he is one of the owners. Small world.
The whole world thought it was my birthday today. I walked into my first class of the day and all the kids were screaming at me, "Congratulations!!!!!" At first I was really confused about what they were congratulating me on. Then one kid wished me a happy birthday. When it's your birthday, people tell you felicidades, directly translating to congrats in English - which I find hilarious, by the way. It wasn't just the kids either. I had a teacher come up to me and wish me felicidades and start to go in for the double kiss. Along with felicidades, you also get hammered with double kisses. Seriously. When it's been other teachers' birthdays, they've had to go around double kissing 20+ people. I know some foreigners despise the double kiss greeting, but I don't mind it. I think I might mind it on my actual birthday though.
While I'm not sure how this rumor started, I did realize that today is the 19th. It's just the 19th of the wrong month. Maybe I'll bring in some cookies tomorrow to keep the joke going. Or ever better, maybe I can milk a two month long birthday celebration. I had a fun outing with my colleague and friend Jesús to hike the Arabian Stairs in the Huma Mountains. It was AWESOME! I knew Jesús was a mountain man before, but this hiking trip only further reaffirmed my thoughts. He doesn't just climb mountains...he RUNS up them. I could hardly keep up! But lucky for me that meant he stopped to take lots of photos as he waited for me to catch up. Hiking with Jesús was certainly a humbling experience. And I would definitely do it again! (At the very least to keep my ego in check.) When we got to the top, we wrote our names and a note in the hiker's notebook. The hike was difficult but enjoyable, and it was worth it to end standing among the clouds. Super cool experience, and I'll let the rest of the photos speak for themselves... My photos: Jesús' (much higher quality) photos in reverse order:
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AuthorI'm Emma. I love food more than anyone will ever understand - specifically cheese, chocolate, bread and pretty much every fat & carb combo you can think of - apple cider donuts, ice cream, the list goes on. Fats and carbs just go so well together. Don't you think? Why is it when I'm tasked to describe myself, I always talk about food? I guess if you want to learn more about me, you'll have to read my posts about my year as a teacher in Spain. Archives
May 2018
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