Say what?

I have a private class every Thursday with three friends, Rosa's girl, and two boys, all in second grade. They are slightly crazy, intelligent, and fun to be with when they're motivated...horrible when they're bored. Last week, like after each class, the four of us cleaned up the room. One erased the dry erase board, another put the chairs away, and the last put the game or flashcards in an envelope while I collected the books and the rest of my things.
A few seconds into this activity, I hear one of the boys say clearly, "Hey baby."
Surprised, I turned around and asked, "What did you say?"
"Hey baby," he repeated, and then continuing in Spanish said, "you know, when someone who speaks English has a baby boy or girl, sometimes they say to them, "Hey baby" instead of saying their name.
That made me laugh. Where do they get these ideas?

Carabiner

This is a carabiner. In Spanish (I still haven't remembered...long live the dictionary) it is mosquetón (mos-kay-tone), the first syllable with a long-o, second long a, last long o.

Jazz and Roadkill

Roadkill is normal to Americans...we have so many animals that they just can't stay out off the roads. And so, squish, pancakes. But here, there aren't as many animals, at least that I can see, and I had yet to see any roadkill until last night. After a night in the city with friends, my friend Isma was dropping me off at home when we saw it. Sadly, the dead animal was a kitten. Not even a wild animal! While we were outside the car talking (dropping people off can take a long time), I think two more people ran over the poor cat. In between searching for Orion and different stars (me trying to imagine the names in English), the roadkill was an interesting side topic. Sorry, no picture of this interesting part of my life.

Earlier in the evening, Isma, Kristen (another language auxiliar that is in the photos from English camp), and I set out for Madrid to listen to a jazz concert. The three of us went to a bar first to pass the time, and ate some delicious cheese cake. Then, we met another American, Karin (Karina in Spanish), for the concert. It was buenisimo. There were two groups: Carita Boronska Quintet from Denmark and an Spanish orchestra called Santiago de la Muela. The quintet's singer had an awesome voice and could scat like none other. The guitar player was blind and played wonderfully. The second act was great too, like big band, led by a guitarist. I especially enjoyed a guest artist's take on "I couldn't ask for anything more" by Gershwin. It was enjoyable to hear original jazz music and relax for the night. I think I enjoyed the first group the most, since I was half asleep by the end of the concert. Still haven't quite beaten this cold I have.

Today, another lazy day. Cleaning, sewing on buttons and mending clothes, drawing clouds in the park, grocery shopping, and making a wonderful curry lentil soup. And, of course, writing to you all. Today I've also set time aside to study Spanish. I'm learning a lot of Spanish phrases from reading photo comments on facebook. Some really strange things, that thankfully Isma, who speaks English, helps me translate. Like this: estoy mazo grillo. I'm a mallet cricket (literally). Actually, it means "I'm so crazy." Languages are so intriguing and infuriating at the same time.

Spanish-isms

Every once in awhile I hear a phrase in Spanish that is so wonderful, I say...this should exist in English too. But, of course it doesn't, so I'm forced to share it with you in translation instead. Here are some Spanish/Spanish language phrases I like.

Madre de los caramelos!! Mother of the candies!
--used like "Oh my goodness!"

Hijo de la mazorca! Son of a corncob! José's phrase...means the same thing as the first one.

Estoy hecho polvo. I'm made dust I'm exhausted.

Tengo ganas... I feel like doing... Except it sounds way cooler in Spanish.

Entre algodones between cotton (sheets? Refers to sheltered kids.

febrero 21

I was thinking the other day about how much is different here, things I didn’t think about before I got here, and what is the same. I bought Colgate toothpaste because I wasn’t sure what the other brands contained. The food in the supermarket is different, such as there is not cheddar cheese, only white cheese from Denmark or here. There is no spaghetti sauce here either that I’ve seen. And vanilla comes in a powder, which I haven’t found yet. Instead of peanut butter there is Nutella (a great invention, might I add). The cold medicine is not in pill form, instead it is dissolved in water and the efforts to make it taste nice failed. There is a phone in my apartment, but it isn’t used ever except to answer from below the building and let someone in the door. Instead, people have cell phones and we message each other important info with text messages and there are pay phones on many corners. There are lots of small food stores/pharmacies and everything is in walking distance. I don’t even have need to use the bus.

The first weeks have not been too hard, except communication. I am not used to hearing Spanish all around me, so I have to concentrate hard to understand. I mishear things that people say a lot. Asking questions is hard for me too, but not too bad. I try to look up words ahead of time…I delayed going to the bookstore to buy books because I didn’t know how to ask the bookstore if they could order the books from another store.
I am resigned to sounding like I do (well, like a foreigner who doesn’t speak very well). I know that I am improving, little by little. There is nothing else to do other than speak the way I do, and at times I may provide humor for others. Or at least they try hard to understand me. I called a basket a chestnut the other day on accident at the grocery store. Basket=canasta; chestnut=castaña.

I have not had to buy any books except two for my Spanish class…the professors have bibliographies and everything is in the library. I haven’t had any readings to do yet, but I read on my own to gain necessary vocabulary. I still need to finish signing up for classes. I am taking four classes, and attending five. I was going to take five classes, but I realized that it would be too much for me if I want to cook and see things and talk to people. I am taking a women’s studies class, “Mujer, Educación y Trabajo,” a class about the history of education, a Spanish class for foreigners, and a religious studies class, “El Hecho Religioso.” I talked to the professor of the fifth class, “Surrealismo en la literatura y el cine” (surrealism in literature and movies) and he said that it would not be a problem for me to attend and listen without signing up for the class. That’s two less papers and presentations for me! I am enjoying all of my classes so far. It is hard for me to understand everything, but I am told it gets better. I am understanding enough to get the gist of each lecture. The class on Surrealism is the hardest to understand, but I don’t have to worry about that now. My favorite class is the Spanish class. It is very relaxed, the teacher, Javier, is very personable, and the other students all want to learn as well, unlike in the university at home. It is a better format than the classes at home also, with conversation at the base and written exercises as well.

My campus is built in a rectangle, with a green in the center and the buildings around the periphery. All of the classes are in the first building, the Aulario. The main library is the next large building (I posted a picture of it earlier). The other smaller buildings are for each facultad, or school in the university. However, there are not classes in these buildings, just labs and offices and meeting halls.

It has been pointed out to me that my English is pathetic/awkward in these blogs. So, if it is, I am sorry. I am hardly ever speaking English, and perhaps the sentences are phrased more like Spanish grammar. Maybe. Or maybe I just can’t speak English.

February 12

As you will see in the photos that I will be uploading, the city is positioned in a valley between different mountains. It’s not flat here either, but I’m not living on a mountain (at least I don’t think I am). The mountains appear green, or more usually blue, in the distance. I’m not sure how far away they are, but it seems like it would be very possible to bike to them and spend a weekend somewhere in a town and in the mountains. Ximena and I want to bike there if there is a bicycle shop in town that rents bicycles. I would do it if the bicycle shop would buy the bicycle back used at the end of the semester, but we’ll see. There are lots of bicycle shops to try, three within a five minute radius of the apartment building.

In the apartment, there are four of us: me, Ximena from Chile, Erika from Lithuania, and Clem from France. Clem studied here last semester and is leaving for France at the end of February. Taking her place will be another girl from France, Aline. Erika and Aline both arrived this semester, like Ximena and I. Ximena and I spend a lot of time together, sharing our food and meals. It’s good in a place where no one has roots to have someone with to be a little like a family, or to make the apartment more homelike. Erika is away a lot of the time at friends’ apartments and doesn’t talk to the rest of us a lot when she is here. Clem works a lot, so she is not here much either. The apartment is only a five-ten minute walk from campus, and I go between here and there for classes and to use the wi-fi internet on campus. The old part of town, where most people gather for the weekends, is only a fifteen minute walk from the apartment. Nothing is very far away if you are willing to walk.

The schedule here is different than in the US. I eat breakfast after waking, then I might eat a snack, or just wait until about 2:30 or so to eat a heavy lunch. At 8:30 or so we eat supper. Here, lunch is like supper, and supper is a light lunch. The stores here are open from 9-1:30 and 4:30-7:30 or later. The bars are open all day, because they make money with food and other drinks besides alcohol also.

Today I had a Spanish language class for foreigners. There are eight students in my class. It is conversation based, which is very good for me. There was not enough conversation and application of the language at Ball State, nor would the students have applied themselves to take the conversation class seriously had there been more application of the language. I will take this class twice a week for a total of three hours each week. With registration in this class I have access to many programs to practice vocabulary, movies to borrow, and books to read. I think that I will be spending a lot of time there in the library of the Centro de Idiomas.

It’s now about midnight, so I’m going to call it a night. I will post this tomorrow. Hope that everyone at home is doing well.