February Updates

Here’s some things that have happened since getting back from Barcelona:

1. I finished my exams! Or should I say exam, as I had only one physical test. I crammed for a few days about lots of linguistic figures who helped make Spanish the beautiful and complicated language it is today, and can assure you that I started purging my brain of the information the minute I left the testing room. Although classes are a lot easier here, I must say that professors expect a lot from you in the exams, and if you’ve never tried memorizing important things in a foreign language, let me tell you it is challenging. For the most crucial facts I decided to translate the notes into English, memorize it in my native tongue, and then translate those details back into Spanish for the test. I want to say everything went well, but I was about the third out of 50 students to leave the room, which I wouldn’t say is a good sign…
2. I suddenly feel rich, as I spent much of this week helping a man improve his English conversation, as well as continuing to give English lessons to the little boys. The feeling of Euros hanging out in my pockets is a bit dangerous, because, when combined with the end of finals and the need to feel a taste of the nightlife again, the tapas bars have never seen so much of me.
3. For Valentine's day my mom sent me a package which, among other things, contained Mac n' Cheese. As great as these care packages are, they keep reminding me of things that Spain is missing out on. How can a child here grow up without Kraft? It simply doesn't make any sense. I thought Globalization was supposed to put an end to that kind of atrocity....
4. Teaching English lessons to the little boys Eduar and Alejandro is quickly becoming one of the most rewarding parts of my experience here, and I look forward to it twice a week. They always seem excited when I arrive and sad when I tell them the lesson is over. On Tuesday we made Valentine’s Day cards, although Eduar was too embarrassed to make one for his six-year-old love so ended up writing it to his parents instead. And on Thursday we continued to learn parts of the house by playing Hide and Seek, which is really more of a silent game but maybe in the process they learned “table” and “door.” One can hope.
5. As much as I bashed Ryanair in my previous post, it turns out that the airline helps bring family together. My sister will be in Berlin for two weeks at the end of this month, and I’m traveling to Italy at the same time. It just so happens that there was a 10-euro flight in between Germany and Rome, so Katie and I can reunite for my birthday! Although I’ve basically been 21 for six months now, we can celebrate in a tranquil manner, and I think pizza and wine will feel better the next day than the typical American celebratory shots.

Tomorrow morning I’m off to Cadiz for Carnaval!!! Blog to follow if I survive it.