Monday, June 23, 2008

Monday

Sorry it's a bit long.



Today was very hard for me. I’m PMSing, and overall, just in a bad mood. Last night, I was able to keep my hip from hurting (I sound like an old hag), but something was going on and these dogs were barking like mad. Not to mention the bird that chirps every ~4 seconds all night long – it’s like I’m in the jungle. I bet the amazon is blaring with noises, who could ever sleep with that? Ok, so I woke up tired, like I said before, I’m just not adjusting to the time difference very well, and having nothing to do all weekend long really messed up my sleeping habits. So we went off to school today, it’s supposed to go from 8:00am-2:20pm, Monday through Friday. We get there and they don’t have Drew or me scheduled for a class until 9:00am. This little difference threw me off and I about lost it. It’s not a big deal, but I just sat there not knowing what to do since they had told me 8:00, and really, I don’t have a class til 9:00. Turns out (after whining and freaking out for half an hour), Drew went and asked why, and it’s because we are in classes by ourselves, and since we are by ourselves, we are able to learn faster than those in a group. Those in a group are more proficient and can work off of one another rather than us retards that don’t know crap.

So we sat outside in the cafeteria type place to get on the internet for an hour while we waited. My internet was sucking big time. I could not connect for more than about 2 minutes at a time, I was PISSED! To say the least! I had a minor panic attack in the bathroom, tried to calm down and come back to my cpu to no avail. It just wouldn’t work. I was able to check my email accounts and upload my 2 blogs to blogspot, and nothing else. So, I’m sorry for all of the unanswered posts on facebook and blogs, etc. I’m hoping to get to them. If not, Michele, I miss you too, very much! And Rachael, I’m not dead yet, but give me a few days. J I think those were the two main things I really wanted to get to today, but I couldn’t. argh!

So after my breakdown over my computer, and finding out what the hell was going on, we went and did whatever, and for some reason, I had yet again, another breakdown, had to excuse myself to the bathroom and calm down. Those bathrooms and I are going to become best friends, I can already tell. We are such best friends that I could totally tell that whoever was in there before me was smoking a doobie. Hahaha how the crap can you learn Spanish if you’re high!?! I’d like to know…maybe it’d help? LOL

I went to my class, totally freaked out, red eyed, not wanting to. I just don’t understand how to speak this shizz and can only understand conversations if it’s in context (and only parts here and there). I went to my little room and Vanessa was there to greet me. She’s younger – in her 20’s and she was asking me questions – of which, I do not know. I kept telling her no entiendo (don’t understand), and finally, she whispered to me, don’t tell my boss I can speak English, he feels that if we speak English to you, you won’t understand, but really, some people just don’t get Spanish, and they aren’t going to if you can’t explain a few things first. That made me feel SOOOOOOO GOOOOOODDDDD, you have no idea! So I was able to ask her how to say specific words in English, and most of the time, she was able to act them out well enough for me to understand. Now am I able to reproduce the words I learned? Nope….but I figured I’d work on what I “learned” today after I finish with this. We took a break after 50 minutes and came back and did verbs. I was one on one for the first hour, but a girl named Kate showed up for the second hour and we’re going to be in the same class together this week. She doesn’t know any Spanish either….in fact, less than I do, just because she doesn’t understand it. Maybe being here for 4 days with deer in headlights eyes has helped for something? I was able to translate some stuff for her to help her out. It made me feel good.

After that 2 hour (total) block of grammatica (grammar), we had a descanso (break) and you can buy food, sit around, do whatever. Drew and I were both hungry, so we bought a quesadilla to split. It was 20 pesos = $2.00. That was for 40 minutes, and then we had our conversacion espanol, where we sit with an instructor and have a conversation. Kate was with me again, and I don’t remember the name of the maestro (teacher) – (see, I’m learning some junk. Hahaha). He was pretty cool. He talked slowly and simply enough that I was able to catch most of it. What I didn’t catch, he’d tell us in English. That was from 11:30-12:50, so an hour and 20 minutes? After that, we had conferencia o espanol situacional (situational Spanish conversations) from 1:00pm-2:20pm. Today, we learned about El Cine (the movies). We had to come up with sentences pretending to go to the movies, or things we’d do there, things we’d watch, etc. That was entertaining enough. Then we spent a good half an hour going over movies we liked or didn’t like. Kate was in my group, as well as some other girl named Briyanna (Brianna) – she was lame. Before the group started, I had asked her how long she’d been here, she said a week, but this week is much better. I said, so you had a hard first week then? Cause I’m having a hard time. She said, yeah, but I’ve traveled all over, so it really isn’t a big deal. So I sat there thinking, well, is it a big deal, or isn’t it? Freak. Then she said that her classes were too easy last week, and this week she’s where she was when she left off for summer at school. Then we go into this situational Spanish class and her pronunciation SUCKS, like VAIRDAY for verde type shizz, it was ridiculous. Yeah, I might not know how to say a whole lotta stuff, but at least the instructor isn’t laughing at my pronunciation. Hahahaha

After our classes, we finally had our orientation, which was basically the same thing as what I’d read online, and what I’d figured out already. The ladies name was Carmen, she was old, like 60’s? maybe? And she wasn’t wearing a bra, and had on a white shirt. If I had been able to take a candid picture, I totally would have. IN FACT!!! She totally reminded me of a Latina, thin Liza Minelli. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I think that’s perfect!

After orientation, we went back to our home and had lunch (it has another name but I forget). Lydia had two guys from her office over to eat with us. Having all these random people over for dinner is really weird. I had asked where Horacio was and she told me he was over at Rita’s house. (Rita is Horacio’s daughter). We ate around 3:45, and didn’t leave the table until 5:50. I can’t believe how much these people sit around and chat. Maybe if I was more proficient with my Spanish, it wouldn’t be a problem, but since I can’t reply to anything, I just sit there and observe and it gets boring VERY fast.

So now I’m here on my brick bead, typing away. Drew had homework from his maestra to conjugate some verbos en espanol. I don’t. They know I’m retarded and to ask me to make sentences where the verbs are conjugated would just be shooting myself in the foot.

So here are some things I have observed. I’m sure I’ve left some out, but this will do.

1. at eating times, people will reach across the table rather than ask to pass it. They will say permiso (like excuse me) and just grab things.

2. during meal times, they stuff everything into a tortilla. If it isn’t soup- in which you dunk it into your soup- it goes into a tortilla. If I don’t take a tortilla and eat it ALL, I get some nasty looks. I get a lot of nasty looks since I don’t always take one…it’s just too much food.

3. during meals, people double fist things. They will hold their tortilla goodness in one hand and shovel in other stuff that’s on their plate with the other hand, and then eat their tortilla again. It seems very slovenly.

4. They’ll eat whatever. There was sour cream on the table yesterday, Lucy, one of Horacio’s daughters tipped the lid, so the sour cream got on the tablecloth, so she swiped it up with her finger and ate it. Not that this is a big deal, but to see someone else do it was very strange.

5. They share a lot – for example, if they have coffee or wine, they’ll drink out of each others cups, even if there are mouth marks, they just don’t seem to care.

6. You have to say con permiso to leave a group of people. It is a sign of respect, and I forget often. Hahaha

7. They make this junk out of milk, sugar and vanilla, and I can’t remember the name…chucas, chupas, etc? I don’t know. Anyway, it has the consistency of mozzarella cheese, but not salty, instead, drenched in sugar. It looks like chicken cooked in soy sauce, but I have decided I like it very much. I need to figure out what it is and what it’s called when I can get back online.

8. I’m still not used to the toilet paper in the trash can. I messed up twice today. I hope I don’t ruin anything. It’s just gross. Esp. next week. HAHAHAHAHA grooossss!!!

9. The mannerisms here are just different. I’m thinking of the roles of the male and female. The guy is supposed to be all macho and everything, but when it comes to house things, they do NOTHING, NADA, ZERO, ZILCH! The guy is waited on hand and foot at this place – at least horacio is. These 2 guys today weren’t as bad, but freak, yesterday was quite an eye opener. He would have whoever was sitting by him dump sour cream on his tortilla, or go get him another drink, the guy wouldn’t move. Someone spilled peanuts by him, and instead of helping them clean them up, he just sat there. I was honestly a little appalled at his behavior toward women. Call me a feminist cause I just don’t think that’s right.

10. The other weird thing that I haven’t quite figured out is family situations. Yesterday for dinner, Horacio’s 3 daughters, Rita, Barbara and Lucy came over for dinner. Barbara and Lucy (I think) are both married, and both have kids. Rita doesn’t have either, so it’s understandable for her. Anyway, the kids don’t come, the spouses don’t come, it’s like they only invite who they want to, and the rest have to fend for themselves, or something? It’s just really weird. It’s like if my mom invited me over for dinner, but not Drew. I would just think that was extremely rude and inconsiderate, as I would think many other people would think the same?!

11. The last thing I can think of is that my mind is extremely scattered. I end up not remembering the English word for some things, and then sometimes the sentences in my head are broken English, it’s horrible, and I’m not sure why that’s happening. It’s not like I’m able to substitute Spanish words for the English words, it’s just that maybe being around all this broken English is making things worse for me than anything else.

Oh, and excursions this week that we’re going to do:

Tuesday, there is an artisan class that we can make things around 430? It’s free!

Wednesday, they are playing a movie at the school. I’m not sure what time.

Thursday is another artisan workshop

Friday, nada

Saturday – some pyramids and a cathedral in Mexico City. We leave at 8am, and were told we wouldn’t be back til 8pm. This is also Drew’s birthday, so I think Lydia is going to want to invite people over and bake a cake for Drew on Sunday- THAT is going to be stressful. But I am 5 days down, 54 to go. 1 day down of classes, 39 to go. How pathetic.

I think I’m going to go look over the stuff I wrote down today. It was a lot, and I’ll see if I can figure out how to conjugate verbs in English so that I can translate it into Spanish. Hah!

3 comments:

Michele said...

I think you totally should do all the things at the school each day. They will probably help your Spanish more than anything else. Your trip on Saturday will be great. You need to let the school know it is Drew's birthday so they can sing to him while on the bus or something! MILK IT! He is 30!!
I love your blogs.

R. said...

Hey, you are picking stuff up! Yaaay! Hehehe. Now you just need to learn Korean so we can eavesdrop on the nail techs!!! HA!

The eating stuff + the machismo both sound like bad news bears. Culture shock!!!

<3! Love the updates, keep them coming!!! =D

Oh, and I was TOTES BFF's the the MAT bathroom, ugh. I hated the first 2 months so bad and almost everyone there (except you and Kristi of course!) and wanted to drop out sooo effing badly. And I was counting down the days long before anyone else seemed to be doing so, hehehe..... so I know you pain! <3!!!

Unknown said...

ahhh!!! Number nine would drive me bonkers!