1. Never, ever, under ANY circumstance wear boots or shoes of any kind that are not completely worn in for a full day of walking. If this suggestion is overlooked, it may result in quarter sized blisters which I don't need to tell you, are extremely painful. If you try to render the situation by walking on the side of your foot, your foot will swell and you'll have a bad day. Guaranteed.
Yes, I did learn this from experience. No, I do not wish to repeat it.
2. Everyone in Europe smokes. Yes, it is intolerable for the first few days, after awhile, however, one becomes almost immune to the smell...not something I would recommend. The first night we went out, I came back to the hotel smelling, no, reeking of smoke. It was similar to the smell of someone's house/room/apartment when they don't clean very often, yet still smoke inside, only it was stuck to me. It was horrible.
However, now, after being her for almost a week, the only time I notice it is when I walk through a smoke cloud, or directly after I get out of the shower.
3. Know your host family's names...A continuation from the last post, yes, our sister's name is Maria!
4. If you're an American, you can forget about trying to blend in. From the volume of our voices, to our over use of eye contact, to our NorthFace-everything, our white tennis shoes, and surprisingly, our politeness, they know us from a mile away! Sad, but very true. I guess I will be a tourist for the rest of my life :)
Those are enough of the lesson for now...
We went to see the Cathedral in Sevilla yesterday. It is so beautiful. We hiked to the top of the bell tower, which is supposedly the tallest point in the city, and from there, you can see the entire city. I had no idea Sevilla was this big! To get to the top of the tower, we didn't take stairs, there weren't any; it was a ramp the whole way. I was thinking, well, at least a very ambitious person in a wheelchair can see the sights this view has to offer...but then I was corrected by George, one of the guys from TCU, saying they made it that way so someone could ride up it on his horse. How cool would it be to race up a cobblestone tower on a horse! But then it dawned on me, with some help from Kelli, that maybe it was created that way so someone could get to the top quickly to sound an alarm...
Also, we had our cafe, or a coffee break at the Alfonso XIII, the five star hotel in Sevilla. It is breathtaking and the hot chocolate was delicious...like hot pudding, rich and creamy! Perfect for the extremely cold weather we're experiencing right now!
I am still getting used to using my Spanish, and still am forgetting some of the words, but with our first day of school today, I'm hoping that being even more exposed to it will force me to "use my words" and begin to be comfortable. My Senora, Carmen, is very patient and willing to help me along, which is nice. Everyone else is the same way, they want you to learn their language and are so happy you are trying and showing an effort.
I think that's one big difference between Spain and America. If we see someone struggling with English at home, some people will be friendly and helpful and happy they're attempting to learn English, however, others are snobby and think, gosh, it isn't that hard, why don't they try harder? Well newsflash. Learning a new language is VERY difficult. Well, enough venting for one post...another topic, shall we?
Last night we were watching tv with our Spanish family and we saw a commercial for LOST, one of my very favorite tv shows...and I got really sad, I'm not sure if I'll be able to follow it in Spanish, but by golly I'm going to try! We watched a Spanish Telenovela, a soap, and then CSI: Miami. The Telenovela I could follow a little bit, but when it was over and they switched to CSI, I couldn't understand a word. I realized that I was watching the people's lips, but they were saying things in English, but I was hearing Spanish...it was confusing. Needless to say, I chose that time to head to bed and read!
Speaking of reading, I've already finished one of the many books I brought with me.
Until next time,
Infinite X's and O's
LTA
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Hi Lauren, Thanks for the wonderful post. I think I have learned a couple of the same lessons, from walking to smoking. It sounds like you are having a great start, and you are doing so well with improving your language acquisition. Gaining language capacity means making mistakes, and you're right--in Europe people generally are much more patient than people over here with non-native speakers. I found watching television to be a great help in learning a language. When I living in Germany, television was one of my best language instructors. Good insights into the culture too. Your posts are fun to read. thanks, Dan Williams
ReplyDeleteI love the white tennisshoes :) That´s definitely true, it´s how I always spot Americans :)
ReplyDeleteGreat posts, looking forward to reading more!
Love you!
I went through the same language barrier the first month I was in madrid. getting used to vosotros, which i have to use a lot as a teacher, was really hard. But now the teachers always say "te recuerdas octubre, cuando no pudiste decir nada? mira! tu castellano se ha mejorado un montón!"
ReplyDeleteThere are also so many words they don't teach you that are used coloquially (here are some examples, from my past failures)
quedar - to hang out or meet up
un montón - a lot
me da igual - doesn't matter
no pasa nada - no worries
que lo pases bien - have a good time!
coger- take (NOT tomar)
pesado- annoying or crazy
also a way to spot americans: backpacks
:)