Happy anniversary to me!
May 15th, 2007, 10:26 am
Last Monday marked the third-month anniversary of my glorious trip to Argentina. Whoa. That’s a whole summer break! Time is going by way too fast. Sigh. If things continue to be like this, seven months will go by before I know it.
While most of you are enjoying the warm spring weather up north, fall is well underway down in Argentina. I’m in the Southern Hemisphere, remember? It’s like Oppositeland here. The highs have been in the 60s/50s and the lows have been in the 50s/40s for the past two weeks. That doesn’t sound too cold, but when you factor in the humidity, it’s freezing without it actually being freezing. Okay, you know what I meant. I find it far more pleasant than the steaming hot weather that greeted me for the first few weeks of my stay.
Speaking of weather, I should learn Celsius. Fahrenheit is no good here. Or anywhere outside of the US.
Unfortunately, it looks like the vacation period of my study abroad is finally coming to an end. The last week two weeks have been pretty hectic. I’ve been swamped with hundreds of pages of reading. If they were in English, I could read them relatively quickly. Sometimes it takes me five to ten minutes to read a page. En serio. It’s really frustrating. I usually understand about 85% or more of what I read, but it just takes forever to go through everything simply because I’ve never had to read so much in Spanish, especially in such complicated language. Still, the situation I’ve gotten myself into is completely my fault. I would probably be fine if I had kept up with the readings. No, not probably. I would be.
Yes, I actually intend to study during study abroad.
I nearly lost my debit card last week. As I was about to leave my place for class on Thursday, I realized that it wasn’t in my wallet. I furiously searched my drawers and found nothing. Then I remembered I had used it withdraw cash from an ATM at a bank a few blocks away that Tuesday. Luckily, I had the receipt for my last transaction in my wallet. I used that and my passport to prove that the card was indeed mine. Phew. I doubt that whoever turned it in to the bank didn’t write down my number, but I think I’m gonna cancel my card just in case.
Interestingly, the longer I spend here, the worse my English gets. For example, I accidentally said “band” Friday night when I meant gang. I realized how awkward that sounded right after I said it. The Spanish word for gang is banda, so I mixed up the two words in my head. Sometimes, when I speak English, the words just don’t come out of my mouth. I guess I’m just too used to speaking Spanish that it’s hard to switch back to English mode.
As I have hoped, my Spanish has improved amazingly over the past three months. I was hardly able to form a coherent sentence for the first week I was here, and my comprehension skills were even worse. But now I can generally carry on a conversation with no major problems and understand most of what people say. And because I’m forced to speak Spanish day in and day out, I no longer hesitate when I speak, but I do still slip occasionally, especially when I can’t think of the right word. But then again, I have this tendency to slip a lot when I speak English, my native language.
I learn Spanish everywhere: in my host family’s home, in class, at the grocery store, on the bus, in the subte (subway), on the streets, at the mosque, in restaurants, in public restrooms, at the bank, everywhere.
As a good study abroad student should, I’ve done a great job limiting my contact with Americans. I do this intentionally to avoid speaking English constantly. Most students in the study abroad program hang out with just Americans, so I don’t think they’re learning as much Spanish as they could be. I would probably be in their shoes (well, maybe not as much) if I hadn’t met Rashmee, a fellow Bangladeshi American that has been here for over a year. Thanks for introducing me to your odd collection of Argentine friends! They make for some good stories. Some of the most… interesting people I’ve met.
While still on the topic of language, I was told that I pronounce the word “debate” with a Bengali accent. This is probably something I just never noticed or that I developed here. I have English, Bengali, and Spanish running through my head constantly, so I tend to mix up the languages a lot. Considering I usually speak with an American Midwestern accent, I would be shocked if I pronounced it like that back in the States.
Listo chau.