Sevillanova
No entiendo.
That seems to be my favorite word so far, as I am the ONLY one of the diesiete estudiantes that does not understand a word of Spanish. SWEET. So as you can tell....I am some what bitter with my primera dias en espana. The teachers talk about a mile a min, the other kids understand and laugh, and I stare blankly ahead and wonder....what the HELL was I thinking coming to Spain????
But I found out my host family today--I am living with a girl and her 20 year-old hermano (brother) so I hope they are very helpful and act like my parents so that I can possibly learn more than 3 words of Spanish and possibly hold a conversation and pass my classes.
Then today we had sessions about health, safety, etc. And I got really sick, as I was sweating uncontrollably and not able to stand and felt faint. SO I went back to the hotel and slept all morning until it was time for lunch, or topas, and the guides came to my door and could have said "quiere comer?" which easily I could have understood as --do you want to eat? But instead said something ridiculous that was not easy to understand so I just stood behind the door in my undies and tshirt and kept sayin "no entiendo" til the boy guide behind the girl said "comer in 5 mins" and so I rushed to put clothes on and came downstairs and the front desk man said, they told me to tell you go to the place? WHAT THE HELL IS THE PLACE? so I wandered, almost cried about 10x, and then went back in and asked which way they went, and he said "to the place (he pronounced it palace) from before.
OH. Well that would have helped to know --so I went to the place from "before" and got my housing assignment, which no one showed me where it was--and I still don;t know.
overall...I miss the UNITED STATES.
I should have gone to Australia. Hot boys, great accents, good whether, and they speak English. Oh well.....We will see what happens.
That seems to be my favorite word so far, as I am the ONLY one of the diesiete estudiantes that does not understand a word of Spanish. SWEET. So as you can tell....I am some what bitter with my primera dias en espana. The teachers talk about a mile a min, the other kids understand and laugh, and I stare blankly ahead and wonder....what the HELL was I thinking coming to Spain????
But I found out my host family today--I am living with a girl and her 20 year-old hermano (brother) so I hope they are very helpful and act like my parents so that I can possibly learn more than 3 words of Spanish and possibly hold a conversation and pass my classes.
Then today we had sessions about health, safety, etc. And I got really sick, as I was sweating uncontrollably and not able to stand and felt faint. SO I went back to the hotel and slept all morning until it was time for lunch, or topas, and the guides came to my door and could have said "quiere comer?" which easily I could have understood as --do you want to eat? But instead said something ridiculous that was not easy to understand so I just stood behind the door in my undies and tshirt and kept sayin "no entiendo" til the boy guide behind the girl said "comer in 5 mins" and so I rushed to put clothes on and came downstairs and the front desk man said, they told me to tell you go to the place? WHAT THE HELL IS THE PLACE? so I wandered, almost cried about 10x, and then went back in and asked which way they went, and he said "to the place (he pronounced it palace) from before.
OH. Well that would have helped to know --so I went to the place from "before" and got my housing assignment, which no one showed me where it was--and I still don;t know.
overall...I miss the UNITED STATES.
I should have gone to Australia. Hot boys, great accents, good whether, and they speak English. Oh well.....We will see what happens.
posted by Deirdre at 5:46 PM
12 Comments:
i know this is tough, but parts of that post are funny. in 2 months you are gonna laugh at this. I PROMISE.
no entiendo!
Found you through your mom's blog. Whew girl, homesick + sick + no habla espanol = tough! This will get easier though and you'll end up having an awesome experience that will last you for a lifetime...and who knows but you might bump into an Aussie boy or two in Espana! Keep writing...it helps!
ay ay ay. lo siento!!! it'll get better though. the spanish accent is different than what you're used to probably, so it'll just take some time getting used to.
don't discount those hot spanish men though!! ;) and flamenco dancing, y la guitarra Y LA COMER!!!
I know it may seem like you are a stranger in a strange land, but what a wonderful experience.
The only real sentence I can always remember after 4 yrs. of spanish in HS and college?
"Donde esta la casa de Pepe." :)
You'll come out of this on top...enjoy the ride.
Hey D.,
It'll get better, I promise. I remember being in London at 16, where I was totally homesick. But when I got back stateside, all I could think about was how different and new and exciting my three weeks were in Belgium, Scotland, and England.
Well, I can tell already that you know more than 3 words in spanish. Obviously the most important phrase is ¿Dondé esta el baño? I mean really. And then you might learn Quiero una mas cervesa por favor Señor Guapo. And then possibly ¿Estos zapatos vienen en otros colores? And I expect you'll learn the name of every type of pastry in the shop, and if you're smart, how to make them. Besos !
Ah - culture shock. Unavoidable. Ditto homesickness. I had a French student live with us once and she was so disillusioned and unhappy at first. She had had fantasies of wild nights, dancing the Lambada at Le Club only to learn that
a). She wasn't old enough to go to Le Club
b). Nobody in the US was doing the Lambada.
I'm sure she wanted to go home immediately. She ended up staying the extra month that was allowed because she was having such a great time.
Hang tough and never forget you know more Spanish than you think. Burrito! Taco! Sarape! See - no problemo.
ps - I'm the person you met at Fisherman's wharf when your Mom was out in SF.
Just wanted to give you some encouragement to hang in there. I spent a semester in Valencia a few years ago (oh hell, has it already been four years since I've graduated!!!) and had a similar experience at the beginning. My Spanish sucked, I was homesick, and I asked myself why I had ever decided to go to Spain (culture shock is not cool, lesson learned). But, it did get easier, and I ended up having a lot of fun. You will look back on these experiences one day and laugh as your mom said. I look back on the beginning of my semester abroad and think, "Wow, I am so much stronger than I gave myself credit for".
Hi, D
Hang in there, you're going to do great!
I know that you have heard some of my Paris stories from my youth - more decades ago than I want to admit to in a public space. But, you have probably only heard the "good" stories. I probably never told you about the first few weeks. Like you, I was more than a bit language-challenged when I got there - two years of college French did not prepare me for real French people speaking NOTHING BUT FRENCH at 90 mph. It all seemed like one very long word with no breaths in between. Everyone else in my group had 2 years of ADVANCED college French, because they had 4-6 years in high school and middle school before they ever hit a college campus. All of them were French majors. I was a Business major. AND, I was put in the very same level of French language classes as they were. I spent a lot of time catching every 10th word or so and asking everyone else what the Prof. said later. They all helped me, Thank God, and I mostly used their notes and not mine. Which were not very complete..... To make up for this in my non-language classes, I chose those with minimal French language needs - I took Spanish (I really did. Spanish 1 meant a level playing field for everyone) and art and architecture - I could concentrate on paintings, sculpture and famous Paris buildings and minimize the need for actual French words. Your mum tells me that you can take Flamenco dancing - for credit. Go for it! And get one of these incredibly sexy dresses before you come home. Kev will LOVE it!
Back to Paris. After a couple of weeks it started to rain. Every, single day. In fact, I didn't see blue sky for an entire month - not until I went to SPAIN for the All Saint's Day holiday, where it was SUNNY. (Catholic holidays are one advantage of going to school in nominally Catholic countries) I didn't know about this part of life in the City of Lights (the rain). I thought it only rained in London. And coming from So Cal, which I had never left up to this point, rain was not something I knew how to cope with. DEPRESSING -rain, rain, rain. Why on earth did I ever think of going to Paris? Sound familiar?
But, as you know, the languaage got better, I bought an umbrella (actually about one/month because I kept losing them - not used to having to carry one ALL the time), and learned to love the ambiance of Paris cafes ( a good French/American word, so one fewer for the vocab list) and eventually learned to talk a bit even though my grammar was horrible, and happily discovered that most people wanted to help me learn the language. Even in Paris. But to this day, I can't pronounce "yaourt". Or "Rue" for that matter.
You know from my stories of life in the olden days, that my French adventure was one of the very BEST things I ever did. Ups and downs - yes - lots of them. But, every bit of it was worth it in the end.
You're in sunny Spain - a fabulous place to be.
ENJOY!!
love, j
lol. just came to see if there were any new stories... your bf's mom needs a blog. thats a seriously long comment.
hope your off too busy to blog, but now you've got blog stalkers. we need our fix!
It's not such good weather her4e in Australia, and the food although good wouldn't be all that exotic and there's no groovy architecture either. So Spain was a good choice :)
Little by little you'll feel better
Hi Dee, When I landed in Buenos Aires, they took us to a hotel before the cruise ship. So I was looking for a bathroom, and I saw this girl with a cell phone and a walkie talkie and a business suit. So I Como esta el bano? She looked at me and did not respond. And then I said the toillettes, the bathroom, the restroom. She started walking and never said a word. When we get to the bathroom, she turned to me and said: I speak English and I don't work here. So I thought, welcome to South America.
It's going to get better.
Your favorite Aunt Donna
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