Julio was right, this is a rollercoaster. There are some down hills, lots of uphills, and lots of twists, turns, and looptyloops. The first two weeks were downhill, but the "honeymoon phase" is over. This week was only uphills and loops. The language barrier has stopped being funny to me. I'm tired of feeling stupid all day.
I am, however, learning the language faster than I thought I would. The improvement doesn't simply go 1,2,3,4, but rather 1,2,4,8... Each day I learn more than I did the previous day. It has taken me 17 years to be as comfortable with the English language as I am, so I am not expecting to be fluent in Spanish after just one month. After all, I still have 10 months to go.
On monday, I got back some tests that I took last week, 8 on the math, 10 on english (go figure.) They do it out of 10 here. Didn't get the biology test back yet, but I'm not expecting much when the majority of my answers contained mostly pictures and arrows. I knew the answers too, it was just very hard to explain in Spanish when I have such a basic vocabulary right now.
The rest of the week was very normal and boring. I spend my time in school trying to understand the teachers, and my classmates. I can usually understand short sentences, but when the sentence is long, I miss a word and try to get it back, but by that time the sentence is over and I've already missed the start of the next one. It is very hard. I get headaches all the time. Sometimes I wake up with a headache. It is because my brain is growing, but I think also because I am growing as a person.
Being away from home for so long already, I feel a lot more mature and independent. My family here is nice to me and all, but I can't say I feel "at home." They are still my hosts to me, but maybe they will be my family, too, in time. In the house, I am very bored. There are three things I can do: play guitar (though my guitar here is awful), watch tv (which I don't understand), or go on the computer (which is quite boring). All the time I spend in the house, doing nothing, is time I have to think. This can be good at times but many times free time to think can be a bad thing. In these times I think about how much I miss my real family, and about how I am only one month finished and ten months to go.
I can't lie, I was pretty down by friday. I felt like I was missing something, but I didn't know what it was. The politics teacher was ill, so we had a "falta." My mates invited me to Futbol Cinco. I didn't have my shoes or shorts, but I couldn't pass up a chance to play soccer. I rolled up my jeans and played barefoot, and I expressed two weeks worth of goals and skills. I tore it up. Afterwards, I felt great. I felt I had returned to a stasis that I had been away from all week. I realized that soccer will be my savior while here. I will ask my family next week to arrange a try out. I know the bus system and the city layout enough now to be ready for it.
I thought before I left that it would be a great personal challenge to talk to people while here. I have found, however, that the challenge lies in accepting all of the attention I get. I can't walk from class to class without people stopping me to talk. I sometimes wish I could be "normal."
We didn't have school on Monday or today, because it is spring break. We only get two days off here! On sunday, there was a huge party for my school to celebrate the coming of "Primavera" in which the 4th, 5th, and 6th year students were all invited. It was in a field, in an area that for some reason reminded me of Waterford. There was reggaeton and cumbia blasting the whole time. I went with my friend Ignacio. He stayed with me for most of the party. He told me to "just keep moving." I felt like a fish, in a small pool of sharks. But I had a bleeding wound - I was foreign. They could smell my US blood from the other side of the pool. I had to keep swimming. Me and Ignacio made a code word. It was "panda." "Yeah you know, one thing I don't like about Argentina is that I haven't seen any pandas." At this point Ignacio would grab me and take me away from the conversation. This party was a lot more fun than the first, but I was still pretty uncomfortable for most of it.
This week was tough, but it can't be uphill forever. Hopefully this week was so I could fly downhill for a little while. I need that right now.
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