Learning

Here´s a list of things I´m learning to do here:

-understand people that speak with a lisp as their natural accent, it´s hard, but it´s getting easier. My host mom does a pretty good job of speaking clear to me but definitely still has a strong accent compared to Spanish speakers elsewhere in the world.

-eat faster. My host mom eats really fast and since it´s just her and I she always waits for me to finish before moving on to the next course. She usually has to wait a long time, I´m a very slow eater. She also eats with her bread in one hand and fork in the other which aids in her quickness which I have yet to learn how to do. I like eating with one hand. However, I don´t know that I want to learn to eat faster because she´s starting to give me less food so it doesn´t take me as long. Getting the Spanish mothers to feed you less is a hard thing to do. It´s nice though that I only live with my host mom because then she cooks a lot less.

-walk aimlessly for infinite amounts of time. If I come home from somwhere and it´s not a mealtime my host mom usually won´t be home so I drop off my backpack and just take off walking the streets of Segovia. I love it. The other night I went to the Plaza Mayor and took some sweet pictures.

-drink chocolate caliente which is basically a melted down bar of chocolate in a glass. It´s very thick and rich and nothing like American chocolate.

-accept that it´s going to take a long time to blend in. Everybody knows we´re Americans no matter where we go.

-journal multiple times daily. I´ve been abroad 4 times and never journaled and always regret not doing it. My dear friend Allison gave me a journal to bring with and I´ve been really good about keeping up with it. It´s easy to do because we have so much down time.

-live slower.

-build my Spanish vocabulary. Everyday I´m learning tons of new vocab words including burbujas (bubbles) and brujería (witchcraft) and my favorite... alunziar (to land on the moon)