Coral Fingernails and Buck Teeth

Lo siento, lo siento. The internet here has been down for two days, so the writing has been suspended. Additionally, there´s not too much to report at the moment. Life is pretty tranquila here.

I finished up 2B yesterday with a 96 on my test. I had to take the test separately from the rest of the class so I could have a helper to write for me. Taking a test that way is quite difficult, I have to say. There was lots of short answer stuff on the test - "What are your plans for this year? What do you think about life on other planets? Do you think beauty pagents help or hurt the image of women? Define, in your own words, marriage. Pollution. Abortion. Etc." Entonces, it was very dificil to formulate these things out loud and not be able to revise. Plus, though I know the profesor helping me also thought the questions were silly and stupid, I still felt un poco embarrassed to have to talk about life on other planets and pollution in my decent, but still very basic, Spanish. "Contaminacion es cuando un lugar es muy sucio y hay basura en las calles y la gente no puede beber la agua." Que?

I realize that I haven´t talked about my progress with the language learning lately. (Language learning lately!) The learning is going well, for the most part. The past two weeks I have had Samanta for my teacher, and I would give her a so-so rating. Although I know my Spanish has improved under her direction, I don´t feel like I have made as much progress as in previous weeks. She speaks very quickly (which is getting easier to deal with, thank goodness), and she rarely writes anything on the board, which rubs me in a not so nice way. I am, I have learned, a very visual learner. I need to see things spelled out in front of me, need to write them at least once myself, for them to stick. Entonces, whenever Samanta introduced a new word, I would say, "que?" Then she´d repeat the word, and I´d say "que?" again. Then she´d repeat it again, and I´d say "como letras? (how do you spell it?)" And then, instead of just writing the stupid word on the board, she´d spell it out loud, which is really hard because the letters are pronounced differently. Then she´d say, "Entendes? You understand?" And I´d say, "esta bien".

(My friend Elian says "esta bien" is my favorite phrase in class - I say it every time I don´t understand something but want Samanta to stop talking to me. Esta bien. It´s fine. Forget it. Never mind. I love being passive aggressive.)

Samanta is a 25 year old gal, with a massive load of brown hair that hangs down to her butt and a mouth full of buck teeth. She has long pointy fingernails that she painted coral this week, and wears lime green espadrilles every day. I am only trying to paint a picture for you.

There were six of us this class, four girls, and two, admittedly, very attractive guys from Suiza. To me, and to the rest of the girls in class, the handsome-ness of these guys faded the second they opened their mouths, but Samanta was obsessed. Totally smitten. And it was awfully obnoxious to have to watch her embarrassing flirtations with them. Every time one of them would say anything, she´d open up that big mouth and just laugh, laugh, laugh. Like a horse. Oh, I am being mean now. But that´s what it´s like, and I need to give you an accurate description of things so you can imagine them...accurately.

Anyway, watching someone do this makes me uncomfortable and embarrassed, on top of distracting me from my studies. That uncontrollable laughter. We have all been there, I think. So embarrassing! I just had to cover my eyes with my working hand. Por favor!

Okay, I have gotten off track now. I was supposed to be discussing my Spanish progress.

I am progressing. And I am spending most of my time with a group of folks from Suiza, so we frequently have to speak in Spanish to avoid the Swiss-German that I don´t know, and the English that a few of them don´t know. This is the best practice, to me. Just talking. If you say "Fui" (I went) enough, it sticks, and the next time you want to tell someone where you went, you don´t have to take the time to search for the correct conjugation and whatnot. It just comes out.

I find myself constantly trying to translate the thoughts in my head, as I am walking down the street, or as I am typing. Makes for a very busy mind!

I am taking one more week of classes, and though I am ready for a break from them, I am also terrified of losing anything I have learned. And now that I have officially mastered (or almost mastered) the basics, I just want to know more and more. Gimme, gimme.

Language is a really interesting concept. I think about it a lot here, obviously. How did all of these different languages start? How is it possible that over time, they just evolved, from basic utterances to these incredibly complex systems? And how is it possible that languages are so different from each other? I think I actually learned the answers to these questions in some random class at IU, but I have lost that information somewhere along the way. I will have to google it.

Life outside of the language learning is mostly good. The cast is annoying me. I am using all (ALL) of my inner strength to keep the negativity out, but sometimes, it creeps in. It doesn´t really creep, actually. It slams. It´s sudden. I feel fine, and then SLAM! A huge wave of frustration. Aside from not being able to, you know, write, or cut my own meat, or apply deoderant (how on earth do you spell that word?) to my left armpit, I just feel really off at all times. Off balance. I can´t do anything with my hair, so it just hangs until I can get someone to make a pony for me. The shower is a chore, so I skip it sometimes. I just feel like a bedraggled mess at all times. Just not myself. Okay, that´s all the complaining I am allowing myself today.

I really like the people here. In general, I find the students and the staff at this school much more appealing than the students and staff at the school in BsAs. Maybe it´s just the kind of person that chooses to go to the mountains versus the person that chooses the city. I don´t know. At any rate, I have great friends here.

Mi amigos Elian and Phillipe had a fiesta at their casa anoche to say farewell to a couple of other amigos who are departing this weekend. Elian is my newest best friend here. I absolutely adore her. She is from Suiza, and she´s traveling with her novio Phillippe. Anyway, the party was lots of fun, but I am feeling extra off today. That vino is still in my system, I think. Maybe that´s why this entry has been so craaaazy.

Okay. Ahora, necisito a hacer algunas planes por mi futuro. Where will I go on Saturday? Will I decide to head south to Patagonia or will I decide that Patagonia is not something I should take on solo? Will I head back to BsAs to catch up with folks for a few days, and then start slolwy making my way around Argentina (Iguazu, Rosario, Cordoba, Mendoza, and then onto Santiago)? I need to figure this out. I change my mind every day. Yesterday I had decided to head to Patagonia, and then I woke up this morning and thought, No, better not. I think that´s the hangover talking...

Hope everyone´s weekends are off to a good start. Especially my Suzers, who said she just couldn´t get her weekend going without a new post. This one´s for you, chica!