cockroahces

HELLO!

So these past few days have been weird. I don't really know where to start honestly. I always think that everything is normal until I have a second to think which is when I realize that my life here is so weird and crazy. There are really no words for my life. All I know is it's not normal. At all.

Okay I'll start here. This weekend I had my first spanish AFS orientation. For all of you that are unfamiliar with this, all you do, really, is play stupid (yet strangely fun) team bonding games that always seem to have a deeper meaning. Although I did really enjoy the games, my favorite part of the whole weekend was this really super cool coffee machine they had. It was so great. I think I had six throughout the entire 40 hours I was there. It was so tasty. Anyway, there were only 10 students there; five from the states, one from Italy, one from Slovakia, one from Belgium, one from Iceland and one from Germany. I felt really bad because the kids from the States just spoke English the entire time (not me!), so the others didn't really understand. The volunteers got kind of pissed as well, and I understand why. Having said that, I did speak a lot of english, but only to translate for people. I FELT SO SMART. I mean, I definitely got a permanent headache from it, but it was fun to try to go back and forth.

MY FIRST REALLY EMBARRASSING WORD MIX UP HAPPENED ON SUNDAY!!!

There was an AFS volunteer there named Herman that spent a year in the United States a few years back. I always ask the foreign exchange students if they like peanut butter, because virtually no one from outside the US likes it. So, I go up to Herman and go "HERMAN! Te gusta mantequilla de cucarchas??" And he just looks at me. And then I suddenly realize that I just asked him if he liked cockroach butter. Embarrassing right? Just for the record, Peanut Butter= mantequilla de cacahuetes. Who'd a thunk?

Can I just take a sec to complain. Just a sec. You have no idea the h-e- double hockey sticks I have gone through today and whenever I have school. Today, I did school related things for 10 hours. IT WAS SO FUN. First of all, my schedule got changed. Now I have biology instead of physics, which is great. And also my chemistry class is only 3 people. How awesome is that? And i have one spanish class on friday with little kids. I'm secretly excited. The only classes I don't like are spanish and english. English its too slow, and I don't think the teacher likes me very much because I have an american accent. She might possibly feel a little insecure about speaking in front of me as well. My english homework today was sweet though. I wrote a really good half page essay about good qualities and bad qualities involving all the words they had in the little box of words on the homework sheet. It was great.

Spanish class is way to fast. Today we had to find the deeper meaning of a poem by a dude named Lorca. The kids in my class didnt understand it, so I have no idea why this lady thought I could understand. Here's the Poem:

Romance de la luna, luna

La luna vino a la fragua
con su polisón de nardos.
El niño la mira, mira.
El niño la está mirando.

En el aire conmovido
mueve la luna sus brazos
y enseña, lúbrica y pura,
sus senos de duro estaño.

Huye luna, luna, luna.
Si vinieran los gitanos,
harían con tu corazón
collares y anillos blancos.

Niño, déjame que baile.
Cuando vengan los gitanos,
te encontrarán sobre el yunque
con los ojillos cerrados.

Huye luna, luna, luna,
que ya siento sus caballos.

Niño, déjame, no pises
mi blancor almidonado.

El jinete se acercaba tocando el tambor del llano. Dentro de la fragua el niño, tiene los ojos cerrados.

Por el olivar ven'an, bronce y sueño, los gitanos. Las cabezas levantadas y los ojos entornados.

Cómo canta la zumaya,
¡ay, cómo canta en el árbol!
Por el cielo va la luna
con un niño de la mano.

Dentro de la fragua lloran,
dando gritos, los gitanos.
El aire la vela, vela.
El aire la está velando.

Lorca

It's really pretty sounding, but in my brain it means 'blah'. If you can tell me what it means, that would be great. Really great. Other than that, school is going pretty OK. I fell the other day.... I had to happen at some point. Good thing it was only in front of around 50 people and I managed to make only a semi-weird noise.

Here's a curious thing for you: I can't speak any language with ease any more. I mean... English is fine, but It's a little different for me now. It's not as easy anymore, and although I still think in english, I find myself questioning it more. I dont know.... if you dont understand me thats fine because I don't really understand myself. My host family/friends are always asking how you say certain things in english, and I can't remember a lot of words. Its probably because my brain is really mad at me all the time.

ON THAT NOTE..

g'night.

Jane