So now that I've been at school for a little bit, I suppose it's time for an update. I've decided to stay in the advanced level, as the Spanish classes really aren't that hard, and the people in the group are awesome. Unfortunately, the electives are much harder and I've dropped all but one of them. I'll probably end up doing more in the next two trimesters. But for now, understanding the language is my goal.
This is how the first couple days of classes at ESDES (Escuela Superior De Español, Sagunto) sounded to me:
Profesora: Apsóoghirñwaeashvoinrureognvrsiorvieunvinervineriuvniurngviuba
hnfinrfiuwenbgfvpiahwfniápawnbfaiowhfipañofhbpoiahfoáhfopawfn
vnuiarnegvinrbtrenainaiwehriqwehfbhinbuirenvniuneiienbiuberbrbv. Profesora: Uigfaspáohgviñonsanfvipaurnviareigbvyrebvybaervpiabyviarbvibv
iauvfgovnasiofóiasaosihgasjofnsaonfuionaefonbaivbuirbgbaifbasdb
okbguiabgfiabgiabgibasfipfóhbpaosidhfopnfasubpifue.
Yo: (To the guy next to me) What'd she say?
Él: I have no idea.
And thus went the first two or so days of classes, lots of nods and smiles. Fortunately, some words became clearer as time went on. Unfortunately, the teachers had learned our names and began using them. This was the next couple of days for me:
Profesora: Vzxcnvba pero erftihtuirinmxznv quieres urfheiuybweib, ¿acuerdo?
Yo: .........¿Qué?..............
Very embarrassing, but since then life has gotten much better. As far as my Spanish goes, I've learned (and re-learned) a TON. Now I can sit through my classes and get the jist of what's being explained as long as I'm listening, except for my elective. I can't understand every little thing as I am still translating it into English in my head. But everyday I'm expanding my vocab or (less often) able to understand a common word or phrase without translating it in my head first. Words like pero, bien, mañana, and even the days of the week are easy to think about.
That being said, I still have a ton to learn. That becomes evident every week at church. The only thing I can get out of the sermons are when I look up the verse referenced in a power point. Otherwise, the preacher speaks WAY too fast and I can't understand a word.
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| View from my balcony |
The school here is in an amazing spot. Each room has it's own balcony. If you look to the left from mine, you can see a large hillside dotted with trees and buildings. To the right is huge field of orange trees with Sagunto and the Mediterranean off in the distance. The weather's been near perfect the whole time. I've yet to shut the door to my balcony. The location couldn't be much better. However, the food here could stand to improve a little. But I'm not too picky. This place reminds me of high school, in that every week, there's something going on that will make me miss some to all of my classes. It's great!
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| Valencia |
The first week, we took a day to go into Sagunto to check it out. It only took half a day but we got to miss all our classes. The second week, the school took most of the day to take us to Valencia, Spain's third largest city. Then that weekend, we went to this camp that was right on the beach. It was a school-retreat like thing and tons of fun. It was really sweet being able to just walk along the beach after midnight. At least it was til the school chaplan found us and let us know we were supposed to be back a bit earlier. Whoops. Luckily, the staff here is really laid back and it was fine.
A group of us went to Valencia after classes on Friday for the afternoon and evening just to hang out, which was pretty sweet. It's cheap to go by train and I definitely plan to go back. In a week, the school's taking us to Andalucia and Morocco. We'll be out of classes for the whole week and the next Monday. I'm rather excited.
In addition to all the Spanish I've been learning, I've learned a lot about myself in the past month. Continuously stepping out of my comfort zone has made it a lot bigger than it once was, which is neat. Not really much else to say I suppose. Hopefull the next update won't take as long. We'll see.
