This is the week that I have finally gotten serious about speaking Spanish here. Yes, I know I'm six weeks (maybe seven) into my adventures (and it isn't like I haven't spoken any Spanish since I've been here), but I'll be honest, it's been pretty easy to get away with speaking a lot of English. This week though I've spoken more Spanish than I ever have in my life.
On Monday I went out with Sonya, Julie and Sonya's friend who is Russian, but would only speak to us and let us speak to her in Spanish. That was a solid two and a half hours of Spanish conversation and it was nice because while Sonya's friend's Spanish was really good, she isn't a native speaker so I didn't worry about sounding super dumb in front of her.
Then on Tuesday I sat next to a woman on the bus who had books that really interested me and I spoke with her in Spanish. She ended up being a professor of geography at my university. It's funny, and I don't know if it's because of the sorts of topics that I'm used to talking about in Spanish or what, but I'm much more confident when I speak about academic topics (like books, history, etc.) than I am when I speak about my personal life. Later on I played fútbol with some people from ISA and that was an interesting mix of Spanish and English. It was so much fun though. I've been sore for two days because I'm so out of shape (and also because I did this awesome slide-tackle sort of thing...on a surface like a tennis court), but I think fútbol day will be something I very much look forward to each week.
Yesterday (Thursday) was the best Spanish-speaking day. I went to this talent show at the ISA office. I don't really have any talents; I just went to watch. I got there at 5, when the email said it would start, because I really cannot bring myself to be Spanish and arrive late to things. I try, I really try. I tell myself that I will leave my house later and such, but I always get to everything on time. Anyway, I met these two Spanish girls there who came for an intercambio. The "rules" of an intercambio are vague, but the idea is that you practice Spanish with a native speaker of Spanish and they practice their English with you (a native speaker of English). I ended up talking with these girls (mostly in Spanish) for three hours. One of the girls, Esmeralda, thought I was funny because I was so "tactful" when I corrected her. She was like, "I might seem rude when I correct you; I can't help it--I'm Spanish." But I told her that Spaniards aren't rude, they're just very forward. (They are also very good at giving backhanded compliments.) Anyway, both of the girls were really nice and we exchanged phone numbers and email addresses so that we can go get coffee next week and continue practicing with each other. I'm jealous though--they say their English isn't very good, but if I spoke Spanish half as well as they speak English, I'd feel pretty good about myself.
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