Un buen dia

9.18.07

I have had such a good day today that I must share it. Actually, this morning I was really cranky, I’m not sure why. Perhaps I didn’t get enough sleep yesterday. Anyway, the fun started at lunch today. For some reason, Gina and I got back in time to eat with the other two students that are living with us at the moment – Ramon from France and Anne from Germany. There was a lot of confusion during our whole conversation that centered around the fact that there is only one word for both of the English words “morning” and “tomorrow.” First of all, Europeans all like to talk at the same time when discussions get heated or someone’s trying to get a point across (actually that happens in the States, too, it’s just a lot more noticeable when it’s not a language your used to). I won’t bore you with the details of the conversation, but please try to imagine 4 languages/accents at one table trying to explain and understand when people are doing what when there is no difference between morning and tomorrow in Spanish. It took my roommate 10 minutes to figure out that the senora was not going to the theater at 9 in the morning, but that she was going tomorrow night. Maybe you had to be there to think it was funny, but it reminded me of the dialogue (can’t remember the theater name for it) “Who’s on First” if anyone has ever heard that. It was quite the comedy!
Tonight I went with some friends to see Hairspray (in Spanish, por supuesto!) and I loved it! The previews I’ve seen for it made it look so corny, but it was really good. All of the dialogue was in Spanish, but all of the songs were in English, and since it was a musical it was really easy to know what was going on. However, it is much easier to understand the Spanish parts of movies when it is not interrupted by English. I also saw Evan Almighty in Spanish and I understood more of the Spanish in that movie than I did in Hairspray. Movies are also a good way to determine how well your improving.
Speaking of, I was really excited yesterday when I talked to my program director for the first time since the first week I was here. I used to be too nervous to talk to any of the program directors because it is so embarrassing when they have to start talking to you in English, but Fatima and I had a really long conversation about classes and the program and she never had to speak English to me. It doesn’t seem like it should be that big of a deal because I have conversations with my teachers and my senora every day in Spanish, but for some reason it is because I was only ever intimidated by the directors (even though they are really nice).
Back to my day, Gina and I stopped by a Turkish restaurant on the way home from the movie because I hadn’t eaten dinner yet and I’ve never had Turkish food before. There are Turkish restaurants everywhere here. I had a salad with fried vegetables and yogurt dressing, it was really good. Yogurt dressing sounds strange, but it’s basically just like runny ranch. So I had a few new cultural experiences today and I had a lot of fun.