El idioma Español, raices italianas

So far, this week has been pretty uneventful. Saturday I was supposed to go to Tigre with ISA but it rained in the morning so they cancelled the trip. Although I didn’t get the memo until after I bought my Subte ticket, so I decided to go check out La Plaza de Mayo. Not too many people are out that early on a Saturday though. I walked around a bit and headed back to the Subte when came upon this area with lots of people and some cones and stuff. I waited behind these two people to cross the street but they kept looking at me really weirdly so I just kind of went around them. Then this man comes up to me and asks me if I’m an extra. Then I notice all of the cameras and that the taxi is all yellow and says NYC and that the people look much more like New Yorkers than Argentines. Then the director comes up to me and explains that they’re filming a commercial so I need to take another street. I have no idea what the commercial was for, but it’s pretty cool that I got to see them film one. Later I have lunch with Ann and go see Dia de los Enamorados (Valentine’s day) with a bunch of friends. Very cute movie! Later that night we go out and have lots of fun. But we still haven’t mastered the art of going to a pub first and then a boliche (dance club). We never end up leaving the pub till 4:30 or so and by then the boliches aren’t letting any more people in. But we’ve got 5 months here so we’re bound to get it right one of these times.

Sunday I sat outside the Abasto and skyped and got a really funky sunburn. I had been sitting with my feet on the ground and didn’t realize that the sun was shining right on the tops of my knees. So the tops of my knees are bright red but the rest of my legs are normal. And I was wearing a tank top so my shoulders burnt and one random stripe that must have been between my necklace and the strap of the shirt. Fantastic. But I bought some really great aloe-veraish stiff so it doesn’t hurt at all. It just looks really ridiculous. Later that evening I walked around Plaza Almagro a bit. Except for the pigeons, this place is so picturesque. There are playgrounds, a merry-go-round, ice cream stands and shady trees. All these families are there with kids running and riding bikes and people walking dogs everywhere. And no joke, there’s this area of little cement tables and chairs with a bunch of old men playing chess. I love this place.

Monday we met our other teacher (Soledad comes Tuesday/Thursday and Viviana teaches Monday/Wednesday/Friday). Both of them are just really fantastic. And Viviana is just the tiniest person I have ever seen in my life. Every thing about her is just so skinny and petite. She’s adorable. Later I went with my friends to this super delicious Arabic food restaurant and when I got home that night I got to meet one of Miriam’s grandchildren. Her name is Ramona, she’s 5 years old and so precious. Also, she was watching the movie, Cars, in Spanish. Cute.

Tuesday and Wednesday we had orientation for the semester. I think it will be very interesting but probably very hard. And I hope my Spanish is good enough for me to take this Tango and Culture class. But it depends on the intensive month and the Andrea, the coordinator person made it sound like your grammar pretty much had to be perfect to get in so it’s probably not likely. But the other classes look interesting too.

Oh and random ridiculous story, I had been feeling really down about my Spanish and intimated by all the other people in my class so I decided when I’m in my room by myself, I should watch TV to get better at listening and understanding. I find this show/movie thing that looks interesting and watch it a bit but they were talking so fast and it was just extremely hard to understand what was happening. I think dang, my Spanish is worse than I thought. But then literally 15 minutes go by before I realize they’re speaking not speaking Spanish at all. It’s Italian. So then I find a Spanish show and it’s still a little fast but I can definitely understand at least some of what was going on. But seriously, 15 minutes of Italian and I didn’t even know it. Ridiculous.