2-12-12

I am going to change things up a little bit right now; I am pretty sure I have started off every single blog post up to this point with the word 'well'. Right now, I believe it is time for change; change is a good thing.

So, it is now 1:00 am my time, but since I took a three hour nap this afternoon, I am pretty sure that I will not be a victim of  narcolepsy before it is due time to go to bed. It has been a while since I have written anything, and that is not because I didn't want to blog, or that I forgot. OK, I will admit, I kind of did forget, but that is because these last few weeks have just flown by. We haven't had any huge "adventures" very recently, but that doesn't mean we aren't still having a blast.

Our next big "adventure" is a trip to Barcelona and Andorra in about a week and a half. After we go to Barcelona and Andorra, the next big adventure that I am looking forward to is when my dad, Ms. Mumper, and Eric's parents come out at the end of March during their spring break (just days after Las Fallas, a festival in Valencia that we get a week off for). Not even a week after they leave, we have one of our spring breaks, and a group of us are planning on going to London for a few days. The day after we get back from London, we go on a trip to Madrid and Toledo for another week. Basically, starting March 15, we have about  a month of break/trips with the exception of about a week and a half of school scattered in-between. After our trip to Madrid and Toledo, it will be about April 15 or so, and we will only have about a month and a half or so left before it is time to pack it up and return to the U.S.

Even though there haven't been any big "adventures" lately, that doesn't mean that stuff hasn't been happening around here. As I said in my last post, I have become very involved in the music, and over the last few weeks, there have indeed been plenty of nights full of music practice and performance, and I have been loving it. My little music group on Wednesdays have been going very well, and once it starts warming up around here, I would love to start doing it outside. Speaking of being cold, when I am in Walla Walla and it is 36 degrees outside, I walk around in jeans and a jacket. Here when it is 36 degrees outside (something I thought would not be possible in Spain), I do the exact same thing and many Spaniards constantly are asking me if I am cold- of course they are all bundled up in gloves, scarfs, beanies, etc. I guess the Spaniards and the Californians have more in common than we originally thought. Anyways, back to the music; last night and this morning, the praise band/choir performed for church and vespers. Half of our choir is away on a camping trip this weekend, so we have been few in number, but still doing just fine. One of the other ACA students here asked me to accompany her in a song for special music, and I readily agreed. The song was "His Eyes" by Steven Curtis Chapman, and we arranged it so that she sang the first verse, I sang the second, and we sang the third together. This morning, I am not quite sure what it was, maybe is was because we had some technology issues, maybe it was because I wasn't focused all the way, or maybe I just didn't know the song well enough, but for whatever reason, let's just say it wasn't my finest hour of performance. Of course, I felt like walking out of the church with my head buried in my hands, but even though in my mind I screwed up royally, many people told me how much they enjoyed it, and how much it meant to them. Today has been a great reminder that God can still work through us, even though we ourselves are nowhere near perfect or adequate.

Another subtle thing that has been happening for me is that I can definitely tell my Spanish has been improving. I can now think in Spanish at about the same speed that I can think in English, my vocabulary, speed, and overall flow during conversations has been improving, and I can understand many more people now than I could even a month ago. About a month ago, I could only understand about 10 people perfectly- most of them were my teachers and other ACA friends. It is much easier to understand someone that you are accustomed to hearing. Now, I have noticed that wherever I am, I am understanding the checkout person at the supermarket better, little by little, I am starting to understand the people with thick Argentinian accents, and even as I am just walking down the street, I am starting to be able to pick out little pieces of conversations of the people who are walking by. It is definitely a cool feeling to know I am improving, but as always, there is always more to improve on.

Today in Sabbath school, there was a couple visiting from Scandinavia; one went to school at Southern, one grew up in Ohio, and both are now living in Madrid... it's a long story. Anyways, one speaks fairly decent Spanish, and one only speaks English. Normally during Sabbath school, every last word is in Spanish. Today was very different, and very awesome. I got a chance to do a fair amount of translating, and that was cool, but really the best part for me was how we were "strongly asserting our opinions" (in other words, arguing), about the content of the Sabbath school lesson, and it was really great to have half of it be in English- and half of the people had not a clue what was going on, and the other half was in Spanish- and the other half didn't have a clue as to what was going on. We were arguing so quickly that we literally didn't have time to translate anything. It was definitely heated excitement. At one point, one of our guests made a point that I strongly agreed with, and one of the others strongly disagreed with, so when she had finished, I gave an example to defend the point the guest had made. I was talking to the guest who only speaks English, and Igor (one of my good friends; studies theology here and is from Portugal) was translating for me, because it is nearly impossible for me to say one thing in Spanish, and say the same thing in English, because many times I say things like, "I was caminando down the street this past semana and I turned the esquina to look for my zapatoes". Anyways, I was speaking in English, Igor was translating, and one of the Spanish speakers answered back, I heard the Spanish speaker respond, and with literally no thought; no extra effort, no nothing, unconsciously  my brain made the switch back to Spanish, and I was so focused on what I was saying that by the time I caught on to what just happened, I had already spoken about two and a half sentences to my English friend in Spanish. I now have a slight fear that when I get back to the states, I will be able to speak two languages: Spanish, and Spanglish.

That is sadly just about all I remember about the week, and sadly I am slowing giving in to the need to recharge my batteries all over again. Happy Sabbath and happy week.
Until next time...