Spanish Stinks

Well…mine, that is.

Being gone from school for 3 days totally threw me for a loop.  I know, it was only 3 days, but it did.  I got into my grammar class this morning and made mistakes I felt incredibly dumb for making.  Granted, we are working on learning the past tense, and the teacher was going around and asking us to give sentences that were specific to the lessons I had not been there to learn.  But still…geez.  Every time she got to me, there were corrections to be made…and they weren’t me correcting myself.  It was the teacher doing all the correcting.  I just shut down after a while.  Gave up.  Decided I didn’t care.  Except that I do care.  I have to care.  Basically, it was just a frustrating day in my life as spanish grammar student.

Just as I was thinking “do we really have to be in class any longer?”, our teacher asked us to describe our best friend from high school by using the form of the past tense we had just learned.  I immediately knew who I would talk about.  

Tara Branch (Powell).  

So, Tara, if you’re reading this, I just want you to know that a little thought of the past, of home, of things familiar, – of you – helped me today amidst my frustration and total misunderstanding of this language I am desperately trying to learn.  I appreciate that you have been such an amazing friend.  It was such an honor to talk about you today (even if I had to be corrected some).  I am blessed to have a friend like you that knows me truly for who I am due to our history and wonderful experiences together.

Lastly, I just ask for prayers from those of you that keep up with us on here.  While there are days that we feel great about what we are learning, we also have days that make us feel so far from the finish line.  We could not be at a better school…at least in my opinion.  God is giving us a fantastic learning opportunity.  We praise him for that.  If you happen to think of us during your day, please pray that we have strength, determination, patience, and whatever else we need to successfully learn this beautiful language called Spanish.

Missing “the norm”

Well, last night we went to a mall to just walk around and eat some good old North American Fast Food.  Yum…no, not really.  We had Burger King, and I was sorely disappointed.  After we ate, we decided to walk around some, so we went into a store that could be compared to some department stores in the States, it’s called “Universal”.  They totally had CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS UP!  I ADORE Christmas, but I actually found myself getting a little sad.  

Backtrack some…on Thursday this past week, in class, we had to describe the seasons using all of the verbs in Spanish that mean “to be”.  Yeah, they have 5 different ones…it’s a bit crazy.  So, our class is diverse in many ways, and one of them is that we are all from different States.  Tara, Steph, and I are all from TX, there is a couple from NY, another girl from Mississippi, one from Florida, one from Canada, and another from Pennsylvania.  As you can imagine, our descriptions of the seasons were quite different!  The lady from Pennsylvania (don’t worry, I am writing out all of the state names because I am dumb and don’t know all of the abbreviations…no need to embarrass myself, right?) brought pictures of her house and the trees in her yard.  She had one of each season.  They were literally breathtaking.  Our teacher could not believe the differences there were in the way the seasons looked.  Costa Rica basically just has rainy and not rainy (but it still rains in “not rainy” ) season.  Then, Esther, the lady from Pennsylvania, was trying to say in Spanish that she always makes these certain kinds of cookies in the Fall every year.  That got us all nostalgic, and we went around talking about what our Fall was like, what we were doing for Christmas this year, and so on.  A few of us teared up a bit…emotions were running a bit high.  I realized in those moments in class, that I was going to have to miss out on the “feelings of Fall” (even though Fall in Abilene, TX isn’t at ALL like in Pennsylvania!).  They don’t celebrate Thanksgiving here (of course), so there really isn’t any holiday that has to come and be over in order to mark the beginning of celebrating and preparing for Christmas.  I’m not sure I like it…

I normally get a really giddy feeling when I see all of the stores pull out their Christmas products, and I am the kind of person who could listen to Christmas music literally all year round.  But…something about all of this now is catching me a bit off guard.  I know I chose to come here, and I believe this is where we are supposed to be.  Despite that, a part of me longs for some of the normalities (is that a word) of home.  We brought our Christmas stockings to hang when December comes, and our families are getting to come and visit us here in CR over the holiday.  Those things alone warm my heart.  I am thankful for the new and exciting things I am experiencing, and I wouldn’t trade Christmas starting after Thanksgiving for all that I am getting to know here.  I know also that as the years go by, I will come to appreciate seeing Christmas trees in the stores at the end of September, but for now…it leaves me with a sense of longing for what I am used to at home.  

Anyway…

We have had tons of fun lately with Cailyn as she is growing and doing so many new things.  We have a lot of video that we’ve taken, so we thought we would share some of her “meal time” experiences with you.  Unfortunately, we were dumb and decided not to bring her little high chair with us.  What were we thinking?!  We can get one here that is exactly the same, but we have to pay 3 arms and a leg for it.  So, for now she sits at the table…just barely high enough to where her mouth reaches the edge of the table.  Anyway, that makes feeding herself with a spoon a bit difficult.  She manages pretty well, though.  Hope you enjoy the footage!

Spanish Lessons

Well, it really is getting down to crunch time (sort of) as far as learning Spanish goes. Our mission team, for those who don’t know, begins team training here in Abilene on September 1st, and in just less than a year or so, we will be heading to Costa Rica to really hit the books and learn Spanish in preparation for our move to Lima, Peru. Justin and I both have about 3 years of Spanish under our belts, but unfortunately, those years happened in high school (which Justin just realized tonight is almost 10 years ago for him…wow). So, what did we do…we hit up Books-A-Million!

Yes, we checked out what Books-A-Million had for us in the way of audio learning, and we found a great “learn-in-your-car” cd set. We have already listened to a few lessons in the car, and I can tell we are on our way to becoming fluent! Justin also got this verb dictionary (totally academic looking, and not something I could EVER sit and read)…there are something like thousands of Spanish verbs in it. Man, have we got some learning to do! I, on the other hand, got this totally awesome VISUAL spanish/english dictionary. There are colored pictures in it, and it really is fun to look through. There are over 6,000 different words/phrases in it, and I have already mastered the majority of the “body parts” section…figured that would come in handy as we will be teaching Cailyn her body parts in the near future, plus it was the first section in the book.

So, Justin, Cailyn, and I have recently spent many evenings walking around ACU’s great walk/jog path, and we have dedicated this time as our Spanish lesson time. I have taught Justin all I have learned now, which helps me to remember more as well, and he has agreed to teach me verbs in exchange for my vocab. We’re totally going to become Spanish whizzes!

We will keep you updated on how our spanish lessons go. Adios!