Friday, 4:14 p.m.
Well, I’m still without internet…it’s really frustrating. What do you all know about the so-called “internet sticks” and how they work and last? If I don’t have consistent internet I’m going to go crazy. I know that as far as having contact with people back home, I have it made compared to years past. But I was just getting used to my routine – wake up in the morning and Skype Jonny, come home from school and send e-mails and post on my blog before Skyping my mom, Skyping Jonny to say hi before he left for school, then one last time before I went to bed.
Not having internet definitely puts a damper on all those things – I try to find internet on the street corner (sad, I know) before I leave for school. I frantically search for it during break time at school, sometimes going to use the computer lab if it’s open instead of eating my mid-morning snack. I search for it again once I get home, then give up hope and compose e-mails to send later. I search for it while I’m wandering the city, and again before I go to bed. There are places I know I can find it, but I’m constricted by their hours of operation, as well as my discomfort with walking alone at night.
Right now I am posting this from Kyla’s once again, but I don’t want to have to bug her every single time I’d like to get online. Clearly, I am not coping well with or embracing the lack of internet in my life.
This morning I woke far too early for my liking – after drifting off to sleep around 2:00 a.m., 7:15 a.m. with a noisy three-year-old seemed like some sort of nightmare. Luckily he left and I fell back into a peaceful sleep until 10:00. I had breakfast, cleaned my room, and got ready to go meet my conversation partner, Javier.
I dragged Sara with me, because I am dreadfully shy around those I don’t know (Sara isn’t) and because I am consistently tongue-tied around Spanish people (Sara isn’t). Javier speaks incredibly quickly, with a slight mumble, and the customary Spanish lisp (say it with me: Barthhhelona)…all of this makes him incredibly difficult to understand and renders me pretty much mute. I let Sara do most of the talking, and Javier commented on how quiet I am. I informed him that in English I can’t shut up.
I don’t know why I shut down when I need to speak Spanish outside of class, but I do. A lot of what is being said goes over my head, and at that point I feel lost and my mind gets stuck on certain words and then I’m a goner. It’s frustrating to say the least. Luckily I have a friend like Sara who understands what’s being said and can answer on behalf of us both, but at the same time I wish I was able to hold my own in a conversation. A great deal of learning throughout this experience is supposed to come from our interaction with our host family and other native speakers. I’m failing in that regard. Don’t get me wrong, I’m trying! It’s just not coming to me very easily.
We wandered for what seemed to me to be an excruciatingly long time, then parted ways. After a quick lunch (pasta with bacon and some sort of sauce, plus an orange) I let myself take an hour-and-a-half siesta. The group is trying to be a little more like the locals tonight, not meeting to go out until almost midnight, so I’m going to be grateful I got some rest!
♥ abigail
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