Getting used to everything

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I´ve felt comfortable since the start, but I feel more and more accustomed to the country and the culture every day. Last night, my mamá was at a party with some friends, and my roomate and I were hungry, so we decided to go on an adventure! We stayed close to the house, but we wanted to find a little taqueria or something just to get a quick bite to eat. So we made our way to the friendly neighborhood walmart, and along the way we passed by this nice homely looking place. The owner talked to us like we´d been friends for a long time, it was welcoming. Anyway, like I do with most restaurants I go to here, I just kinda chose something completely random from the menu, and ended up loving it. Couldn´t tell you what the name of her restaurant is, or what I ordered is called, but Rachel and I plan on going there at least once a week while we´re here. It was a great place to hang.

I´m sad to inform that I have gotten hooked into a telenovela while living with my mamá lol she watches "Soy Tu Dueña" and has gotten me into it. It comes on every night at 9. i´m sad i´m going to be missing it tonight, but i´ll catch it Friday 😊

My classes went well today. Poetry and Translation was an interesting class. We were attempting to translate Poem 20 by *Pablo Neruda* and my teacher was debating with us native English speaking children about what a proper English translation should be. I´m used to it - I´ve taken 3 classes of hers before this trip, so i´m used to always being told I´m wrong, esspecially in literature class, but others are not so used to her, so it was funny watching them get frustrated with her. It´s difficult to translate something like poetry. A literal translation doesn´t carry the same message, but if you change it into something else, the original poem is nowhere to be found, so we´re trying to learn the balance.

After class, my roomate, 2 other people from VCU and I went to a pizzeria to pass some time before salsa class. The pizza place was owned by a canadian 😊 so we ended up speaking english with him a lot. Unfortunately it was comforting. Now i really know how it feels when my Latin American friends in the US encounter someone new who speaks their language. Its nice to think in the language u´ve been thinking in all your life for a couple of minutes. It was really hard to switch back to spanish when we got back to campus 😞 and now i´m thinking in english as i type this lol so its just not a spanish speaking day for me. BUT THE MORNING WAS NOTHING BUT SPANISH! lol

I think that is why i´m sleeping so awesome at night - i´m mentally exausted from doing everything in a foreign language.... all... day.... long. My head doesn´t hurt, and I don´t notice that i´m speaking spanish anymore. i DO notice when i switch back to english, like today at the pizzaria. I think he heard our accents and figured it would be cool to talk to us in our language, but he tripped me up when he came out with english after i asked him a question in spanish.

I just got done filling out my application for a host family in Chile. The school e-mailed me and asked me to answer a bunch of questions about my living prefrences so as to match me with the most compatible family possible. I´m curious as to whether or not I have a Mexican accent now.... will the people in Chile know from the way I talk that I lived in Mexico for 4 weeks? I guess we´ll see.

Tonight i´m going out for the first time with almost all of the people in my group from VCU. The club, Carlos y Charlies, is kinda American-favored, and it serves free drinks to ladies from 9-11pm, so if i´m going to go out drinking, tonight is a good night!!! I will be safe, I only plan on having 2 at the most because of course its crowded like no one´s buisness on thursday nights, but it will be interesting seeing all my other friends in that environment.

Hopefully i can make an entry tomorrow, if not, i´ll write tuesday, but for now, i´m off to be late to my salsa class. LOVE YOU!!!

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Comments

[Mommy!]

Salsa versus Salsa
Remember that Seinfeld, when George was debating Salsa (dancing) versus Salsa (the condiment)? Ha! I'm about to watch Love, Actually, just because it reminds me of you. I miss you so much. It's "odd..." :) We didn't talk every day when you were here in the states, but now that I can't talk to you every day, I want to! I want to tell you how much I love you, but you'll be bored with hearing that all the time. Mommy got her Master's degree, it's now official. Did you know I did it partially for you? You're never too old to follow a dream; it just takes desire to achieve it and a will to make it happen. I'm reminded of that awful 80's power ballad from Bryan Adams... "you know it's true.... everythinig I do..... I do it for you." Glad you're having fun, dearest! Mommy.