A few thoughts, in no particular order: - It's crazy to be completely dropped into a language and culture of which you have absolutely no prior knowledge. When we landed, all I knew how to say was thank you. Four days later, I'm not much better, but there are certain things that you begin to notice. Phrases, tones, certain characters, basic sentence structure - it all starts to make sense, and any semblance of progress is exciting when you start with nothing. I've always said that if I couldn't do engineering, I would try and get the hang of a couple languages other than Spanish. The feeling you get when you can order your meal, or get somewhere in a taxi, or ask how someone is doing, instead of looking blank-faced at your waiter or cab
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