Culture Shock

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I had a small meltdown in the last day or so. manifested in oversleeping today. realized i was experiencing some culture shock resulting from a trip to walmart yesterday, and probably just building up from not being able to say and do what i want. example: i picked a line at walmart and the cashier came up and rattled 1 or 2 sentences which i of course did not catch a word of, i figured i was doing something wrong or was to be last in line. since there was no rope to drape behind me, i elicited the help of the couple in front of me who spoke no english, but were nice. She about 25 and he about 30 something. They of course knew what the guy said and we settled it with me saying and pointing to myself, ¨"me ok? (pointing behind) no mas? " Then of course people are walking up behind me, but the guy took care of it. I grabbed the word casada, but that seemed kind of rude by itself so i let him work it till we got behind the little arm that swung out to stop people. Even then people were stopping and standing behind the arm, one of which gave the guy a real dirty look while walking away. finally, it was my turn and sure nuf another older guy pushed through the gate (with people behind him.) We convinced him it was closed and as he was leaving the cashier explained it was open now. it turns out his replacement was behind the pole where i could not see that the line was not to be closed now. The two cashiers kissed on the cheek and it was my turn, all in all it took 45 minutes to get through the line itself.

After negotiating the bus to the subway station, got a sandwich by my ususal "no hablo espanol" first then pointing to ... and gesturing. I chose the same sandwich the guy beside me got, and tried to ask for it to be heated by using ´calor ´over and over again. (that of course is stupid like yelling at a blind person) the the guy beside me volunteered ´caliente´ which still didn´t work but when gesturing to the microwave he finally got it. 8 pesos.

Anyway, today i got up early nuf to shower and get ready but too early to leave, so i laid back down in the quiet and dark room. i was an hour late to class, stopped for 6 danishes (9 pesos) and my daily water (+/-3 pesos) The teacher is a little older than Tia, and the business is hers and a couple other amigas. It is pretty low key, and had only one other student this week who will be gone now starting tomorrow. I guess i am getting private lessons from here out. I´ll probably drop to 2 hours a day if it stays that way, who knows what she will decide. She has been teaching for 2 years and is amazingly effective with me. We of course are covering spanish 101 which i just took in Sept. She says students come at the last minute on mondays, and they will come with differing levels of ability.

Ayeee!!!! I almost forgot to talk about soccer. Saturday is the opening game for Argentina. the hostel guy was telling me this morning that the streets will be empty and when argentina scores, not only does the announcer on tv yell gol, but the whole city will be yelling it. He said it will be bigger than a holiday, most people spending the game at home with their family.

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