One month in...

I know it is hard to believe, but I have now been in Spain for a little over a month!  So I thought now might be a good time to reflect on how my trip has been so far.  Sorry, this will probably be more boring than the rest, but I think for myself I need to evaluate where I am, and where I want to get in the next four months.

Spanish:

Already I am noticing that my Spanish is improving.  What I really needed was confidence, and that is something that only comes with practice.  My grammar and vocabulary tended to be pretty good already but I really needed the ability to make small talk and hold my own in a real conversation.  I am by no means saying I can now do that with no effort at all, but what I have is a teensy bit more self-assuredness when I talk.  The faulty sentence construction, missing vocab words, and pronunciation can all come later, but what is most important right now is that I open my mouth to speak.


When I first got here, I let everyone else talk for me, watching them struggle through asking directions and inquiring about prices.  Now I am the one pushing ahead and asking for help when I need it, always in Spanish (sometimes incorrectly), but at least I am attempting.

That being said, there is a lot of work to do.  I don´t have a host family and my friends are mostly American, so it is not quite the immersion experience that I had been hoping for.  Since I have no settled into my routine here in Spain, it is time to mix things up a bit and make sure that I am getting the most out of my experience here.  I may have mentioned before, but I am going to start watching more Spanish tv and reading Spanish novels.  We only get 6 channels on the tv in my apartment (my landlord has yet to switch with the digital change), but during lunch and dinner, instead of watching American tv on my computer, I am going to watch whatever I can find.  It doesn´t really matter if it is interesting, as long as I am being exposed to the language.  The same with reading, I am just going to settle into a good book and go for it.

I came here to become fluent, and I will be darned if I am going to leave here without being close!

Traveling:

This is one area I must say that I think I have exceeded my wildest expectations.  I never, EVER, imagined that within my first month I would have seen this much of Spain.  Honestly, if I never go on any daytrips again I will STILL have seen more than I thought (but don´t worry, I am sticking to my one trip per weekend plan).  You may have noticed, on the side of my blog I am now keeping a list of all the cities I have visited so far, mostly so that I can keep track fro myself, but for your enjoyment as well.  I only get to do this once (at least in this manner) so I really want to take as much advantage as I possibly can.

Classes:

So far my classes are all going well, except I have not had any actual tests, so really it is hard to know!  This week testing starts in a couple of classes so it will be interesting to see where I am on everything.  However, since I am discussing my goals, I am going to try to start studying more outside of class.  Grammar and Phonetics both come without a lot of homework, yet they are areas I particularly need to work on.  So, I am going to start reviewing the new grammar that I am learning and start practicing reading things outloud in Spanish.  I can speak ok and read ok, but combing the two is apparently a very slow process.  Fonetics is also more about the pronunciation of things, which will really only improve if I start practicing at home.

Learning about Oviedo:

Since this city is going to be my home for the next 4 months, I feel I need to learn more about its history, art, architecture, etc.  I walk by beautiful fountains, buildings, and statues every day but I know nothing about them.  So, I found on the Oviedo tourism site a walking tour of the city that I can download onto my iPod!  Seriously, you can do anything with technology these days!  So the next sunny day that I can (though it is Northern Spain, the weather tends not to cooperate), I am going to walk around the city, iPod and camera in hand, and learn about my temporary home-town.

I am also continually getting lost, so I am hoping the more I walk around, the easier it will be to find where I want to go.  I always get to my destination eventually, but sometimes I find that if I do not take the exact same route everytime I end up lost.  This really should not happen anymore, because Oviedo is not that big.  We only have about 200,000 people, but they all live in apartment buildings so the city is not spread out very far geographically.  

I do love it here though, and as cities go it is pretty swell.  One fact I do know is that Oviedo claims to be the cleanest city in Europe, and I certainly would believe it.  They have garbage cans everywhere for your use, and streetcleaners that work 24/7 to make sure the sidewalks and streets are sparkling.  Apparently they get paid pretty well too...perhaps an alternate career for me? Something to think about for sure.... :)

Meeting new people:

I did not come here to make best friends, I already have a pretty good set at home :)  However,that being said, it is important to meet people here so that you have companions to travel with, people to go grab coffee with, or just people to sit with in classes.  So I have made a real effort to spread out my friend groups so that I am meeting as many new people as possible, and additionally learning as many new things as possible.  As much as having a new friend from Iowa may not be as exotic as my new friends from New Zealand or Japan, the Midwest still has a completely different outlook on life than we do on the East coast.  My goal for the upcoming months would be to meet even more people, especially those who only want to speak Spanish.

Food:

Because I do not live with a host-family, traditional Spanish food is much more difficult to come by without eating out a restaurant every day.  To ensure however that I am getting the full gastronomic experience I am trying a couple of different things.  First, I have been trying different frozen spanish foods, or re-heatable ones such as Empanadas.  Secondly, I have seen what my classmates have for meals and mimic it in my own home.  For example, it is pretty popular here to have a "bocadillo" or sandwich here for lunch (the biggest meal of the day.  When I say sandwich though, it is better to picture a 6 inch sub, and not peanut butter and jelly.  Tuna is especially popular on them, so that is what I have started having for lunch.  Thirdly, whenever I travel I attempt to taste the food of the area.  For example, when we went to Granada we had Tapas, especially seafood, because that is what was popular in the area.

Even though I may not be getting a traditional Spanish meal everyday in my apartment, I am actually learning quite a bit about living on my own.  I have never had to make all of my own meals every single day and I am learning how to combine variety, taste, price, and ease of cooking in order to best suit my needs.

Well I think that is quite enough of that, but it was important for me to realize what I have done and what I still need to do to take advantage of this amazing opportunity.  I am still in disbelief that I am able to currently study in Spain and travel as much as I have and will continue to do.  Hasta luego!