Spanish is Hard!!! (Part III)

In Conclusion...

Although the differences in vocabulary, accents, grammar, expressions and idioms make Spanish a very difficult language to learn, it’s still worth learning. Travelling to different Spanish-speaking countries and taking part in a wealth of cultural and lexical knowledge from these countries make the frustration worthwhile. You may feel like an idiot sometimes, but in the end, you will be much smarter because you will know different ways of saying things and you will be able to easily interact with different nationalities of people. 

Take my work at the hospital last year as an example. As a volunteer in Language Interpretive Services, I had to translate for people from different Spanish-speaking countries. A lot of them were from Mexico, but there were also some people from other Latin American countries. I had to always keep a dictionary with me because, with these people being from different countries, they didn’t understand some of the words that I used. Once I used a word that they were familiar with, however, they immediately understood. I hope that when I become a doctor, I will be able to utilize my knowledge of the vocabulary in different countries to better serve my patients.  

So yes, Spanish is hard, but it’s not the only difficult language to learn. Think about what people learning English in different English-speaking countries have to go through. They have to be able to distinguish between an English accent, an American accent, and an Australian accent, for example. They have to learn that in America, a “rubber” is a condom not an eraser, that “rubbish” is called trash, “biscuits” are cookies, “chips” are French fries and “crisps” are chips. Also, colour is spelled color, practise is spelled practice and cancelled is just spelled with one L. instead of saying “Have you got” we say “Do you have” and we would never say anything like “turn your books at page 7.” And on top of all of this they also have to learn the slang from each of our countries?  

Spanish is hard… English is hard… It looks like we are all screwed!

Spanish is Hard!!! (Part II)

In yesterday’s post I wrote about the different grammar and vocabulary rules that come along with learning Spanish in different countries. Now I will discuss a few more reasons why learning Spanish is so difficult.

Idioms, Expressions and Slang

The Dominican Republic

As If learning a whole new set of vocabulary and following new grammar rules wasn’t enough, each country also uses different expressions when speaking: 
 

1.      In Costa Rica, the people refer to each other as tico and tica and younger people might address each other as mea (which is our way of saying “dude”). “Que chiva” is an expression that is used when they think that something is cool and people often greet each other with the expression “Pura Vida,” which means “pure life” and symbolizes the idea of having and enjoying a beautiful life. Instead of giving the simple “de nada” after a thank you, most Costa Ricans say “con mucho gusto” (with much pleasure).

2.      Dominican expressions can be very interesting because many letters are cut off and sometimes replaced with other letters.  For example, instead of saying como estas, people might say, como tu ta or instead of tengo hambre you might hear tango hambre. This also depends on the socio-economic status of the person you are speaking to and the part of the country they are from. Many people address their friends as pana and before meals people almost always say “buen provecho.”

3.      In Spain, many people call each other tio or tia. Instead of saying buenos días or buenas tardes to greet people, oftentimes people just say buenas. The expressions qué guay or qué chulo are used commonly and mean “cool”. Another expression is qué fuerte, which is our way of saying OMG or wow. Pijo/pija is a word that means snobbish or upper-class. I learned this word from my roommate last year, when after buying her Versace reading glasses; she said “qué pija!”

Learning expressions in different countries is one of the most difficult things of learning a language because you can know the meaning of several words, but when put together they can have a completely different meaning. Ah… the beauty of expressions!

Pronunciation and Accents

Costa Rica

If you listen to a person from America speak and a person from England speak I am certain that you will hear a very big difference. So why should this be any different from people in Spanish-speaking countries? Another reason why it’s difficult to learn Spanish is because people have different accents. I got a good glimpse of this in college. Many of my professors were from or had studied in Spain, while some were also from Latin American and South American countries. One of my professors, whose accent was the most difficult to understand, was from Chile and had a thick Chilean accent when he spoke Spanish.

Although it is still hard for me to distinguish between the exact kind of accent a person has, I think that I have finally reached the point where I can tell that a person is not from Spain. Here are some differences in accents:

One example in the differences between Latin American Spanish and peninsular (Spain) Spanish is that the letters z and c (when coming before the vowels I or E) are pronounced ‘th” instead of “s.” In Latin America, the z and c are pronounced like “s.” So in Spain, you might hear crecimiento as if it was spelled crethimiento, whereas in Latin America, the letter c would make the “s” sound.

Another phonetic difference that you could hear in most Latin American countries is the absence of the “d” sound or the “s” sound in some words. For example, instead of the word nada, you may hear na’a, or instead of las dos casas, you may hear la’ do’ casa’.

In some countries, such as Argentina, people pronounce the “ll” as a “zh”(th) instead of pronouncing it as “y” like most other Spanish-speaking countries do. There is a young woman in my valenciano class who is from Argentina. Every time I hear her speak I am always baffled, because she sounds nothing like anything that I’ve heard before. Every time she reads she has difficulty pronouncing the words right. One of the things that she has the most difficulty with is pronouncing the words with the “ll.” She would pronounce a word like silla, as what sounds like sitha, instead of siya. Now I finally understand why…

There are so many other distinct characteristics of accents in different countries. People in some countries, like Venezuela for example, have a musical way of speaking, while people in other countries, like Spain and Argentina have a lisp. People in some Caribbean countries like Cuba and the Dominican Republic may be difficult to understand because of their tendency to substitute letters and their speed of delivery.  

I would like to study more of this in the future.

Regional Dialects

So you’re probably thinking that since I’m in Spain and have been here for a while I’m safe now and can just stick to one accent, right? Wrong. Even in Spain there are so many regional differences as it pertains to accents. Think about the phonetic differences there are between people in different cities of the United States. Does someone from the Bronx, New York speak like someone from Montgomery, Alabama? No.

In Spain, there are distinct differences between people who live in Andalusia, Galicia, the Basque County, Madrid, Catalonia and other regions. Understanding these different accents can also be very difficult sometimes but it’s something that I plan to conquer. I think that I already have the Valencian region accent down!

Stay tuned for Part III: The Conclusion

Spanish is Hard!!! (Part I)

Warning… the following article may give you a headache or discourage you from wanting to learn Spanish. Because this entry is rather lengthy, I’ve divided it into three parts. So please take breaks while reading, drink a lot of water, and remember: everyone experiences something different when learning Spanish in different countries!

A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine living in Alicante brought a youtube video to my attention. In the video, titled, “Qué difícil es hablar el español,” two men sing about how difficult it is to learn Spanish because every Spanish-speaking country speaks a different type of Spanish. The guys give many examples of the language and expressions used in many different countries. To me, the video was quite amusing.

Costa Rica

As an American Spanish-learner and having studied in two Latin American/Caribbean Spanish-speaking countries prior to living in Spain, I could totally agree with everything that they were saying. In fact, the more I listened to the video, the more frustrated I became because I began to think about all of the lexical “mistakes” that I’ve made in these different countries. Now being in Spain and speaking “castellano,” I feel like I’ve totally had to reconstruct the way that I speak in Spanish. Not only did I have to learn a new set of vocabulary but I also had to change some of the tenses that I normally spoke in, learn a new verb form and learn some castellano slang. And this does not even include the whole new language, valenciano, that I’ve also been learning.

Unfortunately, this would probably be the case of anyone travelling to different Spanish-speaking countries. Although some countries speak the same language, there are so many lexical and cultural differences between them, just as there are so many differences between the language and customs of the United States and other English-speaking countries.  It's important to pay attention to the manner in which people speak so that you are not completely lost in translation.

Here are some examples of why it is so difficult to learn Spanish:

Vocabulary

The Dominican Republic

One of the main reasons why speaking Spanish can be so difficult, especially when travelling to other countries, is because the vocabulary in each place can be so different. You may run into words that are completely unused in other countries or words that have a completely different meaning. I’ve run into these differences while living in Costa Rica, The Dominican Republic and now Spain. For example:

These are some words that replace each other in different countries:

1.      Computer: in Latin American Spanish, computer is computadora; whereas in Spain, it’s ordenador.

2.      Glasses:  in Latin American Spanish, glasses are anteojos; whereas in Spain, they are gafas.

3.      Potato/French Fries: this is one of the first things that surprised me because before coming to Spain, I always referred to potatoes as papas and French fries as papas fritas; however, in Spain they are patatas and patatas fritas, respectively.

4.      Congratulations: I’ve always said felicidades or felicitaciones; but in Spain, saying enhorabuena is more common.

5.      Beans: in Costa Rica, the beans were always referred to as frijoles; whereas in the Dominican Republic they were always habichuelas and in Spain they are called alubias or judias.

6.      Juice: in Costa Rica, the juice was fresh and therefore was referred to as fresco; whereas in the Dominican Republic the juice was simply referred to as jugo. In Spain, juice is most often referred to as zumo.

7.      Ticket: In Costa Rica, I always referred to a ticket as a boleto or a tiquete; but in Spain, ticket can be an entrada, a billete or other things, depending on the exact type.

8.      Cake: I’ve heard the word cake being referred to as a pastel, a tarta, a torta, a queque and a postre (which technically means dessert, but has been used in more of a cake context).

These words are used in the same countries but have a different meaning:

1.      Coger: coger is a word that you really need to watch out for because in Spain, it means to get, pick up or catch something. In Mexico and some other countries, however, it is a very vulgar word and has a sexual connotation. 

2.      Comida: I’ve always taken the word comida to mean food or meal. But in Spain, the comida is the big lunch that people eat in the middle of the day.

3.      Almuerzo: Just like comida, I’ve always learned that almuerzo was lunch. However, in Spain, the almuerzo is more of a mid-morning snack.

This is just a few examples of the hundreds of differences in vocabulary between some countries. If you would like to view more, this is a good website:

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anexo:Diferencias_de_vocabulario_estándar_entre_países_hispanohablantes

Grammar

Just as the vocabulary varies in different Spanish-speaking countries, sometimes grammar rules also change. It’s the same in English. In American English vs. British English there are some differences in preposition usage, using the present perfect tense and spelling. For example, we would say “on the weekend” while they would say “at the weekend” and they would oftentimes use the present perfect tense when we would use the past tense. Spanish is also like this. Here are some examples:



Costa Rica

1.      Those who have studied Spanish know that each verb in every tense is conjugated differently. The way that verb is conjugated depends on the subject. Take the verb hablar for example, which means, “to speak.” In the present tense, the forms are yo hablo (I speak), tú hablas (you speak), él/ella habla, (he/she speaks) nosotros hablamos (we speak), vosotros hablais (you all speak) and ellos hablan (they speak). Keep in mind, this is just the present tense, there are 14 verb tenses. When learning Spanish in the United States, we are usually told that the vosotros form, or the “you” plural form (the way we would address a group of people), is only used in Spain and therefore, it wasn’t important to learn. As a result, I always studied this form, but I never used it because I was never tested on it and none of the countries that I have been to used it. However, now that I am in Spain it is used constantly; I especially have to use it when I am addressing the children in class or talking to the teachers that I work with. Although I know the vosotros forms of these verbs, I always feel uncomfortable using them because they are words that I’ve never used before.

2.      Speaking of using the vosotros (“you” plural) form of verbs, one thing that has also been difficult when travelling to different Spanish-speaking countries is knowing how to address people. For example, in Spanish, you can address an individual person in two different ways: by using the pronoun tú or the pronoun usted. In English, both of these pronouns mean “you,” however, tú is normally used when you are addressing someone informally, while usted is used when addressing someone formally. In other words, when you are speaking with your friends and to people younger than you, you would normally use “tú,” but if you’re speaking to people that you would respect more, those older than you, you would use usted. As with all of the pronouns in Spanish, they each also come with different verb conjugations. You can either say something like, “Tú eres muy guapo” or “Usted es muy guapo” (They both mean “you are good-looking”).

This is really important because some countries rarely use the tú form, some rarely use the usted form and some use a mixture of both. In Costa Rica, for example, the language was very formal and people did not use the tú form at all. Therefore, every person, whether 2-years-old or 90-years-old, was addressed as usted. In the Dominican Republic, however, the language was more fitting to the age and social status of each person and therefore, I would address my friends as tú and my professors and host-parents as usted. The language in Spain, in my opinion, is the total opposite of that in Costa Rica; it is extremely informal. Therefore people normally address each other as tú without considering age or social status. I made the mistake of addressing my school’s director as “usted” when I came here and, according to her, it made her feel very old.

In my opinion, each country’s language rules have a direct correspondence with the formality of the country. Costa Rica was a very conservative country, which is why everyone addressed everyone in a more formal, respectable manner. Spain, however, is a lot more relaxed; therefore, people address each other in a more familiar way.

The Domican Republic

3.      Another grammar note that I’ve picked up on while I’ve been in Spain is the placement of indirect object pronouns. People learning Spanish as a foreign language have learned that when using indirect-object pronouns (me, te, le, nos, os, les or in English, me, you, him, her, us, them) with a conjugated verb and a verb in its infinitive form, you can either place the pronoun before the two verbs or you can attach it to the end of the verb in its infinitive form. For example, you can either say “me puedes ayudar” or “puedes ayudarme” (both mean “can you help me?”). Although I use both, I’ve always preferred the latter way over the former because it’s just easier for me. However, I’ve noticed that most Spaniards that I’ve spoken with use the former. So I’ve started doing the same. 

4.      An additional thing that I’ve caught on to while living here is that people use the present perfect tense in a different manner. In English, the present perfect tense is used to describe an action that started in the past but may still be going on in the present. It involves the have/has verbs that we use in English. For example, I would normally say, “yo he comido tres galletas hoy,” (I have eaten three cookies today) or “¿Que has hecho hoy?” (What have you done today?). However, I’ve realized that Spaniards normally use the present perfect tense instead of using the past tense with actions that happened that same day. For example, one day, I was telling my roommate a story about something that happened in the kitchen that morning. I said something like, “I was making tea and I put water in the mug and put the mug in the microwave and when I took the mug out of the microwave there was something in it.” Anyway, my roommate laughed at me while I was telling the story and when I asked her why, she said that it was because I was using the past tense instead of the present perfect tense. “But why would I use the present perfect?” I asked. She said that it was because, although everything happened in the past, it still happened that day, so it sounds better to use the present perfect. “Isn’t it like that in English too,” she said, “wouldn’t you say, ‘I have put water in the mug’ and ‘I have put the mug in the microwave?’” Umm no. That’s when I assured her that we don’t speak that way in American English, but I believe they do in British English. We may use the word “had” in that context, but that’s a totally different verb tense.  They didn’t speak that way in the other countries that I’ve been to either.

Anyway, so now instead of saying things like, “fui al supermercado hoy” (I went to the supermarket today), I say “he ido al supermercado hoy” (I have gone to the supermarket today).  To me, it doesn’t convey the same message, but hey, when in Spain…

Stay tuned for Part II.

Six Months

Do you know what today is…? It’s my Spainniversary!!!

Yep, that's right, I've been in Spain for six months now. I can’t believe that six months ago I was just setting foot on Spanish soil for the first time ever. I had no idea what would become of my journey here and I was very nervous. Six months later, I’ve made wonderful friends, I teach and live in a great place, I have cool roommates and I’ve learned so much since I’ve been here.

I originally planned to do something to celebrate my small milestone but it is the middle of a workweek and I was very busy today. Besides, I live in Jávea.  What would I do anyway? So in the end, I didn’t do anything; I didn’t even have a glass of tinto tonight.

My day at school was regular. I had both of the second grade classes, both of the 4^th grade classes, and 5^th grade. It wasn’t as interesting as a day would have been with the 4-6 year olds.

After school I had to run a couple of errands around town and then I went to my valenciano class.

Today in valenciano we focused on a lot of verb conjugation and grammar, and this was definitely not my favorite class. We not only learned how to conjugate verbs in the imperfect tense, but we also learned the two different ways to conjugate verbs in the past tense; yes there are two ways! We then did some past vs. imperfect tense exercises and, as if that wasn’t enough, we learned some new prepositions and went over the rules of when to use them. We did all of this in the hour and fifteen minutes that we were in class. I don’t understand why she couldn’t have saved some of the work for the class tomorrow, or Monday. It was information overload!

When I got home from class I had about 20 minutes to get ready for aerobics. I’ve convinced myself that I need to start being more serious about going to aerobics class, especially since I’m trying to lose weight now, and because I pay for it. It’s so easy to use the cold weather or a long day at school as an excuse not to go. And my roommate doesn’t help the situation either.  Sometimes, about 30 minutes before our class, we’ll just look at each other and simultaneously shake our heads (which means: no I’m not going). It’s kind of ridiculous!

I really feel like my aerobics class is more of a dance class. You really have to pay attention and learn the steps because the instructor will teach us the moves and then sit back and watch (and laugh probably). I’m usually pretty good, which came as a surprise to me at first, but now I think that most of her steps are pretty predictable so it’s hard to be totally lost.

On Mondays we do regular aerobics and on Wednesdays we always do step aerobics. Although I prefer step aerobics, it can actually be a little dangerous sometimes because we do a lot of jumping and turning on the step stool. I actually saw the instructor trip a couple of times today, and my roommate even fell and hurt her ankle. Ouch! At the end of aerobics, everyone is usually sweating profusely, so that's a good thing. When I finally returned home, I showered, ate dinner and watched TV with my roommates.

The days that I spend here are beginning to get shorter and shorter. The weeks go by so quickly. In a couple of months I will be back in the great United States of America. On one hand, I'm extremely happy and I'm ready to see my family and friends and be in my country, but on the other hand, I’m really not ready to leave Spain. I feel like there is still so much for me to learn here, so many people that I should meet, so many places that I should visit and so many things that I want to do. We'll see what happens.

Bucket List Activity #15: Churros con Chocolate COMPLETE!



Attempt #1: Churros con Chocolate

Today I decided to complete one of the activities on my Spanish bucket list: making homemade churros and chocolate.

Here in Spain, churros con chocolate is a very popular treat that people oftentimes have for breakfast, a snack or dessert. The churros are fried and sometimes sprinkled with sugar and they can be made two different ways, with a thinner shape, or with a longer and thicker shape (this is called porra).  When eating the churros, they are dipped in thick, hot chocolate. This chocolate is nothing like the hot chocolate we normally consume in America.


My First Encounter



Churros and chocolate is definitely one of my favorite Spanish treats. I was introduced to it for the first time in October when my friends were shocked that I’d never had it and immediately took me to try some. We went to Valor, one of the most popular chocolate factories in Spain, and the churros con chocolate were so delicious. Unfortunately though, I was not able to finish all of my chocolate because I wasn’t accustomed to drinking chocolate so thick and rich. These days however, I have no problems consuming the chocolate or the churros.   

Before starting the churros I knew that it was going to be a little more difficult than what the recipe stated. This was because I didn’t have the piping bag that I needed to squeeze the dough out of. But if there is anything that I’ve learned in Spain, it’s the art of improvisation while cooking, so I didn’t let it bother me too much.

The ingredients that I used for the churros and chocolate were very simple. For the churros I needed water, butter, flour, salt and eggs. For the hot chocolate I needed milk and some solid melting chocolate.


Making the Dough

I made the churros first because I knew that this part was going to be the most time consuming. Once I heated and mixed all of the ingredients together for the churros, I then had to decide how I was going to form them into the correct shape without a piping bag. I decided to use a regular Ziploc bag and make a small hole at the bottom of it so that the churros would form a similar shape. I squeezed the churro dough out of the bag directly into the hot oil. The first couple of churros that I made didn’t turn out that well. They were way too big and they cooked a little too quickly. I then turned the temperature down a bit and tried to better control the way I squeezed the churros out. Afterwards, the churros weren’t perfect but they did come out much better than before. It’s a good thing I had a lot of dough to experiment with!

When the churros were done, I sprinkled them with a little sugar. Sugar is usually optional but I like my churros to have a little sweetness to them. I then started making the hot chocolate.

The hot chocolate was very easy. I added some milk to a small saucepan, let it heat up, cut up the squares of chocolate, and stirred in the chocolate pieces. I used Valor melting chocolate because I knew that the chocolate was going be delicious. I’m happy to admit that in these last couple of weeks I have become a little bit more comfortable with the way that I deal with milk. I’ve never liked milk, and although I usually have a little milk in my coffee, I can’t stand touching it, smelling it, and I certainly couldn’t drink it by itself or even have it with cereal. Just thinking about it has always made me kind feel kind of sick. But ever since I’ve been making Spanish hot chocolate, I have become more comfortable with using it for that purpose.

Valor Melting Chocolate

After heating and stirring the milk-chocolate mixture until it was dark and thick, the churros con chocolate was finally ready. I sat down to enjoy it and, although I had made a lot, I only ended up eating 2 churros and maybe a tenth serving of the hot chocolate that I had prepared. Both were actually very good, but I wasn’t that hungry because I had to sample some of the churros while I was cooking.  In addition, the sweet/oily aroma in the air actually made me less inclined to want to eat.

Considering it was my first time making this treat, I think that I did pretty well. Without the technical difficulties (lack of proper baking supplies) the churros would have turned out a lot better. But ultimately the taste is what really matters and the churros and chocolate tasted very good. I just wish I had more of an appetite to enjoy them at the end.

I definitely plan to perfect this recipe while in Spain so that when I go back to the states I can share it with my family and friends.


Enjoying the Churros and Chocolate in Granada



A Taste of the South... In Spain

My Definition of a Great Dinner

Preparing my presentation this week about American food really made me want some southern food, so I decided that today was the perfect day to make a southern meal (especially since I will be starting my diet soon). I decided to make some macaroni and cheese, cabbage, fried chicken tenders, and mashed potatoes and gravy. Normally, I wouldn’t cook this many carbohydrates, but I really needed to do something with the potatoes that I had before they went bad.

Surprisingly, today was my first time making fried chicken. Being from the south, I definitely love fried chicken (although I prefer it to be boneless) but frying foods really isn’t my specialty. In fact, today was the first time that I’d fried anything since I’ve been in Spain.

Cooking these dishes really made me think of my family. I really appreciate the fact that I come from a family of great cooks. Everyone in my family really loves to cook and they are all very talented in the kitchen. From my mom, I learned how to cook more traditional things, whereas I get most of my creative cooking from my dad and older sister. I’m still trying to get to their level.

Anyway, it took about two hours for me to cook everything. The only reason why it took that long was because we have a limited number of pots and pans in our piso. When the food was done, I took out the Tabasco sauce and enjoyed it. The only thing that was missing from my southern meal was sweet tea, which I could have easily made, but I ended up making fresh lemonade instead, which was just as great.

I realize that the next time I make a meal like this I should definitely invite some people over. I felt like a real loser eating this meal all by myself. I would have loved to share it with my roommates, but of course they weren’t here. One day soon I’ll cook and have guests. In the meantime, I definitely prepared enough food for at least 4 people, so it looks like I won’t have to worry about cooking tomorrow or Monday.

Buen Provecho!

My Clumsy, Hectic, Zombie Week

A Lovely Friday Morning in Jávea

This week went by pretty quickly. Since arriving from my trip to Valladolid, I’ve been pretty tired; but even though I did a lot of yawning in my classes and displayed zombie-like behavior, I still had a pretty good week.

On Sunday night as I finally stepped off the bus to arrive in Jávea, I somehow missed a step and ended up falling onto the ground. The most ironic thing about this is that, normally, I am only one of maybe three people taking the bus, but on Sunday, the bus was absolutely packed with people travelling to Valencia from Alicante. I was very embarrassed; my fall was by no means quiet and delicate. On the contrary, it was rather loud and dramatic. The most pleasant thing, however, was that after falling, a group of abuelos (Spanish grandfathers) helped me up. I love my abuelos! As soon as I got up, everyone asked if I was okay. I replied that I was okay and said thanks and hurried home as quickly as possible. I realized later that during the fall, a button must have popped off of my favorite coat. Great!

I was exhausted when I got to school on Monday morning. All of the teachers asked how my trip was and I told them all that I had a really great time. As I was heading to the 2^nd grade class, the English teacher told me that all of the 2^nd-graders asked about me when I was out last Wednesday. She told me that they were so confused that she was teaching the class instead of me, “pero, nos toca LaTasha” they all said. I thought that it was funny.  Later that day, I found out that I had missed a whole unit in my Valenciano class. But I caught on quickly.  When I got home, I accidently dropped and broke the wine glass that I got as a gift from the wine tasting and wanted to bring with me back to America. Fabulous!

On Tuesday, I apologized to the infantil English teacher for leaving her alone with the 4-year-olds and the disastrous 5-year-olds last week. She told me that the 4-year-old class was really worried about me when I didn’t show up. When I entered the class, all of the kids ran up to me and gave me a hug. It’s good to feel loved! I had an extra cup of coffee during my lunch break that day (to prepare for the 1^st grade class). Now, whenever the 1^st graders see me come to their line outside and know that I’m going to be in their class, they cheer my name. I have no idea why they like me so much, especially since I’m always asking one of them to stop doing something. For example, on Tuesday, we went outside as a class to gather some small sticks, unfortunately though, a couple of the boys saw huge tree branches lying on the ground and instead wanted to have a sword fight with each other. Needless to say, it was a disaster.

On Wednesday, I gave an “American Food” presentation to my 4^th and 5^th graders. The majority of my classes have been working on a food unit so I thought that it would be perfect to review all of the vocabulary and cooking terms that they’ve learned and also show them a bit of American culture by preparing a PowerPoint presentation about American food. I started off the presentation by asking everyone about the first things that come to their mind when I say, “American Food.” They said expected things like hamburgers and fries, apple pie and hot dogs. Next I showed them a variety of restaurants in Spain as well as food products and asked, “What do all of these have in common?” When some of the children found out that all of the places and things were American, they were quite shocked. The purpose of the presentation was to show the children that American food consisted of more than a hamburger and French fries. So I showed them things that we typically have for breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert, and we also compared typical eating times and portion sizes between Spain and the U.S.  The kids were very surprised to find out that Americans normally eat dinner very early. I also talked about the typical dishes that we have on holidays and included some specialty food, like BBQ and southern food. Because the children were learning cooking terms in their classes, I also included a recipe for my favorite dish, Macaroni and Cheese. I ended the presentation with a video that my family made 2 years ago on Christmas day to send to my family in another state. In the video, my mom walks around the kitchen talking about all of the food items that she prepared. I thought that this would be perfect.

The children really enjoyed the presentation. At the end of it everyone said that they wanted to go to “America,” even my British students, which actually surprised me. A few of the students also came up to me afterwards and asked if I could print out the Macaroni and Cheese recipe, lol. The English teacher also enjoyed the presentation; she asked if she could have a copy of it to show to her future classes.

Not only were the children able to review a lot of the food vocabulary they had learned, but they were also able to learn a lot about American culture, which I believe is my purpose here. The children get really confused with distinguishing between the U.S. and Great Britain so I think that this presentation helped a lot. At the end, one of my students even asked if I was from America. Despite the number of times that I have labeled myself an “American” in class, it’s as if she was finally seeing the difference between being “americana” and being “inglesa.” I also think that I showed the English teacher a great new way to incorporate material from the lessons into a fun and interactive presentation. I’m so tired of just working out of the book, and I know the kids are too. I think that I will start preparing a cross-cultural presentation like this for all of the units in the future.

Thursday was a funny day. In my 3^rd –grade class, I got up to help some of the students with their work, and when I went back to my seat, I discovered that my water bottle had disappeared. I looked around the room and saw what appeared to be my bottle on one of the students’ desk. But I didn’t say anything.  I later asked the English teacher if she knew what happened to it and she suddenly recalled the student saying, “Oh there’s my water,” and picking it up and taking it to her seat. She laughed and said that she didn’t even think about it. I laughed it off too. Later, she asked the girl if she was sure that it was her water bottle she picked up, the girl said yes. I told the teacher not to worry about it but she told the girl that she knew that she was lying because it was hers.  The girl later got in trouble for lying to the teacher.  Ouch! I bought another bottle during my break because I was really thirsty.

Later that day, the 5-year-old class, as always, was a disaster. In that class there are at least 10 students that are always talking or out of their chair or fighting, and it was no different this time. Normally, having the 4-year-olds after the 5-year-olds is such a relief; but on Thursday they were acting up as well. After we called their names to say good morning, a few of them started making this sound with their mouth and their fingers. The English teacher told them to stop, but they kept doing it. Eventually, it turned into almost the whole class doing it. The other teacher and I decided to wait with our hands folded and an angry expression on our faces until they stopped. I must admit, it was very difficult for me to keep a straight face. The kids were looking at me while making the sound with smiles on their faces like they thought it was so funny and they wanted me to laugh too. After about 10 minutes or so of doing this, the teacher talked about how disappointed we both were and I ended up taking the 5 children who weren’t making the noise outside to do English activities while the other kids sat in silence.  Later that day, we found out that it was the music teacher a.k.a. my roommate who taught them how to make the sound with their mouth. We both laughed about that.

On Thursday night my roommate and I took an hour walk along the shore. Both of us want to lose a little weight, so, in addition to our aerobics class, we decided that we were going to try to take daily walks. The walk was very nice. It wasn’t cold outside, and we talked so much about different things that it didn’t even seem like an hour had passed.  I had a glass of wine that night that made me very sleepy so I went to bed early.

On Friday (my day off) I woke up very early. I decided to take advantage of the early hour and the beautiful day (and knowing that I wouldn’t run into my students because they would be at school) by taking a stroll through the town, so I put on my tennis shoes and work out gear and walked along the shore and to the beach. Once I got to the beach I sat down for about 20 minutes and just thought about how lucky I feel to be where I am and how I’m really going to miss Jávea, and Spain, when I return to the U.S. Oh, and I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I was also thinking about what I would eat for lunch. As I was making my way back to my part of town, I came across a dark-skinned man and got really excited. If you have talked to me at all since I’ve been here, you would know that I am probably the only dark-skinned person in this town. As I was passing the guy, he shot me a smile and said, “ahí va la morena” (there goes the brown-skinned girl). I thought that it was hilarious because I was thinking the same thing about him. On my way home, I decided to stop by the British supermarket to buy bagels and cheese for the macaroni that I plan to make this weekend. My morning was perfect; I had a great walk, enjoyed the nice weather, and got some grocery shopping done.

And my week was also great!