Since I arrived back in Córdoba Monday morning my week has been pretty uneventful and has mainly revolved around school. Monday our classes were cancelled since we were all required to go on the trip, and Tuesday was kind of a buzz kill after the excitement of the weekend. Wednesday was a little more eventful; after my classes I met up with Vicky for our weekly lunch. She brought one of her classmates, Ángel, with her because he is studying English as well and wanted to meet me. The three of us had a good time sitting at a café on campus and visiting in a mixture of English and Spanish. It’s hard for me to force myself to speak in Spanish around them since their English is so good, but once I got going it was really fun. It’s interesting because in our classes we are taught the official form of the language. Therefore, sometimes I would say words that were technically correct, but Vicky and Ángel would kind of laugh and then proceed to tell me that nobody actually uses those words and using them makes you sound arrogant. Then they would tell me the more common ones and I would do my best to commit them to memory. At the same time, they would sometimes say words that aren’t very common in English and I would do the same for them. It was a really cool learning experience; I feel like that is exactly what the Speaking Partner program was designed to do! We talked until they had to go to class and the three hours passed by quickly. In times when I am frustrated with my classes, start to miss home, or start to wonder if the money I’m spending is really worth it, it’s moments like Wednesday afternoon that make me remember why I’m here. There is no way that I could have ever had an experience like that in any type of class; I am learning so much more than the technical aspects of the language, and I realized that these daily lessons are going to be the difference between my academic knowledge of Spanish and me actually being able to use it to carry on conversations and get to know people. The whole afternoon was very nice, and after Vicky had to leave I walked back home. I started doing homework and Zulema was getting ready for her Folklore dance class. Usually, because of her class, we just have empanada Wednesdays, but she told me that Hugo was coming over so she started preparing dinner super early. Then, when she left, she put me in charge of finishing everything. I am usually nervous about messing things up when given directions in English; having been given directions in Spanish AND the fact that I had to use a stove that requires being manually lit by a little lighter was nerve wracking beyond belief. But after a minimal amount of difficulties I succeeded, and when Zulema came back everything was almost ready. I’m not really sure how this happened, but somehow everyone was here and ready to eat at the same time, and we had a nice little family dinner set-up of Zulema, Hugo, Sergio, and myself. As it’s usually just Zulema and I at nights, it was really fun to have a crowd and talk about things. After dinner I had to return to work and study for my test and quiz the following day, but it wasn't as bad after the wonderful day filled with great company.
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