My last 24 hours in reverse

It has officially been my spring break, or Semana Santa for shamelessly Catholic countries like España, for 24 hours. I have enjoyed every single one of them, too.

Most of the other kids in my program are off seeing the world already. My closest friends are at this very moment in Paris, Lisbon, Prague, Valencia and wherever else. They are having a blast traveling and being young and fun and all that other nonsense. I am currently sitting in Madrid, LOVING not having school to think about, and not visiting any other cool city but my own.

I had to explain to everyone who asked that I am going to Barcelona next weekend and Lisbon the weekend after when Reno Lauren arrives and so I am thus spending this glorious spring break in this equally glorious city. I felt a little foolish about not leaving but only because I thought everyone else would think that.

Oh well, I have plenty of adventures in store for the next few weeks so I don´t feel guilty about not taking advantage of this one. Actually, I AM taking advantage of this one, just in a different way.

In which ways? I am so glad you asked...

Up until right now, all this morning I have been toiling over my new reading endeavor.

Rewind to last night. I chatted with Carmen for a long time (over pasta with tomato sauce and chorizo, delicious) about books. Now, this is one of my very favorite topics and I have the pleasure of discussing it more often here in España than I do at home. I have chatted books with Susan and Gabriela, the lovely ladies in the USAC office, all about my favorites and theirs. In my cooking class I chat about books nonstop with a couple of the girls who take the class with me. Well, we talk about it in class when I am not otherwise involved arguing against Australia for the best place to set up a fortress to save the human race from zombies once the war commences (too arid, not enough fertile land to support a population cut off from the rest of the world, although I can´t argue that it wouldn´t be easy to wall off).

You know how I previously wrote about how stoked I was upon discovering The God of Small Things in English in the USAC office? WELL, if you remember my elation, then you will understand my doubled elation when Carmen pulled the Spanish version out of her bookshelf last night to recommend to me. I was so excited that I started stuttering and not being able to remember words. Seriously, it was pretty nerdy of me.

I had NO IDEA that this book was so popular. I understand why, though, because it´s just so freakin good. I adore this book. I have said it a hundred times but I am going to say it again right now. If you haven´t read this book, you should.

OK, well, the other book I borrowed from Carmen (aka my new reading endeavor as aforementioned) is El Hobbit por el genio (como todo el mundo me dice) Tolkien.

Now, I have not read this book in English previously and I know I am learning all the wrong names. For example, the only one I know for sure is different is Bilbo Baggins. En español, se llama Bilbo Bolsón. I am looking forward to just being generally impressive when I refer to the names in Spanish and then nonchalantly add, "Oh, yeah, I read it in Spanish. You know, I speak Spanish so it wasn´t that big a deal or anything."

Also, this is giving me a good vocabulary base for future fantasty novel reading in Spanish. I don´t know if this is going to be an extensive future but it COULD be because I am learning all the words.

For example, some words I have learned this morning:

dwarf = el enano
walking stick = el bastón -and- pointed (adj. as in hat) = puntiagudo (both courtesy of Gandalf)
fairy=el hada (and for that matter I saw fairy godmother which is el hada madrina and a masculine word, so that´s wierd...)
to sprout (which isn´t a particularly fantastic word, but still...)=brotar

There are many more words that I have learned from reading the first chapter of El Hobbit thus far, but these are the ones that jumped to mind. Overall, I am enjoying reading this book, especially when I can sit in the sunshine at Retiro and do it. This is what I did this morning and it was very pleasant.

So, last night before Carmen and I talked shop, she had her English lesson with Veronica. Veronica is a puertarriqueña who lived for a bit during her childhood in the US. She speaks beautiful English with a lovely foreign sounding accent. She actually sounds Russian or something.

I always feel like she is throwing down the gauntlet and trying to beat me at English. I know this sounds odd but everytime she comes over she always gives me the vibe like she wants to show me how well she speaks English (which is perfectly) and not in a friendly way but in a challenging way. I don´t know. I don´t think she likes me very much anyway. And she´s really intimidating. I have to keep reminding myself that there is no way she can "beat" me at English-speaking because it´s my native language. This doesn´t mean she isn´t going to try, though.

It certainly didn´t make her very happy yesterday when she walked in the door and Carmen tattled on me that I taught her the word "shit."

Back up half an hour. We were doing Carmen´s homework together (last minute, a lady after my own heart). She was writing out her verbs and I was supervising. She was going over verbs that stay the same in all tenses and she was on the word "to shut." Her handwriting is kinda a mix between cursive and printing like mine, so I thought it would be wise to tell her that making one too few bumps in the "u" of "shut" would give her a palabrotas. I thought this was useful advice because she actually had written "shit" more than she had written "shut."

We had a good laugh as we were yelling shit in the apartment when I explained this to her. We were pretending to stub our toes and swear at this pain (also "to hurt" was another word on her list so we used that one, man, I´m a good teacher!) and it was pretty much the funniest thing I have ever experienced hearing her describe people as "shitty" when she asked if it could be used as an adjective. It can, I assured her. And frequently.

I don´t even know why Veronica was so pissed, though. As soon as Carmen and I started laughing again over the word "shit" (which is actually HILARIOUS and I just never realized it) she joined in and used shit in a few ways. She wanted in on the fun, but then gave me a dirty look as they left the kitchen. I don´t know. I cannot explain this.

Anyway, while they were studying I got the urge to study, too. So I went into my room and did all my homework (which is pretty much the easiest hw I have had since elementary school, I wish Jorge would make it harder), and perused the dictionary for new and interesting vocabulary.

I often do this when I feel inspired to speak Spanish well. I have a pretty solid grasp of the grammar (I am not trying to say perfect by a long shot) and I feel like now I just need to expand the vocabulary more than anything.

Last night I made lists of words with a theme instead of just listing random words that I liked. I made a list of animals and one of bugs and their related words/phrases.

One that I found beyond funny was peacock. In español, you say "el pavo real" which directly translates to "royal turkey." I had a good giggle about this one.

Some words I encounter while I do this are disappointing. For example, in Spanish you say "bowl" and "topless" the same way. There is another word for it technically, but they just use "bowl" for whatever reason. Sometimes I appreciate that it´s the same as English for comprehension purposes and sometimes I do not for cultural purposes. I feel a smidge guilty that our word for that thing out of which you eat cereal has replaced their word for that thing out of which you eat cereal. Oh well.

Another interesting thing: my dictionary had the verb "to scalp" as in cut someone´s forehead off from their face but not the noun "scalp" as in what you cut off. Weird.

One more thing that has nothing to do with anything else I have written this afternoon. On Monday I have a very important date with some girls from my program who are leaving at various times during the week. A place was discovered in downtown Madrid that serves burgers made from all sorts of crazy meats. We are going to order a zebra burger, a camel burger, and another one that I don´t remember right this moment and then share them. I don´t know if this is morally or ecologically sound, eating these animals, but I don´t want to know until after I try them. Then I won´t ever eat them again (probably).

Also, one of the girls and I are going to make pumpkin pies at my apartment next week when Carmen leaves for Alicante. We are crossing our fingers that the American grocery store has either stewed pumpkin or an actual pumpkin. They DO have cream soda and ranch dressing so they are not COMPLETELY useless, although they DO NOT have decent peanut butter so they KINDA are.

AND the lady on the mat next to me at yoga the other day was very pregnant. I did not appreciate this. There is a whole room, preggers, why do you have to plop down right next to me, eh? Rude. I don´t even know why she was there, she can´t do any of it anyway. And in spandex??? Gross...

OK, well that´s all I got for now. I have very pressing issues of hobbit research to take care of in the next few hours and the sunshine from Retiro me está llamando.