El gripe de Espana

I am easily convinced that one of the worst experiences one can have is being sick in a foreign land. If you don't believe me, try it. Try going to a four hour class and falling asleep on top of a cluster of desks during the half hour break. That's the final indicator that something really isn't quite right.

I've been achy and had a terrible cough and congestion that you would never believe for about two weeks now, and I'm so not a fan. And I'm a Love. That means we don't go to the doctor. We pretty much never take medicine. We don't even have NyQuill in our house. If you're lucky, you might find a tylenol floating around in the medicine cabinet. So my natural instinct is to just ride it out and let it pass. But this time its different. I'm ready to be pumped up with some antibiotics, horse tranquilizers, an IV of Red Bull...anything that will make me feel drastically different than how I feel now. It's really no fun to try to appear somewhat energetic and put together around people I barely know, in a country I have just arrived in. I'm tired of faking that I feel okay. But I don't want to be that girl who just stays home and sleeps all day and all night, while everyone else is going out and "experiencing the culture" (AKA going to bars and acting like disgusting drunk American college students, only to reinforce the perception that Spaniards have of us).

On a side note, I guess I haven't really shared much about my classes and my daily schedule so far. For these first two weeks, until February, we are all taking "Intensivo", a four hour course from 9 AM-1 PM every week day. On the first day, we took a placement test to see which section we should be put in, because we're all at different levels of comfort with the language. My section of about 15 students is taught by a professor from the University of Salamanca named Javier. He is perfect. Young, full of energy, loves making fun of Americans trying to speak Spanish with our terrible accents, and makes us laugh so much. His favorite line is "No taan-go de-nair-oh", spoken like a twelve year old girl. He definitely keeps things fun, because a four hour class can obviously be a little rough to get through.

In the first four days of intensivo, we have been focusing on learning phrases and vocabulary that we will need to use to really fit in with the culture of Spain. We spent about 30 minutes learning a variety of insults and "bad words", which they call "tacos". Obviously, if you want to really blend in with the culture, you have to be able to tell someone to f*** off. That's when you know you're truly fitting in.

The overall purpose of the intensivo is to be able to speak with more fluidity, including knowing filler words like "well, um, alright". It really is the little things that make it seem more natural to speak and understand another language. Right now, I definitely have a strong grasp of the bigger picture of the language, but the details really mess me up. I can understand about 99% of conversations with my madre and my professor, but when it comes to speaking myself, I usually get flustered and lose my confidence. The year and a half I took off from being in Spanish classes has really hurt my confidence in my speaking, but I'm hoping it will quickly be regained living here.