I will also miss my mom.
And my dad.
And my Choo-Choo.
And my JackJack.
And my Sambo.
And my dog.
Also, Whiskers.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
A punto de embarcarme en los viajes
Typhoid vaccine? Check.
Adventure sandals? Check.
Suitcases? Check. (this does NOT mean that they are packed)
Passport? Check.
Montezuma's Revenge antibiotic? Check!!!
Spanish-English dictionary? Check.
Grasp of the Spanish language? not. so. much.
I am leaving in 7 days for my semester in Puebla, Mexico. I have an early flight next Monday (Aug. 2) to Mexico City via Spokane and Salt Lake City, courtesy of Anthony Travel Notre Dame. The plan is to then take a bus about 2 hours southeast to Puebla/Cholula where I will be attending Universidad de las Americas Puebla (UDLAP) until December.
Despite a few last-minute surprises including the retirement of the ND-Puebla study abroad coordinator and the cancellation of the home-stay program, I feel more or less prepared to leave next week. The only point I am worried about is the fact that I will have to use Spanish all day, every day. While I have technically taken 6 years of Spanish classes, discussing literature and operating in everyday life require very different vocabulary sets and levels of mastery. As in, secretly I've been skating by on present tense, action verbs, English-Spanish cognates and a lot of -ismos (romanticismo, machismo, etc). Whoops.
My main plan of attack is to make firm statements in order to A) feign confidence and B) avoid the subjunctive. It's a given that the first few weeks or even months will have their fair share of silly mistakes and frustration but that's what language immersion is all about, right? I really REALLY want to dream in Spanish before the semester is over, not only because it would be fantastic but also because it would suggest fluency. Win-win!
I am more than a little excited to spend some quality time right in the heart of Mexico. I will miss the LewCrew as it scatters to every corner of the Earth, Football Saturdays (what will the QB do without my warnings?!?! Probably get sacked. A lot.), the wind tunnel that is Indiana (maybe), and my gold star roomie, but this is the opportunity of a lifetime. That sounds cheesy and cliché but in the words of Pam Beesly, "maybe I'm being cliché, I don't care cause I am what I am... that's Popeye."
Adventure sandals? Check.
Suitcases? Check. (this does NOT mean that they are packed)
Passport? Check.
Montezuma's Revenge antibiotic? Check!!!
Spanish-English dictionary? Check.
Grasp of the Spanish language? not. so. much.
I am leaving in 7 days for my semester in Puebla, Mexico. I have an early flight next Monday (Aug. 2) to Mexico City via Spokane and Salt Lake City, courtesy of Anthony Travel Notre Dame. The plan is to then take a bus about 2 hours southeast to Puebla/Cholula where I will be attending Universidad de las Americas Puebla (UDLAP) until December.
Despite a few last-minute surprises including the retirement of the ND-Puebla study abroad coordinator and the cancellation of the home-stay program, I feel more or less prepared to leave next week. The only point I am worried about is the fact that I will have to use Spanish all day, every day. While I have technically taken 6 years of Spanish classes, discussing literature and operating in everyday life require very different vocabulary sets and levels of mastery. As in, secretly I've been skating by on present tense, action verbs, English-Spanish cognates and a lot of -ismos (romanticismo, machismo, etc). Whoops.
My main plan of attack is to make firm statements in order to A) feign confidence and B) avoid the subjunctive. It's a given that the first few weeks or even months will have their fair share of silly mistakes and frustration but that's what language immersion is all about, right? I really REALLY want to dream in Spanish before the semester is over, not only because it would be fantastic but also because it would suggest fluency. Win-win!
I am more than a little excited to spend some quality time right in the heart of Mexico. I will miss the LewCrew as it scatters to every corner of the Earth, Football Saturdays (what will the QB do without my warnings?!?! Probably get sacked. A lot.), the wind tunnel that is Indiana (maybe), and my gold star roomie, but this is the opportunity of a lifetime. That sounds cheesy and cliché but in the words of Pam Beesly, "maybe I'm being cliché, I don't care cause I am what I am... that's Popeye."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)