Un Día Difícil

I'm having a rough day. For four hours every day I push my brain to focus so that I can understand my class work. I can not take notes, I can not look in my dictionary, I can't let myself think about anything besides each word that is coming out of my Professor's mouths. If I look away or check my watch or anything then I lose track of everything that is being said. I never imagined that one could use so much energy just listening and thinking. It is seriously so exhausting. Day by day I understand more and more of what is being said in class, but by the time my classes are over and I'm free for the day I'm simply too worn-out and ready for siesta. Normally I don't think this would be a problem except I have met so many wonderful people and I have such a short amount of time to hang out with them and explore Spain.

                                    


Salamanca is a University city and absolutely beautiful, four weeks is definitely not enough time to see everything that begs to be seen. It has countless students from abroad, and not just American students like I, with my unfortunate American mentality expected. It has students from China, Japan, Italy, England, Brazil, Switzerland etc. I have met enough English speakers to fill my need for escapes from the Spanish language, but I have met many amazing people who speak no English and the only way that we can communicate is through Spanish. This is rough for me as I am not fluent and so making small talk or making plans to hang out after class is a problem.

I walk to my final class every day with a sweet girl named Dora. She is from Brazil. She only speaks Spanish, but yet we have found ways to communicate, for the most part. I was even able to, in my beautifully-broken Spanish tell her how there is an American television program for kids that teaches children Spanish and the girl on the sow is named Dora. I told her how my mom watches kids for her job and that she told them I was exploring Spain with Dora and how excited they got. I'm pretty sure she understood because she smiled and laughed.

Anyways, the morning was encouraging. Just like the day before I understood more in class today than I did yesterday. Poco-a-poco, little by little things are starting to click that didn't click just weeks ago, but I don't feel like I'm understanding things fast enough.

After class today Dora came up to me with a smile on her face and seemed very excited. If I understood what all I think I understood, she was asking me where I lived and inviting me somewhere, but I didn’t understand most of everything and she couldn’t understand my broken responses. We both just gave up and said we’ll see each other in class tomorrow.

That brought my spirits down a bit. As much as I’m excited to hang out with my English-speaking friends I don’t want to limit my friends simply because I can’t understand some of them. I was a little somber when I got home. I explained as best as I could to PQ. Opphh, my brain is tired from the morning.We talked a bit before siesta, over almuerzo. Small talk still gets a little confusing and with myself already feeling exhausted and sad about not understanding stuff I kind of just zoned out for a second while she was talking. I was watching her talk but not really listening until I heard her ask, “Comprende?” I shook myself out of my trance, and took a big sigh so as to keep from crying. Quietly I responded, “Nnnoooooooo” and tears started forming in my eyes.

“Tranquilo, esta bien. Tranquilo” She consoled, telling me to relax, and that everything was fine. We talked slowly, I was still a bit overwhelmed, but that was good for us and good for me too. She gave me a big hug. Nice to have a good hugger for a host-mom, and then we went our separate ways for the rest of the evening, but poco-a-poco, things will get better.