Feliz Cumpleanos a mi

Bon dia a tots!  I don’t have class today so I am currently sitting in bed watching Gattaca and attempting to read a book called El Husar by Arturo Perez-Reverte.  It’s a short read in theory, but the author, Perez-Reverte is a member of the Real Academia Espanola, an organization that for centuries has established itself as the linguistic watchdog of the Spanish language.  So, it’s very well-written, the language is more culto (refined) than I am used to, and I have been looking up every other word in the dictionary, but, I am learning a lot.  My friend who lent me the book is Spanish, and he says he has to look up stuff too so I don’t feel quite so bad about it!  It’s a great book so far, though, I recommend it.  It’s set in the south of Spain during the Napoleonic Era, and it centers around the armies settled in that region.  It’s pretty fascinating, and again, I am learning a ton.

Every day, I am learning something new, which is great because every word seriously counts.   Sometimes, more often than not, actually, one word is the difference between whether or not I understand an entire conversation.  At this point in my Spanish education, I find myself in conversations with native speakers, listening to them tell an entire story, and then at the end asking… “Wait.  One question. What does that ONE word mean?”… and BAM.  Everything is illuminated.  A lot of the time, these are words are idiomatic expressions (frases hechas), or words that have multiple meanings, or sometimes they are words that are more popular in certain regions of Spain, and sometimes, of course, I just have no idea what the direct translation is!  I’m learning though, little by little…poco a poco!

Last night, I went to the opening of a bar.  One of my friends is good friends with the owner.  I went with seven Spaniards…  a guy from Malaga (Andalusia, the South of the peninsula), a girl from Castellon (Valencia, Eastern coast of the Peninsula), a guy from Avila (central Spain), a girl from Salamanca (near Avila), a guy from Galicia (Northwest corner of the Peninsula, north of Portugal), a guy from Alicante (Southeast coast of the Peninsula), and a guy from Palma.  It was the most interesting group of people because they were sort of explaining things to each other and talking about their dialects and languages when the distinctions came up in normal conversation, and it was very natural for me to observe, rather than me having to stop them, and point out words and say “what!?”.  It was amazing, and I was conversing really well.  I met some of them a couple weeks ago, and they were all blown away by how much I had learned in the meantime.  It was a fabulous night, and at the end, we came back and ate cheese with membrillo and almonds and had a nice almond liqueur, listened to music and chatted.   The culture here is really great because it is very family-oriented, and at one point one of the girl’s parents and sister came for a little just to grab a drink and chat.  They were telling funny stories, and it was just really familiar and fun. 

My birthday was great.  The night before, I went out with my friends, and I felt pretty sick on my birthday itself, but it was still good fun.  My friends here made me a delicious feast!  I pitched in my making shrimp fritters, and they turned out quite well.  One of my friends made a chocolate cake with dulce de leche layers that knocked my socks off!  My roommates both gave me little presents, which was very nice and uncalled for, and at school, I didn’t make a big deal out of it, but it was really cute because one little girl had written down my birthday in her agenda, and as I was walking up to building, she and all her friends were hanging out the second-floor windows shouting “Happy birthday, Mari!” in English and waving.  It was really adorable.  It was also quite nice receiving a really nice card in the mail from Mom and Dad, and Emily and Phil and Choll sent a nice little care package!!  So sweet, definitely made me miss home.  But as you can see, I’m powering through! 

Tomorrow, my friend just informed me we are going on a 5-hour hike, then I think I’m going to go watch my friend be a casteller, or rather, do human tower-building (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castell) in Manacor, and then we will probably go out for a drink there.  It’s been a great birthday week, and its shaping up to be a great weekend!  I’m thinking of you guys a lot!