I am doing pretty well these days (except for the fact that currently I think I might be coming down with the flu..I couldn´t sleep last night due to an aching stomach and issues in the intestinal area, if you know what I mean). But besides that, things are going well. I feel pretty comfortable here. I feel content with my little group of friends and in my crappy-ass apartment. Today we are throwing another party wherein I´m sure, as per usual, way too many people will be crammed into way too small an area. But it´ll be fun. The more I think about what the hell I´m going to do next year, the more I realize that the easiest and perhaps most fun and satisfying option might be just to come back here to Madrid. A lot of the friends I have here will still be here. Unfortunately, not all of them, but at least I wouldn´t have to start all over again.
Things with The Mexican are going well. I really like this boy. He is very nice. He is outgoing and pleasant to everyone, and he tries to make conversation with everyone around him. And besides, he´s very sweet and cariñoso with me. The fact that he is Mexican actually means that we have a lot more in common than I would have with a Spaniard. For one, he too is living outside his country, and this is something that only people who have done it can really understand. It makes him a lot more independent and self-sufficient, like me, than the 26 year old Spanish boys who still live with their parents. And like I said before, he´s doing his doctorate in Sociolgy, which means that he, like me, has the sociological imagination. I mean, last time we hung out, we discussed the pros and cons of Erving Goffman´s The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. How cool is that?
Having a relationship based completely in Spanish is kind of cool too. It´s very different, at times a little weird. But overall, very fun and satisfying. I am very proud of myself, that I can do this now. That I speak Spanish well enough to have friendships only in this language. Sometimes it is annoying though, that I want to tell him something and I can´t, or, I probably can, but I could tell it a lot better and a lot more entertainingly in English. And I´m sure that half the time I sound like an absolute retard, though he doesn´t show it. And I feel stupid when I can´t understand him either, but he´s pretty patient with me. I think this whole language thing probably bothers me more than it bothers him. But it´s great though, because I can practice speaking so much when I´m with him. I practice with my roommates and my other friends too, of course, but it´s different with someone you´re dating. Because your friends may or may not actually care about what you did today, or whatever problem you are dealing with. But with someone you are dating..well you just talk more I think. There´s a lot more things to talk about. I´ve probably told him more things about myself already than Nacho my roommate, or Helena.
And besides all this, he is adorable too. He is very sweet and gentle. He´s really big for a Mexican though. I mean, Mexicans are usually pretty short, but he´s like, 6´ 2¨ at least I think. Course I´m not sure because he only knows his height in meters. I always seem to like tall boys, but it´s kind of annoying too because he´s spent the night at my house a few times and all I have is this little kiddie bed and this really small pillow, and I really have been trouble sleeping with him because he takes up three quarters of the space. And he kind of snores. Anyhoo, I´m trying not to get my hopes up though. But who am I kidding, I always get my hopes up.
The good mood I have been in lately is due in no small part to this boy I´m sure. Other people have been noticing the change without me even saying one thing about it. The most embarrassing/funniest thing ever happened to me in one of my classes the other day... I have this class Monday and Wednesday morning at the Ministerio de Fomento with a bunch of middle aged civil servants. They speak really badly and they´re kind of slow, but that´s okay because they´re cute and sweet. There´s this one named Pedro who is obviously a child of the 60´s and always talks about how he loves everybody and everything and wears rainbow colored plaid shirts to class sometimes. He´s my favorite. Anyway, the other day in class, I was talking about some boring grammar point, and the funniest thing happened...
¨So you see class, the future continuous is used to talk about things that will be in the process of occuring, sometime in the future...¨ I was explaining. I looked up from my book and noticed that as usual, Jose, the trouble maker, was talking to his neighbor, once again, while I was trying to explain something.
¨Jose, Delores,¨ I said. ¨Do you have something you would like to share with the rest of us?¨
Delores and Jose looked at each other and started to giggle. ¨Ghee say dat joo are een loff,¨ Delores smiled.
¨What?! Where did that come from??¨ I thought to myself. I had just been talking about the future continuous, not having ANYTHING to do with romance. How did they know?? My face turned and red as a beet and I started to squirm.
¨Ah! Ees trroo!¨ laughed Pedro, the old hippie. ¨She ees verry reth!¨
Now, at this point, I couldn´t deny it. Of course I wasn´t in love, but I also couldn´t say that I WASN´T either since I recently HAD met somebody.
¨Wghat ees hees name?¨ they asked.
Okay, I really did not want to start this conversation. There is no reason that my middle aged government employee students need to know anything about my love life, but they had kind of backed me into a corner.
¨Umm..his name is Israel...¨ I conceded reluctantly.
¨Ghow ald arr joo?¨ they asked.
Assuming that what they really intended to ask was how old was HE, I answered, ¨Twenty-six...¨
¨Ees perfect!¨ they exclaimed.
¨Ees Espanish boy?¨ asked Delores.
¨No, he´s Mexican,¨ I said.
¨Ahhh...¨
Now, at this point, I really did NOT want to go into this anymore, so I tried to stear the conversation back to grammar. Then we moved onto a reading exercise, which, por lo tonto, just HAPPENED to be talking about Valentine´s Day. Crap.
¨Oooo!¨ squealed Pedro. ¨Gwhat day ees Balentine´s Day?¨
Of course, Valentine´s Day is a Monday, a day when we have class. Crap.
¨Oooo!¨ squealed Pedro. ¨Gwe gwill ghaff a lot to tallk abowt dees day...¨ he chuckled.
I can´t wait.
So apparently you can read something on my face about this whole boy situation. I certainly hope everything goes alright now, so I don´t have to just burst out crying or something if they bring it up on Valentine´s day if we´re not seeing each other anymore by that point. But I think we will be. I think...
Things with The Mexican are going well. I really like this boy. He is very nice. He is outgoing and pleasant to everyone, and he tries to make conversation with everyone around him. And besides, he´s very sweet and cariñoso with me. The fact that he is Mexican actually means that we have a lot more in common than I would have with a Spaniard. For one, he too is living outside his country, and this is something that only people who have done it can really understand. It makes him a lot more independent and self-sufficient, like me, than the 26 year old Spanish boys who still live with their parents. And like I said before, he´s doing his doctorate in Sociolgy, which means that he, like me, has the sociological imagination. I mean, last time we hung out, we discussed the pros and cons of Erving Goffman´s The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. How cool is that?
Having a relationship based completely in Spanish is kind of cool too. It´s very different, at times a little weird. But overall, very fun and satisfying. I am very proud of myself, that I can do this now. That I speak Spanish well enough to have friendships only in this language. Sometimes it is annoying though, that I want to tell him something and I can´t, or, I probably can, but I could tell it a lot better and a lot more entertainingly in English. And I´m sure that half the time I sound like an absolute retard, though he doesn´t show it. And I feel stupid when I can´t understand him either, but he´s pretty patient with me. I think this whole language thing probably bothers me more than it bothers him. But it´s great though, because I can practice speaking so much when I´m with him. I practice with my roommates and my other friends too, of course, but it´s different with someone you´re dating. Because your friends may or may not actually care about what you did today, or whatever problem you are dealing with. But with someone you are dating..well you just talk more I think. There´s a lot more things to talk about. I´ve probably told him more things about myself already than Nacho my roommate, or Helena.
And besides all this, he is adorable too. He is very sweet and gentle. He´s really big for a Mexican though. I mean, Mexicans are usually pretty short, but he´s like, 6´ 2¨ at least I think. Course I´m not sure because he only knows his height in meters. I always seem to like tall boys, but it´s kind of annoying too because he´s spent the night at my house a few times and all I have is this little kiddie bed and this really small pillow, and I really have been trouble sleeping with him because he takes up three quarters of the space. And he kind of snores. Anyhoo, I´m trying not to get my hopes up though. But who am I kidding, I always get my hopes up.
The good mood I have been in lately is due in no small part to this boy I´m sure. Other people have been noticing the change without me even saying one thing about it. The most embarrassing/funniest thing ever happened to me in one of my classes the other day... I have this class Monday and Wednesday morning at the Ministerio de Fomento with a bunch of middle aged civil servants. They speak really badly and they´re kind of slow, but that´s okay because they´re cute and sweet. There´s this one named Pedro who is obviously a child of the 60´s and always talks about how he loves everybody and everything and wears rainbow colored plaid shirts to class sometimes. He´s my favorite. Anyway, the other day in class, I was talking about some boring grammar point, and the funniest thing happened...
¨So you see class, the future continuous is used to talk about things that will be in the process of occuring, sometime in the future...¨ I was explaining. I looked up from my book and noticed that as usual, Jose, the trouble maker, was talking to his neighbor, once again, while I was trying to explain something.
¨Jose, Delores,¨ I said. ¨Do you have something you would like to share with the rest of us?¨
Delores and Jose looked at each other and started to giggle. ¨Ghee say dat joo are een loff,¨ Delores smiled.
¨What?! Where did that come from??¨ I thought to myself. I had just been talking about the future continuous, not having ANYTHING to do with romance. How did they know?? My face turned and red as a beet and I started to squirm.
¨Ah! Ees trroo!¨ laughed Pedro, the old hippie. ¨She ees verry reth!¨
Now, at this point, I couldn´t deny it. Of course I wasn´t in love, but I also couldn´t say that I WASN´T either since I recently HAD met somebody.
¨Wghat ees hees name?¨ they asked.
Okay, I really did not want to start this conversation. There is no reason that my middle aged government employee students need to know anything about my love life, but they had kind of backed me into a corner.
¨Umm..his name is Israel...¨ I conceded reluctantly.
¨Ghow ald arr joo?¨ they asked.
Assuming that what they really intended to ask was how old was HE, I answered, ¨Twenty-six...¨
¨Ees perfect!¨ they exclaimed.
¨Ees Espanish boy?¨ asked Delores.
¨No, he´s Mexican,¨ I said.
¨Ahhh...¨
Now, at this point, I really did NOT want to go into this anymore, so I tried to stear the conversation back to grammar. Then we moved onto a reading exercise, which, por lo tonto, just HAPPENED to be talking about Valentine´s Day. Crap.
¨Oooo!¨ squealed Pedro. ¨Gwhat day ees Balentine´s Day?¨
Of course, Valentine´s Day is a Monday, a day when we have class. Crap.
¨Oooo!¨ squealed Pedro. ¨Gwe gwill ghaff a lot to tallk abowt dees day...¨ he chuckled.
I can´t wait.
So apparently you can read something on my face about this whole boy situation. I certainly hope everything goes alright now, so I don´t have to just burst out crying or something if they bring it up on Valentine´s day if we´re not seeing each other anymore by that point. But I think we will be. I think...
posted by Chloe at 9:46 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home