Saturday, August 30, 2008

Words, words, words. I'm so sick of words!

Another quick quote:

''And never underestimate the importance of BODY LANGUAGE!!!'' Who said it? Hint, from a movie.

And it's true. As quickly as my Spanish improves and my English deteriorates, my sign language improves. It's amazing the concepts you can...shoot, forgot the word...you can...you can...make others understand (not what I was looking for, but it works) by pointing, waving your hands madly in the air, and saying ''Sí,'' ''No,'' and ''No sé.''

In fact, I´m learning a lot about language in general.

Por ejemplo:



When you're in an environment when only one language is being heard, it's difficult to switch. When I was writing a few days ago, I tried to remember a Japanese word and it was so so difficult! My brain, for the last week, has been wired hardcore only to Spanish and English. Trying to recall another completely foreign language is surprisingly hard.

On the same vein, when English is around me, or even the option of English, it's easy to give in and speak English. The radio plays a lot of popular English music. You have no idea how many times I've heard the Jones Brother's top single ''Burning Up.'' But when it's playing and mi mama is speaking to me, I have a more difficult time calling up the Spanish words I need. And I'm lazy. I'll admit it here, though I told Salazar otherwise. I'm lazy because when we're eating dinner and I'm trying to get a point across and it's not working, I tell me brother in English, then he translates.

Then phone calls. Wow, I love talking on the phone in Spanish. Not. Today I was hung up on. I called Paola's cell. When someone answered I said ''Habla Erika'' just like I was supposed to. I mean, this is her phone. Who else would answer? Ha ha, well, not her. Rapid Spanish shot through the phone lines at me, and I understood nothing. Seconds later...click. Dead. A minute later Paola called back and explained that it was her mother.

On the bright side, I'm getting better at speaking with my parents. I've had several full (though broken) conversations with with progressively less No Entiendos. Go me!!!! Er...and my parents for learning Spanglish. I feel bad that we have to resort to it.
The other night my dad said something, then I said something, they after a second of looking at me questionally said, ''Come. Here.'' Ugh! It'd be so less painful for them if I could just learn to freakin talk!

There's my rag on language for you. I think my experience would be completely different if I wasn't in a bilingual school, but I'm learning.

Bolivia is wonderful, the family and friends are wonderful, and the fresh food is to die for.
You are all wonderful too and I love you very much.
Many kisses,
Eri

P.S. Comment with the names of both quotes' movies and you get a virtual hug.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Besar: to kiss....My Definition:to greet

Hello all, and welcome to my blog. I´m here in Bolivia, and am loving it!!!!!!! But there are some things you might want to know before you die of missing me and come visit:
The number one most obvious thing for me...how to greet.
I´m sure you´ve all seen the movies where when they meet someone, they kiss cheeks. For whatever reason, I never thought of how that would apply to me. But believe me, it does. When I got off the plane my new family all kissed me on the cheek. And I thought ''Okay.'' It wasn´t that unusual. It felt natural to lean in like that.
Then to a family birthday party. I still don´t know the names of everyone, but I have kissed them all.
And thus the stories continue...at my new school, to the boy behind me in Mass (yes, I went to Mass) everyone. And depending on who the person is dictates the kiss. For example, all of the women and most of the men actually had a pucker to my right cheek, but a few just pressed their cheek to mine. And one particular abuela (grandmother) kissed me full out on both cheeks.
It makes me wonder why the US has such an aversion to kissing in greeting. At what point in our lives did it become uncomfortable to kiss anyone besides family and significant others. No entiendo.

And that´s it. I´m here. I´m safe. I´m in school, and have some great friends. My family is fantastic, and the wildlife is pretty great. While sitting in the pool yesterday, some parrots flew overhead. Except for the poverty downtown on the streets...''Por favor señorita...'' and general political unrest, and that one of my friends got mugged awhile ago, this place is heaven. I already love it.

So, hasta luego.

Chau.