Mi Resolucion

After giving a presentation today to my Marketing Social class in Spanish (half exchange students, half Spanish students), I have decided to create a resolution for my study abroad experience - To speak better Spanish than I did when I came to Spain.

I'm sure that's a very "duhhhh" comment to read, but surprisingly, even in Spain I find it very easy to speak in English. At almost any restaurant you go to you can ask for an English translation. My roommates and I are all from UNC so we just naturally speak in English. Most of my friends are in the Erasmus exchange program and thus, speak English. Half of my classes at ESADE are in English and most ESADE students speak English... as you can tell, there is much more English here than one would expect... or at least than I expected. After fumbling over a few words in my presentation today, I realized for the first time that my Spanish has actually not improved much since I've been here.

There are however opportunities that I can take advantage of to better my Spanish. For one, half of my classes are in Spanish and have actual ESADE students in them, but most of the time I'm too shy about my Spanish to speak up in class. From now on I'm going to try to contribute at least one thing in each class and actively participate in my groups when we meet up to do our projects. I really need to immerse myself in the Spanish culture and hopefully with a little bit of confidence, I can do that.

My first boost of confidence came on the metro ride home from the university today. This group of old men (they were cute abuelos, not creepy tios) took the seats around me and joked around with each other about how old they are. They then argued with each other about who was younger and who was cuter and asked for my opinion. Besides making me laugh, it gave me the little opportunity I needed to speak some Spanish. I had to let them know of course that they all were handsome and I just couldn't choose :)

I only write this here so that I do keep my word. Hopefully I will not forget my resolution like most do when they make them on January 1st.

On a more exciting note, I have many visitors coming within the next couple of weeks! Katie comes from Madrid on Friday and stays until Sunday and as soon as she leaves, Chris comes! I am very, very excited to see them and show them around this wonderful city. I'll be sad when Chris leaves Thursday, but soon after that Erica comes for a week and a half. I am most excited for the Cava tour she is taking me on in Montserrat :)

Well I must get to bed now... 9-9 class tomorrow. Oh joy!