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Well,

I have officially started transferring all of my accounts over to Spanish (should've done that a LONG time ago). Now when I type in English, everything is underlined in red signifying I've spelled it wrong because it is not in Spanish.

Before I came I really had no idea what to anticipate with the language. People who had already traveled abroad gave me ambiguos answers like, "you'll pick it up" ..but it is alot more complex than that. I kept on trying to apply English grammar rules to my sentences (of course a huge fail haha) and even when I read something, I would translate it to English. It doesn't work like that. Instead, you have to read the whole sentence and not translate...but rather absorb it. Like soak in the meaning.

I came here with the very basics of the language. Like the outline of the puzzle I could see the shape and boundaries to which it would be contained, but I could in no way tell what the picture was. This explains why although I could pick out words in a text or conversation, I could not understand the general meaning. Everyday it feels like I get more puzzle pieces and the picture becomes more clear. It is incredible how you miss words like "even" "although" "neither" "still" ...simple words that are not VITAL, but yet are extremely important for understanding the meaning of a sentence.

Lately people have been telling me that my Spanish has skyrocketed compared to what I started with. I've heard alot of "No offense...but you were HORRIBLE when you first got here" ...and I was. I could communicate and survive linguistically, but it was absolutely atrocious. When I tell Uruguayos that I need to practice my Spanish, they tell me that I already know it well and that they want to practice their English...what a relief that is to hear!!! I feel like I have so much more to learn, but at least I am getting somewhere!!

Learning a foreign language is definitely one of the most frustrating things I've ever done. I think what makes it so hard for me is that I am such a talker/writer/communicator in English, but that was completely stripped of me when I got here. Its like getting your biggest strength/hobby taken away....definitely very humbling. I can only think of what it is like to be an immigrant in the US...and not have ANY base of English. I've at least been exposed to Spanish and have been in a warm and friendly learning environment. I am finally starting to realize the INCREDIBLE amount of courage it would take to live somewhere where you literally cannot communicate anything. At least here people are bilingual to help me, in the States that is usually not the case. I'm learning more than ever that patience is a virtue, and I've been so blessed to be around amazingly patient Uruguayo citizens.

This weekend my friends and I went to "Cartas a Julieta" (Letters to Juliet)...it was horrible. Imagine the WORST romantic movie you've watched...and times it by ten. It was so cheesy, but I'm glad we went because I have not laughed that hard in a long time. Marina was literally crying when the credits rolled. We had a girls night in and baked cookies (more like burned half and ate the rest of the dough)...they don't have chocolate chips here so we had to smash up chocolate bars with a meat tenderizer. Also the oven didn't have temp settings just top burner, bottom burner and both...so it was a delicate art of balancing the burners (which we failed at haha).

I met an Uruguayo who studied at MN for a semester last year and visited Oshkosh...this kid loved Wisconsin. "YOU'RE FROM WISCONSIN??? I LOVE IT!!!! SO MUCH BEER! GO PABST BLUE RIBBON!!" haha!! I didn't really know what to say besides..thanks? He could not say enough about how friendly and trustworthy the people are..."I could talk to anyone and I felt safe everywhere!!" That is definitely true, and I'm glad he got to experience the MidWest!

Here they do not let you fill up your own gas tank, someone has to do it for you because otherwise they have too much theft of gasoline.

I did not go to Argentina this past weekend (presenations and class stuff got in the way of our group going) but I'm sure we will go there in the future. Things here are VERY last minute, so travel plans change often!

CIAOO