I´d estimate that 50% of the words that I have spoken thus far have been one of those two phrases. During orientation, I thought I was at least at the level of "terrible" when speaking spanish - but no. My approximation of my spanish speaking abilities right now is "extremely terrible".
Until last night, I wasn´t really able to communicate beyond saying what my tasks were for the day, or if I was hungry, or what my interests are academically - I guess that last part is a consequence of learning spanish in a college setting. But then, for an entire hour last night, I had a non-stop conversation with my host mom about all sorts of things - it was awesome! It may not seem like much, but being able to talk for an hour after only being here for a week felt pretty good.
But it´s been a week! For me, it´s been a long week. I wouldn´t say that it has felt like two weeks or a month, or any extended period of time - it´s felt like one week. But it´s been one mentally taxing week. Every second has been devoted to absorbing my surroundings - learning spanish, learning the lay of the city, learning about the people I live with and study with, etc... Everything I experience requires a lot more processing than usual, and so it seems like each moment is accented with much more thought, subconcious and conscious.
Positive note: Cochabamba, as a city, places a lot of importance on food, and eating all the time, and eating well. I think that´s just great.
One last thing: I think that, because I don´t always know which words I should use to communicate my thoughts to other people in Spanish, I speak with much more animation here than I have in the past with English. It could also be the nature of the culture, or of the Spanish language itself. I´ll let you know what I discover as I learn more Spanish, and learn more about Cochabamban culture.
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