another day

Wednesday, 7/22

Sometimes I worry that I’m “wasting time” here. By that, I mean that I could be going to more museums or shows or whatever, but I just want to rest. I guess that means I’m home if I’m ok with just being chill!

I had a morning lesson with Betty, for which I was a few minutes late because I didn’t want to get out of bed. The wind was KILLER. It’s rarely that cold here, but the wind just slices through your clothes.

I had a fun lesson talking to her about her book and then talking about much/many. It blows my mind the subtleties of the English language which we don’t even think twice about. We know so much subconsciously. For instance, you would never say – there’s too many water. Because water is an uncountable noun, so you use much. You use many with countable nouns. If I was given a test, I would probably get all the answers right, but to understand it all! It’s wonderfully simple!

I headed home, forgetting that the subte would be horribly crowded. Oh well, I survived. When I made it back, Lu and Maria Laura were playing music. ULTIMATE from Freaky Friday came on, and I sang it, impressing them both with my vocal exertions into my fake mike. It felt kind of homey, as we all sang and danced together.

Lunch consisted of lots of crackers and peanut butter, and then I headed to the Road office where I got on the Internet and got to talk to my parents. As I was heading home, my alarm went off. I had set it because I was supposed to have a new class with a student called Dario today. However, Monica had never confirmed, so I didn’t know if I actually did. I debated whether I would go or just feign forgetfulness, but I decided to head downtown. Monica told me a different teacher was taking over that class, which was fine with me. I hung out at the office, and listened to the phone conversation where Maricel called and tried to cancel our class – saying she was too cold to go out. Monica is so funny, because she was like your teacher is already here, and how old are you where you don’t know how to wear a coat in the winter. Oh yea, today was the coldest day of winter. Everyone kept saying that it NEVER gets this cold in BA. Lucky me.

While I waited another teacher came into the kitchen and I could tell she had an accent. I found out she’s from Brazil, here teaching Portuguese. It was difficult for me to understand her b/c on top of the accent she dropped the ends of her words. She speaks Portuguese, Spanish, English, and French. The coolest part was that we were talking in Spanish, which is neither of our first languages.

I had a good class with Maricel. I get so excited when she correctly achieves something. I’m getting so spoiled with these classes because I have so much fun with basically talking to my students for an hour once or twice a week. When I got home I was pretty much exhausted and freezing. Maria Laura made some kind of soup with meat, onions, carrots. It was delicious. I ate in Lu’s room, and we raced again. She beat me again with eating, but I’m ok with that because she started with less food ;) Maria Laura and I also talked a little bit. Even if my accent isn’t improving, my fluidity with words definitely is.
After dinner, just read for a bit and then went to sleep.