We didn't have sun yesterday, it was basically cloudy due to all of the dust and dirt. It made it impossible not to sneeze, and impossible to stay clean while walking to the bakery. Last night was pretty bad, I couldn't stop sneezing, coughing, blowing my nose etc. However, today it's better. What a black and white difference today was from yesterday. It was so beautiful today.. us girls sat outside in the 'patio luz' to do our homework, and we ended up wearing shorts and tank tops to soak up some sun. We ended up eating lunch outside, which for me was milanesa de pollo con pure de papas.
I had class with Laura today at 5pm, and I got to see my corrected exam (I took my first exam two weeks ago) and I got an 8!!! Oh.. in Argentina, you don't receive letter grades like A, B or C. Your grades are given on a number scale from 1-10 (ten being the highest.) So, in other words, I did pretty good! I was sure I was going to get a 5 or 6, since it was fairly difficult. What a nice surprise!
Right now, we are studying past tenses, and I am learning 'Preterito Perfecto' with regular and irregular verbs. The past tenses are somewhat difficult, but I have a first rate teacher. Even though it's mind staggering I'm getting the hang of it, and today I came to the realization that my Spanish level is the best it's EVER been. And to top it all off I've become a Spanish snob ;) I am captivated by the accent here in Argentina, and I will never again use the accent I learned in high school. The Argentine accent is so refined and angelic... I will never go back!
My teacher said something today that made me jump for joy inside. She asked some of her students (who are learning English) what my accent sounded like, and they answered "Italian." She then stated: "When Colleen first arrived here, her Spanish accent was very Mexican. But now her accent is distinctively different. She has tweaked her accent to sound more European." How glorious it was to hear that!
After my class today, I went with Laura to her house by bus to sit in on her English class. She is teaching 4 people from Argentina to speak English, at an extremely basic level. They practiced conversation by asking me questions about routine, family and life in the U.S. Their English level was indeed very basic, and constantly asked Laura to translate. It was odd speaking English, since the rule for my class is SPANISH ONLY. But, it was an English class after all. It was very comfortable though, since we sat around the table drinking mate and snacking on crackers. The class was basically this: they had to ask me basic questions like "what is your name" "why are you here" "do you have brothers and sisters" etc. Then they had to tell me about themselves, which was hard to understand in broken English, but I got it for the most part.
Anyhow, the BIG NEWS is that I've been asked to take over a class! Laura teaches the English class Tuesdays and Thursdays. She isn't able to teach this Thurs, so she asked if I would take over. So, I have become an English conversation teacher overnight. They will pick me up (since they all drive) and we have decided to hold class at a coffee shop. It's only a conversation class, no grammatical rules or anything like that. I feel very confident about this, since I can converse in Spanish if I need to.
The next few days are going to be busy for me. Tomorrow, I am going to a friends house (Denise) to drink mate and chat in Spanish with a few girls. Then I have to pick up my jeans, since I needed a new zipper (all for 20 pesos.) I also want to buy a bus ticket to Buenos Aries for the weekend. I might leave Friday morning.. not sure yet!
Now, I have a video from Sunday morning when we sat outside in the hammock and drank Mate. I wanted to show how mate is prepared, and this is Marinetta preparing it!
