Uruguay...or Italia?? :)

Well, it's been quite a few days since my last post - ¡Lo siento! We have been madly studying Spanish this past week at a small language school here in Montevideo. (It's called La Herradura, and I would definitely recommend it if anyone else has a hankering to study Spanish in Uruguay :D ) I am loving it so far, and I feel like I've improved so much just in 4 days of study (and immersion!) At the moment I'm feeling a bit frustrated because even though I can understand most of what the teachers say in class, and can participate in a two hour conversation (in class) about politics, education, or whatever, for some reason, whenever I try to have a conversation with an Uruguayan outside of class, my mind draws a total blank. I feel like a three year old again! :-P Fortunately, people are nice, and will patiently repeat themselves VERY SLOWLY if necessary. I think it has something to do with needing to listen, understand, and formulate an answer all at the same time. Yeah, how silly is it that I can understand a homily at Mass better than someone who's inviting me to go to the fair with her this weekend?!

But I do think this will get better...I just need to practice, practice, practice...and learn more vocabulary...and learn more verb forms...and practice some more...and...watch lots of movies and TV en Español :D

However (even though it's rather cold and damp right now - it is still winter after all!) I really am loving the tiny corner of Uruguay that I've experienced so far. In many ways it reminds me of Roma...beautiful old buildings (think marble and tile floors, high ceilings, carved stone flowers on the fronts of buildings, occasional stained glass windows, etc.) but obviously in need of repairs...faded elegance, you might say. From what I've gathered, Uruguay (and Argentina) had quite an economic boom back in the 30s and 40s, but in the past few decades, they had a succession of dictators (in the 70s and 80s), some better times, and then an economic crash five years ago. So people are definitely not wealthy...but they strike me as very...I don't know what the word is....dignified...respectable...I don't know. I like the Uruguayan people very much so far!

One thing that feels a bit surreal is that almost everyone here looks...not hispanic...but Italian! Dark hair, dark eyes, fair skin (although there are definitely people with light hair and blue eyes here, or of African descent)...and they even speak Spanish with an Italian accent :) Buen dEEa...como estAAH? I can't really recreate it in writing...but it's very musical...it sounds almost like poetry. Definitely the best of both worlds...to learn the most useful second language, but with the accent of my favorite language (which is sadly not very useful outside Italia).

I'm being called to dinner, so I'm going to stop here so I can at least have posted this much...I'll try to write more when I can.

¡Chau! (That's Ciao, en Español :)