Hello everyone,
Se nota que no he escrito en mas de una semana. It's been more than a week since I've written. That's mostly because I had a rough several days and am finally coming out of it...sort of. I feel better now emotionally but physically have not felt too well these past few days. No one wants to read someone else's complaints so I have restrained from venting on my blog...though my facebook statuses have reflected some of my frustrations.
Being far away from everything you know and everyone you love has it's challenges. I mostly have been very happy to be here but the feeling of being lonely and overheated (still over 90 every single day) has been getting to me. I'm tired of being hot and sweaty all the time. I never thought I'd be complaining about being too hot! That from a girl who's cold 90% of the time in Seattle! Also, ever since I moved to the new neighborhood, I've been feeling very isolated from everyone I knew here. In actuality, the new apartment is 3.5 miles from the old casa. However, no one from there has been in touch with me. I'm not sure what to make of it. Probably it's because we're all doing our own thing working or going to class.
Last weekend shall be hereon out known as the weekend of the broken plans. I'll leave it at that. I spent most of the weekend by myself and that is not something I'm used to. I tried making plans to go out but to no avail. So anyway, it was just a frustrating few days. My friend and I did go out for some good food on Sunday after our plans to go the beach didn't work out.
On the plus side, I've added several new students to my schedule this week and that means more money for me to make! I have an adult and several children. I'm excited to work with them and get to know these new families. I've got work every day and it totals up to about 10.5 hours per week. That does not seem like much but it takes lots of time to plans lessons and commute there. For a few jobs, I have to take 2 buses or bike and take a bus. I can walk to some jobs. That means that I'm gone from 3:00 or 4:00 to 9:00 most days. I finally bought a "bono" or bike pass today so I can bike around town. I've also got a metro/bus pass. This is making transportation less costly in terms of money. I've got room for a few more students but mostly my schedule is full. I'm not making a ton of money but it's going to be enough to pay for rent and food.
There's not much else to report. The Andaluz accent is extremely hard to understand. I feel discouraged that I've been here 2 months and still cannot understand it. The accent causes words to be only half spoken and not enunciated at all. The s's are cut off the end of words. It's extremely frustrating to feel like you can't understand anything even though you do in fact speak the language. Everyone says this is the hardest accent and that if you can understand Spanish in Andalucia, you can understand it anywhere. I believe it. There are moments where I feel like people may as well be speaking to me in Chinese because nothing they're saying is registering in my ears.
So anyway, I'm sorry for negativity in this entry but I am due to write again and frankly, it's just not been a good week! I am enjoying having my own room and space again and I like my roommates a lot. I'm still glad to be here and determined to make this work out. I'm seeking out opportunities to make some new friends and trying to remember that sometimes time alone helps you to grow. This weekend I may go to Ronda to check it out. It's a town nearby that my parents visited on their trip last year and that my dad especially liked. Money is tight but it will be worth it to plan something fun.
Keep in touch and let me know how you are doing!
Un beso,
Ashlita
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