a bit

It's late and I should be sleeping as I have two more long days ahead of me. I don't feel as tired as I thought I might, maybe because I am feeling motivated or maybe I just feel like someone has lit a fire under my ass and I am once again the popcorn kernel waiting to hit her head on the top of the lid before crashing down again. I don't know. It's hard to tell.

In the first hour of my two hour Spanish class yesterday, I felt completely lost and I was really disappointed. It took me a bit to get in the groove, but I got it a bit. We were practicing speaking in the past tense and I have a real hard time getting out of the present tense, but I think I'm ready. After a while, and some very handy verb charts, I understood what was being said and was able to respond a bit. Today however rocked. We were did a crossword puzzle and I worked with a partner from Germany. We had worked together yesterday too and her knowledge of verb conjugation was much stronger than mine. But today, when we concentrating on vocabulary, I was able to do a lot more and helped her with some of the answers... I was so psyched. I love that I find myself using my dictionary less and less, though I still never leave the house without it and I fear I may never be able to speak without my verb charts.

I find throughout this whole experience, that I must learn to be patient with myself. It's funny, because I have always considered myself an extremely patient person. The truth is I am patient, but mostly with others. Sometimes it's easier to accept other peoples’ difficulties and to see the reasoning behind them than it is for to accept and reason through my own. Poco a poco... a phrase I have heard dozens of times... it means step by step or little by little...or the most part, that's what the Spanish say to me when I try to speak to them... it's like reminding me to relax and take it step by step. The good thing is they have been very friendly about it for the most part. Ah yes, and the thing about my not starting every conversation with an apology for not being able to speak the language has worked wonders, probably for me as much as the people I speak with.

Another small step for me.

I keep meaning to write about Valenciano, I haven't but I will.