Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Spanish slap in the Face!!!, ssuuuuuhhhhhLAP!!!

Wild to think that I´ve been here now for over two weeks but I must say that all is well. The house that I´m staying in is located in one of the nicest neighborhoods, URCA, in Córdoba. God´s hand was really on getting me in this living arrangement. It´s only me and an older gentleman who´s close to sixty and a couple times throughout the week his son Sanitago, who is 19, comes by and stays, but trust me, I have no complaints about the living situation. This guy, or older man, is named Osvaldo Seppi and I´m here to tell you what he is a trip! I´ll get a picture up soon. He reminds me of a Argentine Walter Mattheau. I guarantee you if he spoke English or I spoke first class Spanish if would be a riot! We have so much fun together already and pass a good bit of time together when we can doing unorthodox things in a nice neighborhood like sharing Mate, a drink specific to Argentina, on the sidewalks in the evenings. He is very energetic and ¨character¨ doesn´t even begin to describe this guy. He´s the perfect image of an older man who´s done well for himself, lives amongst wealthy people but don´t give a dang about what they think. I don´t recall if I had told ya´ll before but he´s a civil engineer and does well for himself. We had asado, very traditional beef here and prepared over open fir or in an "asador", last sunday with Santiago, his older daughter and her boyfriend. Such great people they are, I am sooooo blessed to be staying with them. My tutor, Tomás Garson, who´s 28, is a first class guy as well. He lived in the States for 5 months therefore he completely understands the frustrations with the language and has been such a great supporter. Although I still speak very basically he is very encouraging and that is so crucial in the beginning. I´ve been amazed at how my comprehension ability has grown just in 2 weeks, crazy. Tomás has been great and brought me out with his friends every weekend so far and a couple times throughout the week for a REAL Argentine recreational experience, MAN that´s been great. He´s a music head like myself so the first weekend was to a reggae concert with DJs, interesting mix, and this last weekend was to a place called Cosquin that´s right smack dab in the middle of the mountains with a lake beside the stage, frickin´ridiculous. Thanks to Tomás my interaction with Americans has been very limited and I´m sooooooooo grateful for that. Its been a big change for me though. I went from being the guy in the group who cracks jokes and always has something to say to being the guy who does a lot of listening and interjects randomly, but that´s all good. I´m willing to lose a part of me for six months in order to get a better grasp on this language. Classes this month for the Intensive language Portion, have been just that. We took a pretest and I´m in the most advanced class. Sounds cool right, but I´m here to tell you. The exepectation level is up there. Alot of bloody writing, IN SPANISH!!!! Nonetheless, we´re gonna keep on chuggin. I´m been quite antisocial with the other Americans and only speak to them in Spanish, unless its something really difficult to communicate, but that´s rare. I just take my complex thoughts in English and simplify them. I take the bus every morning and evening, about 15 minutes from the house, but its very easy, only .30 cents one way HAH! Blessed there as well, that´s not always the case for folks on easy use of the bus system. I do have to admit though, the other day I fowled up BAAAADDDD! Long story short, after two bus rides, heavy rain on the completely other side of the city, a taxi, and 3 hours of my life gone, I got home. What an experience. Second language use is very interesting. You have good days and you have bad ones, you just never know. I had my first dream in Spanish last night, not a long one but still a very cool experience. I´m not taking time to correct any typing errors or double checkin´ stuff, I´m just rollin the thoughts out, so pardon any funny sounding sentences or grammar issues. Time to go cook some lunch and do some homework. I love you all and continue to get SSSSOOOOOO much joy from all your comments. I apologize for not being able to respond to everyone individually but you know you´re all in my heart and thoughts. Take it easy English speakers!!!

Monday, February 4, 2008

Photos finally!..,well, a couple.

Here´s a link to some photos. Only a few due to the fact it has proven to be more of a task than I realized to get them online. This is all from when I was staying at the Hostel, nothing of the new crew here, just the great group I buddied up with before I arrived.

Here´s the link http://picasaweb.google.com/ramblinjamman/FirstWeekInCRdoba

Friday, February 1, 2008

Things begin to smooth...

First and foremost, I have to give so much love to all of you out there who have left posts; Cates, Dustin, Jenny, Kate, Sagar, MLW holluh atch´you (your words could be no more beautiful and uplifting). They´re very exciting to read and quite encouraging. Well, here we go. Once I was finally in the hostel it was a bit chaotic trying to figure out the system of living there, very different from here, but FINALLY got checked in. The setup in these hostels are so right on. Guys and girls share rooms, wild eh?!!? It was me, two girls from France, a Brazilin guy, and two guys from Chile. We got to be buddies quite fast, thanks to the guitar (man I´m happy I lugged that thing down here.) As Ive said in the past, music has the ability to cross ALL language barriers. The girls asked me to play a couple of songs, make note everything in Spanish at this point, so with no hesitation I did. The the Chileno and the Brazileño listened as well. They all enjoyed it, clapped and made me feel so welcome, and then proceeded to invite me to have dinner with them, boom!, connection made. At the hostel, which only costs 8 bucks a night, HOLLLLUUHHHH!!!!, has two fridges, and a sink and oven for everyone staying there to cook with. A frickin´ great setup no doubt. In the evenings it gets quite busy with all the folks down there but it´s great because supper time is essentially social hour. Everyone shares with whoever they´re with as well, wine, food, whatever, so right on. At this point there is another German girl who had already been there for right at six months, I understood almost all that she said, the one French girl was another story, quite hard. The other French girl had an intersting setup, a French dad and Dominican mother, so she spoke Spanish fluently was much easier to understand. So we all eat and share some wine and the Spanish is unleashed full fledged. Still a struggle for me, and I commented a 1/16th of what I normally would in a conversation, but I kept up, kind of. Long story short here, I got to become great friends with these folks as a few days passed. We took a couple trips through the city together, to the mountains, and spent most evenings sharing supper. I will elaborate more on this later. This one guy named Stefan, from Germany, remains to be, hands down, the biggest character I have encountered yet. He´s forty, homeless, has a twelve year old, speaks some of the most broken Spanish I´ve ever heard, but is so frickin´chill it´s ridiculous. He spends most of his time travelling, and works a couple months throughout the year in Germany to save up for travelling, but has no home there. I´ve grown to love this guy and will elaborate more on him later as well. I´m workin´on getting some photos up, so hold strong, I´ll let you all know asap. Much love to you all, talk to you soon!