Red and Green

It is raining and the sky is a block of light grey. I am blanketed in my very European black peacoat and sitting outside at a café. The chairs are shaped like little egg things (what else would you expect at a modern European cafe?...) and they are bright red and the little square tables are bright white. I am alone and waiting for my sister to get out of the math class across the street, but so much has already happened here. I can still see Paula opening peanut after peanut and I can hear Sarah teaching me how to properly say "cacahuate". I can see David (dah-veeee-th) and his blonde curls and I can smell the smoke from his cigarette (stop gasping, it's Europe) (ugh I'm going to seriously get cancer from secondhand smoking) (but oh well, maybe when I'm older I can come back and campaign against smoking in public places) (well, maybe not, because everyone dies eventually right?) and I can still hear the sound of the plates rattling from when we played a very intense card game of Egyptian Ratscrew (that was fun to explain in Spanish) (ever played?) (no?) (learn).

Today I'm thinking of lights. Here, all I do is start and stop.
I find myself watching the light turn from red to green and thus I am jerked from my comfy little stopping position and I have to force myself to get up and understand what the person next to me is saying and quickly come up with a response so they don't get bored and walk away.

Yesterday I had a lovely and lengthy chat with my favoritist aunt of all time (the time is definitely ripe to invent a new word). There was so much more that I needed to say but there is only so many words that fit into a telephone line, ya feel?

Pronunciation lesson of the week: here, v's sound like b's, and c's z's and d's sound like th's, and r's sound like d's, and j's are to be said with a very overemphasized and throat-hacking "h". I hope you know what I mean by throat-hacking, because I have no idea how to explain this with words.

I'm ridiculously obsessed with T-Swizzle's new cd. Have you bought it yet???? No? Are you going to go buy it now? Yep. Thought so.
I can always picture a face or a personal situation when I listen to her songs, and I am quite thrilled that when I look back on this experience, there will be an entire cd playing in the background!
Ohhh qué triste, I don't want to think about coming home.
Ever.

In other news, the social life never stops!
Most of my friends are studying for the big test in economía tomorrow, but I'm not in that class and the big group of boys in the neighboring cafe sure doesn't care about it.
Before now, I would be rather intimidated by this, but now that I know half of them and am feeling more confident within myself and Spanish, I have successfully waved and smiled and blew off the fact that I am completely and totally alone at the moment.
Go me.
One point for the weird American girl.
As I learn more Spanish, I understand more and can be witty and flirty and silly and my personal favorite....sarcastic. I'm almost a real Spanish person now...!
I think it's safe to say that I can survive here without English.
I certainly don't understand every word, but is that really necessary?
I know enough to understand the convo through context clues and gestures. Also mentionable, all my friends are quite enthusiastic about helping me understand what's going on.
However, I'm a little sick of the girl in one of my classes who always sighs "pobrecita" every time the teacher says something.
Girlfriend, I knew what I was getting into when I got on that plane!
Jk, I had no idea I would lose my wallet and be forced to relocate.