A couple of days after arriving in Andalucía, I was slightly freaking out because of culture shock. I decided to let it all out to my Spanish teacher back home:
Sorry, but I need to write in English because it is overwhelming being
here in Spain, especially in Andalucía! Profe [Teacher], you were right, I am
CRAVING English right now! I speak en español all the time, which is
excellent for my advancement. The first two days, I could NOT understand
what people were saying here. "Es veinte-tres centigrados aqui, hace calor! [It's 23 degrees, so hot!]"
becomes "Eve'tre'cengraohkee, cecalo." I'm actually scared to talk,
which is unusual for me. But already after only a few days it is
getting easier and easier to understand people . Almost no one speaks
English, or if they do they WON'T speak it with me except for a few
people. So I'm happy about that; no doubt I'll be close to fluent soon!
It
was a little bit stressful in the beginning because it was a bit of
trouble getting my cat here. I was so relieved when he was finally with
me in the hotel in Madrid. From there we took a train down to
Linares-Baeza, with Renfe. All of the staff loved him and called him
"Precioso". Dijé que se llama "Gordito" [I said his name is "Fatty"]. I had to balance his cat
carrier on top of my gigantic 23kg suitcase, while wearing a large
backpack. Yay.
We're now in Úbeda, one of the most beautiful
cities I've ever been in. I am going to work really hard to live here,
perhaps by negotiating my work schedule with the school. I haven't
visited the village I'm working in yet but when I mention it to locals they all say,
"Ew. It's boring there." One lady even said, "People go there to die."
Great.
And it's so cheap to go out here! I met some local girls
and we had tapas. I ordered 3 tinto de veranos [summer wine] and each time, they
brought out a free tapas plate. I paid only 6 euros!!!! Unbelievable.
Well,
today is Sunday and everything except the bars are closed, so I'm going
to enjoy my day off and relax. 'sta luego! Y de nuevo, gracias por los
lecciones españoles, que yo puedo hablar con la gente aqui. [And again, thank you for the Spanish lessons, so I can speak with the people here]
I am cackling at your "Eve'tre'cengraohkee, cecalo”—you totally NAILED the acento jiennense ;) I’m glad everybody loved your cat Gordito :D and that also you think Úbeda is such a beautiful city!!!
ReplyDeleteI have inadvertently adopted the Andaluz accent! And I actually like it, even though I think the rest of Spain hates it. :P
ReplyDeleteRight now I´m temporarily sharing my piso with a substitute teacher at my school, and I heard him say to his wife on the phone, "I´m sharing with a Canadian, and she speaks with the Andalucian accent! So weird!"