Today was an exciting because everyone kept telling me how good the dinner with ISA was going to be! School flew by and i was just anticipating the night! I spent most of the night after a very eventful day at school chatting with my mama and hermanita.
In school i had a test in my Elemental Espanol course. Now a little history behind this course. I got into the class about 2 weeks after everyone else did because i needed to have a class that moved a little slower than what my other one did! So i joined this one late, and did not really pay attention in my other class, so i missed a TON of the fundamentals of spanish! AND......... i had it in my mind that i was going to come to spain and the whole language thing would just happen, like spain would be some sort of language "pixie dust" if you will, and i would just come and so would spanish ! I HONESTLY THOUGHT THAT.... not sure why but had that stuck in my head. So thinking this was just going to happen... i did not study really at all.... a big clue that the "pixie dust effect" was not happening could have been that nothing in school was making sense. BUT instead of studying i just kept waiting for the pixie dust to take effect! REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY RRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY! DUMB!!!!! I mean really dumb!
So we will fast forward to about a week ago. A week ago from the 26 i was in spanish class, then my teacher says "Hey Jake i need to talk to you after class" in perfect english in front of everyone! I felt like i was in second grade again when the teacher says that, then the rest of class you try to figure out what you did wrong! Well class drags by and then everyone leaves and she just literally grabs my arm (very common thing all spanish people do when they are talking to you) and she says "Jake your Spanish is terrible" i agreed promptly.... "and Jake if you dont study before the exam next week, you are going to FAIL not only the exam but my class as well." I agreed 100% and told her so... i told her i was sick of not getting things but was frustrated because it wasn't like i didnt get just 2 or 3 things... I WAS NOT GETTING ANY of the grammatical structuring, not even the simple ones like how to conjugate ar-er-ir verbs ( in english this is equivalent to not knowing the difference between - I speak, you speak, he or she speaks, we speak..... ) REALLY BASIC STUFF. and i was just not getting it!
It was bad... so i went back to my books and the next morning i came in with all the books that i had and she pinned up all the stuff i had to do and wrote an email of the list of things we had to know for the next test! When i saw that email i honesty did not have one subject that she had posted nailed down in my mind, meaning i could not say i knew how to do any of them well! And.... i had a list of about 15 or 16 DIFFERENT subjects that were in that email. So..... what did i do... ill tell ya what i did! I studied for the next week for about 2 hours everyday! And MAN O MAN did things start to make sense. I finally started speaking with my family more and Angela my 19 year old sister started helping me out each day and we talked for prolly 2 hours a night sometimes working through this EASY stuff i should have know on like week one. To sum it up i made up about 2 months worth of spanish studying in about a week.... and it felt amazing!
I have always loved to talk spanish to anyone that will listen and try to understand... but you have to realize i have heard 2 and half year old kids speak better than me.... so im not easy to talk to, but most people get a kick out of watching me try.... like Inma and most of her friends (which i love, because they know im tryin and they help me and struggle with me and it is so awesome when i get done making a point and ALL OF THEM know what happened) such a rewarding feeling... but you also think to yourself... JEEZE that took me 20 minutes to say... and in english i LEGITIMATELY could have got that done in about 2 and half.
So little walls im climbing over=) And to get back to the story i went into school on Thursday and had gotten up for this 9 o clock class at about 6:15 and studied for the next 2 hours then got on the bus. Studied all the way to school then sat in the bathroom and in a big stall and studied the last 20 minutes before class.... said a quick "God give me the wisdom to remember all that i have studied" because i really couldn't afford a brain blank on this test!!! Then i went and sat down in class, the teacher looked at me, NOT in the nice good luck i know youll do great face.... BUT more along the, "I dont think you studied and this is a really hard exam and i bet your going to fail... face! " So now i had even more incentive... i wanted to prove her wrong!!!
As i went through the test i only found one thing i was unsure of.... WOW WHAT A PRAISE!!! And as i worked from subject to subject i had a clear vision of everything i had studied... had the wisdom and didnt forget anything!!! HONESTLY didnt forget one thing i had studied! So thank you God for giving me wisdom, thank you Angela for struggling with me all week to study, and Inma thank you for the late night skype call and helping me write out my daily routine in spanish but also helping me out every time we hang out=) I NAILED THE TEST!!! I think.... i will find out on Monday how i did... i think i got a 6 or a 7 out of ten.. i know that doesnt sound great but over here that is awesome!!!
So onto the turkey... got to hotel Bequer and everyone was looking formal and nice... and here i was in a button up shirt, my western jeans... tennis shoes, and of course my silver belt buckle. Was a little out of place, but we all got sat down and no one could see my bottom half anyway so i looked jazzin=) The head man named Qui Que got up and made a little speech and then told us sorry that we were not going to be getting sweet potatos this Thanksgiving because we told the chef to make them and he didnt know what they were so he make mashed potatos then put pineapple in them to make them sweet!!!hahaha so we all got a kick out of that.... Then the food came out and it was really really really.... not that fantastic. It was two pieces of huge turkey, mashed potatos, vegtable, and gravy... then a fruit jelly cream pumpkin pie thing for dessert. I mean i aint complaining but it was a little disappointing compared to last night at the Actons=)
After eating we i went to a disco till about 4 in the morning which was alright... then got home and did what i had been waiting to do all day! Call my family! I called them and they were all watching the Broncos game at my Grandparents house in Cheyenne=0) Talked to everyone for a sec except nate and levi because skype kept shutting down. Then later on that night i called nate gurtler and we got to chat for a good long time I loved that! Also got to talk to Devin and the Urmans and they were both great to get to talk to=) Devin was with her dad and all the Urmans were home=)
So it was an eventful day... woke up at 6:15am that morning had a test and then stayed up till about 5 oclock the next morning skyping people!=) What an awesome day... man i am a blessed dude... God is a GREAT God!
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