Pato (quack quack)

 

Dinero

 I exchanged some of my cash for some euros! The exchange rate: $1= .75E, 1E= $1.3. Unfortunately because of the economic crisis, all the prices of things rose today. So far I have only bought a notebook for Ines for her birthday, so me da igaul (it's all the same to me.) Riding in the car the other day, the speedometer was over one hundred, but that's only really a few more than 60mph. 

 Let's see... I have been spending a lot of time with Noemi and her friends who are super nice! We watched the expendables in Spanish (Los mercenarios) but as it turns out, it's easy to understand action in any language... just a lot of fighting and killing. ha ha

Yesterday was Ines's birthday. Now she is eleven. She got a phone and we went and had Chinese food, which was a little bit different than American Chinese food. I ate pato (quack quack) and vaca (moo moo). Which is how Jose described it to me! ha ha

Noemi's friend 

Playing Rummikube

Luisen lives in more of a country setting and so they have land and a pool and a beautiful house! We went there last night, a group of seven. We swam and played water polo (I scored a point!), monkey in the middle, and a basketball game. Then, we played rummikube, scattegories, uno, and some other game. And we ate a lot of food, as always! All of her friends are very nice and they really try to speak slow and help me understand with a bit of acting, which is great. Good news though: I have noticed improvement... I understand more and have started talking more-- Yay! It is so funny to have a lot of thoughts and not be able to say them. My host family is absolutely wonderful and really working with me to say things right and correctly express what I want to.

Noemi and Carolina



Tomorrow we are going to an amusement park, Monday is my birthday, Tuesday I am going with Noemi to Valencia, Wednesday I am going to meet the principal of my school... lots of fun new stuff! School actually starts on the 14th, which gives me a lot of time to learn and practice.

I have discovered it is quite fun to learn a new language because people have to describe things (Taboo) and act things out (Charades) and make noises and so it is like a constant game of trying to figure out "the word". Fun fun (: