In two months today, I will be boarding an overnight flight back to my real home and wishing my family spoke Spanish. I can't believe it. I remember thinking "oh my gosh, I'm going to be here foreverrrrr". I'm pretty sure I even titled another review almost that exact title. I just can't believe it.
I'm mostly going to be spending my last 50 days doing things I haven't done before and if exams and time allow I'll hopefully still make it to Santiago, Chile. Who knows! I'm going to try to go up the Telecommunications tower, check out the visual arts museum in Parque Rodó as well as the Torres-García Museum in Ciudad Vieja, try a milanesa (yes, I've avoided them this long), go to a couchsurfing gathering, visit Malvin, visit Punta del Este for real, and other things I found of the list of activities from Día de Patrimonio. Also, I want to eat something completely different every time I go out to eat until I leave. No more hamburgers, pizza, or chivitos. Time to step out of the comfort zone.
My Spanish has reached a plateau-- and I'm cool with that. The days where I seemed to be learning at least a whole textbook chapter worth of Spanish are long gone. I know how to interact with people in all the daily things and if I don't, I have gotten pretty good at charades. I still makes tons of mistakes, but I am working on them as well as using the voseo. Say what? I've purposely been not using it because I didn't want to go through the trouble of un-learning it later, but I really like it now. In fact, I am in love with how Uruguayans speak Spanish though they should really slow it down sometimes. But my two latest "Oh, wow, look how much my Spanish improved moments" actually occurred pretty close together. One was in Brazil as I was surrounded by about 19 other people speaking Spain Spanish and Mexican Spanish and speaking to me. I was able to handle it very well even if I still have to ask people to repeat things more than I should. The second one occurred during a group project meeting. There is this girl who speaks so fast in my Anthropology class that I just couldn't really be friends with her because I am constantly asking her to repeat things or just simply nodding like I understand, but in that group project I felt like someone turned the slow-mo dial down a few notches. I could finally understand her without staring her down. Progress!
(And by staring her down what I mean to say is that when I find it hard to understand what someone is saying I have to read their lips and their face to help me out. I'm sure to them I look super intense, but it helps me out.)
*Sigh* I still have another 50 days and I'm using every single one to improve my language skills and explore what is still left. I'm excited to get back home to family and friends and to graduate too, but, man, I am going to miss this place.
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