This week and next have been exams. We have two semesters while we are here so these would be the "midterms" of the first semester. And we got a five page paper assigned on our entry tour in Madrid to write in the next few days.
I've found that I'm learning a lot of words in English as well as Spanish. In my literature class I find myself translating some words to English, but then still having to look them up in an English dictionary.
Katie, another UWSP student, and I started volunteering at a center for people with mental disabilities. We met a girl that volunteers there through school and she helped us set up a meeting with the director. Our first night was last night and every Wednesday we get to pick a recipe to make and the adults in the program help. Last night we made pancakes and lemonade (they wanted to make something "American"). A lot of the adults are able to communicate well and are pretty independent. There's also like ten volunteers there at a time so we get to speak A LOT of Spanish. Everyone was really nice and it was fun. I'm excited to go next week!
Laura, the girl that introduced us to the program, is learning English. We hung out with her after the meeting the other night and it was so cool to talk to someone that has the same problems as us with foreign language. We can all read, write and understand, but speaking is so hard! Her "English" teacher is also from Australia. We told her that we can't even understand their English haha. We are going to have an intercambio with her and her friend sometime next week. An intercambio is when you go back and fourth between two languages. So we'll talk in English for a few minutes and then switch back to Spanish, and vice versa. It's so funny because she doesn't understand any of our slang and her friend Ines bursted out laughing when we told her we go to school in Wisconsin, because the only "image" she has of Wisconsin is that she loves That 70s Show!
The other night I was riding the elevator in our apt building with a lady and she was so excited that I was American. She introduced me to her two sons that are studying English. I told her I had an American roommate too and she freaked because they never get to practice their English. We are going to have an intercambio next week.
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