Spanglish

I now speak fluent Spanglish. I no longer speak fluent English and I definitely do not speak fluent Spanish. I speak Spanglish. My friend Amy provides the perfect example of this. We went to dinner and were ordering. She said, "Lets do el blanco." Half English/Half Spanish. Then the three of us chimed in "El blanco esta bien" (The white is fine) to the waiter who speaks Spanish, not Spanglish.

We are often finding ourselves with half of the words we need in order to speak are in Spanish and half in English. I feel like I rarely have all of my thoughts in one language or another.

In school, we have to speak Spanish, as I've written before. So I'll start talking to a friend about something madre said that day or something I found out the night before. I get halfway through my sentence and realize I have no idea what the next words are in Spanish. So I try to find a way around it, use context clues, hand gestures, useless noises, and finally say "No se" (I don't know). It's frustrating but extremely gratifying when I finally have a conversation. Half of my day is "I don't know" while the other half is good conversation.

My feelings on my Spanish change from hour to hour, day to day. Some classes, I take notes exactly like I would in the US. I understand everything and can see where the professor is going. Other times, I feel like a blank piece of paper would be more beneficial to me than my notes.

Luckily, at home, I feel comfortable with my Spanish and conversing with my family isn't nerve wracking. I love lunches on Monday, Wednesday, and some Fridays where I eat with Maria Angeles (oldest daughter), her daughter Monica (high school), sometimes her other daughter Maria Angeles (Madres name is also Maria Angeles, see a pattern?), Marissa, and sometimes Madre. I feel like I'm back at the Chi O house eating lunch talking about classes, exams, professors, and whether we like the food. It's very comfortable and homey. And Maria Angeles, the middle one, is a great cook. We have soup a lot because its "really cold" here. It's like winter in Columbia, but to them, it's "really cold". Maria Angeles always makes some kind of dessert (chocolate cake, flan, or the latest was banana cheesecake).

The family also loves to watch the Simpsons. I dislike the Simpsons in the US but it's good for my Spanish. They generally speak slow enough for me to understand and sometimes even catch the jokes. At dinner, we watch these crazy game shows that are combinations of 5 or so game shows from the US. There was one where the contestants had to crack coconut halves together in order to buzz in, think the coconut horseman in Monty Python. Why they didn't just have a button, I don't know.

Ok, I have to get back to writing in Spanish now. Hopefully, it will be all Spanish and no Spanglish.

Love,

Lizzy

ps. If I haven't talked to you lately, send me an e-mail/FB something telling me how you are! I want to know!