Settling Down, Settling In

By reading my own blog posts, I can see how much I'm settling in now. Fall and winter are bringing their own challenges, but the initial panic is gone. And I'm thinking that maybe my Spanish is improving after all. Not as drastically as the people who need to learn fast to survive, nor those who are fulling immersing themselves and sharpening their slang. Somewhere in the middle. But it's good. People correct me sometimes now. That's good.

I feel legitimate checking out in the grocery store. I rarely get flustered by a new and creative way they ask me if I want a bag or how I want to pay. Sometimes I have short conversations with the other residents of my building in the elevator or the foyer. I relax.

Today I went to campus an hour early to study for the To Kill a Mockingbird exam with Sofia. She's Italian, but we always speak Spanish together. The exam was brutal, but I laughed about it with Sofia and Florencia (from Argentina) and Marta (from Pamplona). Sofia and Florencia and I were staying for the exam, so we ate a quick lunch together in the cafe first, speaking mostly Spanish but occasionally switching into English, since we all three spoke it. Switching between English and Spanish is getting easier and easier. Sometimes I forget which one I've just spoken. We went in to watch the movie and I had no real problem understanding it, just like I was able to understand X-Men and Fantastic Four and Anna and the King on the bus ride from Alicante. I laughed at Florencia putting her feet up on the desk. Hadn't we been told a half-a-million times in Kiser and Altadonna's classes that Hispanics and Latin Americans would kill us for even thinking of doing such a thing?

At the end of the day I put on my coat, swiped out at the door along with a flood of Spanish students, not slowing anything down, not confused, not sticking out in any way. Just moving out with the crowd into the dark night that wasn't scary or chaotic any more. It didn't unnerve me to be alone in a strange country, in a strange city. They're just not that strange any more.