Apr. 10th, 2010

arisha: (escaflowne merle freak out)
Traffic in Lima is crazy, as I may have mentioned before, and, as a result, I've been stuck in more traffic jams in my two weeks here than I have been in the past two years in Victoria. Today at lunch we heard sirens and shouting coming from outside, and we all ran to the door to see an ambulance stuck in traffic, with no other cars moving to get out of its way, to the point where the men in the ambulance had actually started shouting at people to move for them. So that was kind of the least awesome thing ever.

In better news, I successfully took the bus by myself today! I shall have to write a post just about the buses here - they're crazy, too.
arisha: (reina tanaka kanashiki koi)
So I have noticed something in this house that I think is very odd. I'm apparently the only person in recent memory whose Spanish has been good enough to go right into volunteering - most people arrive with no knowledge of Spanish, which is absurd to me because I mean, you're going to be living and working for two months in a Spanish-speaking country, and you didn't bother to learn anything before leaving home?? Anyway, so as a result of my skipping a grade, everyone praises my Spanish all the time. :| If they're talking about my reading/writing/listening, then I appreciate the compliment; if they're talking about my speaking, I disagree quite strongly!

To me, the weirdest thing about all this is that I get praised for my Spanish level, and then asked confused questions any time I am seen to be studying. I can be sitting at the dining room table writing out verb conjugations and everyone who lives here will walk by and say, "I don't know why you're studying, you already know everything!" One, I don't know everything; two, how do you think one comes to know everything? Once I was sitting there studying and one of my housemates, who is constantly frustrated with her Spanish, sat down with her textbook, flipped through it a bit, and then went off to do something else. Um, kay.

ALSO! Last night my coordinator and I decided to go to the movies. I said I wanted to see How to Train Your Dragon, and she replied with, "They're only showing it dubbed here," in a tone that implied I wouldn't want to see it if it wasn't in English. What the heck! Watching dubbed movies is my favourite way to study, and why would I come to a Spanish-speaking country if I only wanted to watch movies in English, and-- and-- I don't understand you people. :|

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