Hola! Cómo estás? Estoy felicísima! Por que? Porque en una semana voy a estar en España!!
Translation: Hey! How are you? I’m great! Why? Because in a week I will be in SPAIN!!
For the past 3 weeks I have been immersing myself in the Spanish language, for 4 hours a day, every day. I am taking an intensive intermediate Spanish course through Yale Summer Session para prepararme para España!
I have been trying to learn español for years. Up until now, I could ace every written exam thrown my way but couldn’t speak worth a lick! I would cringe at the thought of an oral exam at the end of the semester.
Finalmente, estoy segura! Thanks to the small class size and in-depth discussions during class (where everyone is required to participate!) I am finally gaining confidence and extemporaneously uttering logical sentences en español!
I am fully committed! I changed the language on my Facebook page to Spanish and text my classmates in Spanish too. I want to prepare myself as well as possible before I embark on the journey of my life!
In less than a week, I will be traveling 8 hours across the Atlantic to Bilbao, España. Bilbao is a city on the northern coast of Spain, en el País Vasco, famous as the home of the Guggenheim Museum.
This a shot of the famous Geggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain—again pulled off the internet. Be on the lookout for another picture in a few weeks that I will take when I am there. (Although I don’t know if my photography skills will be able to compete with this! My suitemates have voted me the worst picture taker off the 7 of us… SHOUTOUT TO GRACE, ANNIE, ALLY, KIERA, CHAMONIX and SUSANNAH (who is an actual photographer…)
Here is a map of Spain I pulled off the Internet. As you can see Bilbao is on the Northern Coast in the Basque region of Spain.
Just last week I received an email containing my host family information. While I am in Bilbao, I will stay with a family that lives right on the beach! My host mom’s name is Carmen—I can’t wait to meet her and I hope she is a good cook (I am so excited to try some authentic Spanish cuisine!) I will be honest, here in the States I am a pretty pickey eater, but I am going to try my best to be adventurous in Spain and splurge on the pintxos (tapas)!
This is my best guess at where I will be living for the next 4 weeks. After I figured out how to interpret Spainish addresses, I typed it into Google Maps and this is what I got. I will update with a photo when I arrive and we will see how close I was! And the palm tree out front is like a little taste of home!
My time in New Haven has been a blast, and I feel like I have learned more Spanish in 3 weeks than I have in all the rest of my life (and I grew up in MIAMI), but I could not be more excited to jet off to España to meet my family, explore the museums, chow down on some delicious food (and maybe not ask what’s in it!) and have the time of my life.
Oh and I’ll just leave this here: