#25

~~ 2 MONTHS HOME!! ~~

Marissa:
Has it really been two months? It seems impossible. I feel like life is the same as it was before I left, but entirely different. It's one of those oxymoron-ish feelings that you can't quite describe. It's amazing how I feel like I haven't changed, but I know I have.

However, I do know that my love for Spanish is at its peak. Knowing the language has benefits that are limitless. A few weeks ago, I was volunteering at a soup kitchen with my best friend and one of the guys who we were serving spoke only Spanish, so I was told. I went over and asked him what he wanted to drink (in Spanish, of course.) The look on his face was of pure surprise (that I spoke Spanish.) He told me I spoke well, and asked me how long I'd been taking Spanish (which was all discussed in Spanish.) I also mentioned that I lived in Chile for a month.

That was the moment for me! For the first time (back in los Estados Unidos), I realized the magnitude of that month in Chile. That conversation with the man at the soup kitchen was one of the first times that I had a fluid conversation with a native Spanish speaker without thinking of the correct conjugations in my head. In other words, it came naturally to me, like speaking English does to all of us here.

That experience, as miniscule as it was, made me realize that I love that look on that man's face in surprise that I spoke his language. That feeling that you are capable of speaking to a whole other group of people is addicting! I'm looking forward to majoring in Spanish next year (!) in college, and studying abroad again in college.

It's trite, but it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, that, despite the unheated houses, constant cigarette smoking, and no mode of self-transportation, I don't regret for a minute.