My Love/Hate Relationship

I speak Spanish. Really. I do. Surprised? People don't really know that about me. I don't usually talk about it because then people demand that I say something and I feel uncomfortable. I have a horrific accent and I get tongue-tied and feel stupid, especially around native speakers. But I am currently in my ninth semester of Spanish. Ninth. I've been studying it for four and a half years. Almost every night, when I'm falling asleep, I listen to "musica latina" on my iPod. I dream in Spanish. I am constantly translating what people are saying to me in English into Spanish in my head. I'm obsessed.

I adore the language. It is so beautiful and so much more expressive than English. I loved listening to the kids in Ecuador speak in their little voices. That was when I really fell in love with Spanish.

Although I am madly in love with the language, I also get deeply frustrated with it. I get frustrated with myself when the words don't flow the way I want them to. I remember one time in Ecaudor, I was doing an activity with the kids where we planted seeds in bottles. A nun came over and asked what we were doing and I tried to tell her, except I mixed up the verb "to plant" with the verb "to flirt." It was awkward.

I was looking for pictures that I had from Ecuador that actually had Spanish words in the photo. I could only find these two, but both offer pretty sound words of advice.

(Life isn't simple. Smile. But better than that, make someone smile.)


This one speaks for itself pretty well.

My roommate is from Northern Mexico and she recommend this band to me. I can't get enough of them now. I've been listening to this song all night: