Speaking Of...

Speaking, and my ever growing ability to carry on a conversation without having to translate in my head before letting it slip out from between my lips.  In the past few days I have done a few things that have made me realize that my Spanish has gotten really good, okay not really good, but I'm channeling the Andaluz (the very distinct Andalusia accent) and becoming more of myself since the language barrier has been and is still being demolished piece by heavy piece.

The first thing that I did happened on Tuesday when I got up in front of my class and gave a power point presentation on the controls of alcohol. When I found out that I was going to have to stand up in front of 20 kids, my peers, who not only speak Spanish as their primary language, but are teenagers who judge quite quickly, I was petrified and to say the least I freaked out. However after building it up in my head along with memorizing what I was going to say, getting up in front of the class seemed like no big deal since it had been build up and brought back down with my sometimes over reactive brain. So in the end I stood up in front of the class and gave my presentation with a steady voice, and still hands and the best part was that when I met some classmates eyes all I saw was encouragement.

The second thing that made me realize that my Spanish is progressing happened today. A sly comment flew out of my mouth even before I had a chance to realize what I was saying. Don't worry it wasn't rude or anything it was just a fact stating comment which resulted in a few high fives. All in all I have come to the conclusion that I just might be getting a hang of this whole "second language" thing. How exciting!