My Spanish is improving. With class 3 hours a day and then my internship for about 6 hours after class, my nights typically end with my brain spinning faster than Dorothy’s house in the twister from the Wizard of Oz. Some days I even catch myself thinking in Spanish. Well, it’s more like Spanglish, Spanish with some English thrown in, but it’s not intentional my brain is just becoming accustomed to thinking in that way. My English spelling is horrific. I’m glad I’m typing this so I can spell check otherwise anyone reading this would seriously believe that I suffer from dyslexia (and ironically I spelled this word correctly without the little squiggly red line appearing!). But I am able to hold conversations and understand when people talk slowly and are speaking directly to me. However when Dominicans speak to each other in Spanish I feel like I never learned Spanish at all because I still won’t understand a word they are saying.
I’ll be at my internship talking to my reporter Julio in Spanish, and we will be talking so naturally and without me thinking too hard that if he goes somewhere and then comes back, I’ll start talking to him in English because I forget that we were speaking in Spanish because I understood him. The educated Dominicans (also normally the ones with more money) speak much clearer Spanish that is easier to understand, just like in the US. The ones, who come from a lower-income neighborhood slur their words together, talk fast, don’t annunciate, and use slang words that are impossible to translate. They could be speaking Chinese for all I know. They say that Dominican Republic Spanish is the hardest Spanish to understand because it is like Ebonics in the US, also derived from their African roots. But if I can learn Spanish here, then every other type of Spanish should be a piece of chocolate cake.
Speaking of chocolate cake, I miss US cake. And ice cream. And cereal! Down here they eat Corn Flakes and call every brand of cereal corn flakes and I miss my sugary, cavity giving Captain Crunch Berries and Fruit Loops, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Apple Jacks. All of us here are getting homesick. I haven’t had a hot shower in almost a month. I’ve lost at least 8 pounds since I’ve been down here. My host family has started to become more diverse with food, but I’m still just missing our American tasting milk, and hamburgers, and pizza, and spaghetti!
In class the other day my teacher brought in pictures of food for us to learn new vocabulary words. Then, he gave us Chinese food menus for us to pretend like we were ordering food at a restaurant. I am craving Chinese food. General Tzu chicken with broccoli and white rice, Shrimp Lo-Mein, my mouth is watering at the thought. But in class, I began to notice how much weight I lost. I gripped my hands around my thigh and was able to connect my fingers. I lost it. I stormed out the classroom as if someone insulted my mother. I went to the bathroom to breathe. I took a deep breath to calm myself down and realized that it wasn’t that serious. You’re just being dramatic, Alyssa.
I took another deep breath, walked back to my class and told the teacher, “Lo siento. Yo tuve un momento.”
I’m sorry. I had a moment.
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