New Friends

Adapting ever so slowly to my new schedule, I finally pushed time aside from the frantic lesson planning and from the mindless internet surfing (both the reason and the bane of my existence) to text message a friend of a friend, Quique (the apparently superhip nickname of Enrique). We immediately went out and had dinner with his friends, a giant paella built for five. It was the first time that I've spoken extended Spanish in a little bit, so I was a bit rusty but still kind of impressive. They remarked on my Spanish, and I blushed when I was forced to tell them that I had actually taught it. That sentence always makes me feel amazingly nervous and inadequate. I'm waiting for any Spaniard, true to form and as blunt as anyone in the world can be, to ask me how I earned that job. Yikes.

The next day I went to a film festival with them, and tried my best to keep my eyes open through avant-garde projection after projection. It was a bit sluggish, but we went out to eat again (me, racking up a small fortune on my newly-minted debit card) and had more opportunity for conversation. Giddy with Spanish, I invited friend Alberto over later that night to watch a movie with me. In Spanish. All of this is to say that maybe I'm finding my niche, the Spanish bits of a new life that contains far too much English for my liking. I'm learning to control my schedule a little bit more, which is nice. I just hope that this keeps up. And that Quique and friends call me back. I tried to be as endearing and Bambi as I could be.