Me di cuenta de que no he escrito en espanol. No estoy tratando de mostrar mis talentos o algo asi, solamente quiero mostrar que he estudiado y aprendido algo este semestre. Quiero decirles gracias a todos Uds. quienes han estado orando por mi. Sepan que Dios les escucho y me bendijo muchisimo. Acabo de terminar con mi examen del Antiguo Testamento. Solamente tengo tres examenes mas. Dos van a ser faciles y el otro es Griego que no va a ser dificil pero tampoco facil. Pues, no voy a escribir mucho mas porque yo se que la mayoria no puede leer esto. Estoy divirtiendome aqui pero, a la vez, no puedo esperar volver a los EEUU.
Well, I figured it was about time for a bit of Spanish blogging. I'm sure some of you were expecting it at some point. I'm not going to translate that because that would be cheating (not really, I just have more to say).
The Spanish language is hurting me. Not so much in the act of studying it. It's beginning to hurt my English portions of my brain. Certain words are becoming much easier to say in Spanish: "si" for "yes", "por supuesto" for "of course", "buscar" for "look for", etc. These words are beginning to come to mind before the English such that I sometimes have to pause and think of what the word is in English before I can move on. This has also had quite an impact on my TextTwist abilities. Most, if not all, of you are familiar with TextTwist and so are the people with me this semester. To call it an addiction would not be much of a stretch. I'm beginning to spot Spanish words before English words. Sometimes I will even type them in and enter them and get angry at the game for telling me those words aren't in the dictionary. My brain is breaking.
I think it's time I expressed a frustration from this semester. You've all heard the great things but it has not all be sunshine and daisies. One of the biggest frustrations has been my "Advanced" Spanish "Conversation" class. The words in quotations are presented in this way because those aspects of the class do not exist. There is nothing about this course that suggests 300 level material. In fact, our teacher told us more than once, "There are A's and no other grades in the world." Which sounds like a student's dream, but it also means that our workload was a joke and therefore unproductive. The conversation aspect also did not exist. The majority of class was spent forming simple sentences with different grammar structures one sentence at a time. I had hoped that this course would aid my speaking ability, but all it really did was help alleviate the pain of Latin American Thought (my philosophy class in Spanish). I have gotten more fluent through speaking with locals and others around CasaACU, but I still feel let down.
Now, to end on a positive note (sorry if my complaining [quejar- to complain; another one that comes to mind before the English] got on your nerves). It is now less than a week until I am on Texas soil. I know that I will miss this experience, this place, and these people more than I can imagine, but I cannot wait to see all of you, eat spicy food, drink Dr. Pepper, and drive my truck (in order of importance). I love each of you and cannot wait to tell you about my adventures and hear about your lives.
Until next time, may our God and Father give you hope for the future. May He give you peace and clarity about the past. Above all, may He give you the strength to be in the present that you may be Christ to your family, to your friends, and to your world. Seek Him, serve Him, be Him.
Blessings,
Matt
