More Preparations

Hola, y ¡espero que tengan un buen díá! (Hello, and I hope that you all have a good day!)

One of the hardest things to learn in any language is not just the language itself, but how the people use it. I'm talking about idioms, slang, proverbs, and more. If you were telling someone about that epic mountain you climbed, they might respond with:

"¡No manches! ¡Me quedo mudo!"

If you didn't know about Spanish idioms, you might think "Why did they say 'Don't get dirty! I remain mute!'" Luckily for me, I have been reading up on both Spanish idioms in general, and local Mexican idioms. "¡No manches!" is actually an idiom for "You must be kidding!", and "¡Me quedo mudo!" actually means "I'm flabbergasted!"

As well as studying idioms, I have finally finished studying up on all of the main verb tenses in Spanish, the preterite (past tense), the imperfect, the present, the conditional, the future, the commands, and finally, the subjunctive. In fact, at the very beginning of this post, I sneaked in the subjunctive when I said "¡espero que tengan un buen díá!", meaning that I hope that you all have a good day!

I now have some news on how I will be handling my deafness in Mexico. While I may be able to tell you what I hope will happen, that may not be the actual situation in Mexico. I have made a vocab list of certain terms I should know while in Mexico, such as "I was born deaf (Yo nací sordo)" and "cochlear implants (implantes cocleares)". The list is currently being edited by Dr. Wood, the head of the Mexico exchange, who will help me explain it to my teachers while I'm there. I am also corresponding with the leader in Mexico about how teachers can use my FM system (The FM is used to send sound directly to my ears in a noisy environment).

This is a picture of most of my resources that I have been studying:  
It includes my phone and the FM. I have found that using Spotify to listen to Spanish music is extremely helpful to help speak more fluently and improve your Spanish in general. Next to it is all of my notes on the verb tenses. Below that are three books. Street Spanish is a great book to learn Spanish idioms and proverbs, by David Burke. However, be warned, there happens to be a lot of vulgarities in it as well. Next to it is a mangled pocket dictionary that I use in school, which I will take with me, as well as a book called Mexican Spanish. This book was given to me by my grandma Delia and grandpa Ralph. It is a fantastic book for learning Mexican-style Spanish and it contains a bunch of short little reference pages. I finally have a short list of common words and idioms I would like to learn from Street Spanish. I had to keep my vocab list small because I would not be able to memorize everything, of course.

I am more excited for Mexico than ever, and I know that it will be great!

Hasta pronto (See you later)

-Ben

Recent Meeting, and More

¡Buenos días! (Good day!)

Everything has been going great. I have contacted my host brother and found out more about the trip.

I just went to a meeting about the trip where I met my travel buddies and received a packing list. On that list, one thing that really struck me was the clothing. The clothing in Guanajuato, believe it or not, is more formal than in Newton. The packing list states "You will stick out like a sore thumb in short-shorts and a tank top." and more, in the meeting Dr. Wood mentioned that they even wear jeans and long sleeves on a hot spring day, which I just cannot imagine doing. This is a result of simply weather adaptation. In Guanajuato, I will probably be sweating like crazy while the person next to me, wearing the same outfit, would be totally fine.

Another topic discussed at the meeting was about the travel time. I will be getting up at 4:00 AM to get to the airport in time, at 5:30 AM. While that may seem early, I have gotten up earlier for a trip to Mt. Washington, twice. We will be leaving from Boston to Texas to Leon, and on the way back, from Mexico City to Washington, to Boston.

Last but not least, I have been practicing more Spanish. Just this morning, I learned all about commands and read up on some more Spanish idioms. My favorite ones so far have been: (Below they are used in a conversation)

Yo dije "A todas luces, ¡mereco más mesada!"
Pero mi madre dijo "¡Soy a dos dedos de arragando todo de tu mesada! ¡Escúchame!"

Figuratively, the conversation went as:

I said "Clearly, I deserve more allowance!"
But my mother said "I am on the verge of taking away all of your allowance! Listen to me!"

But literally, we said:

I said "By all lights, I deserve more allowance!"
But my mother said "I am two fingers from taking away all of your allowance! Listen to me!"

Also, notice in the original conversation, my mother said "¡Escúchame!" ("Listen to me!") , which is one of the commands I learned this morning, derived from the word "¡Escucha!" which means "Listen!".

Hasta la vista, (Until next time,)

Ben