Boredom and Transitioning

The way I figure I’m about 22 days late on the schedule I established with my last posting, so I’m not that late…really. Plus, the only people I’ve heard about reading these ramblings are people I keep in touch with on a regular basis anyway. I hope you enjoy this fine piece of English prose…
My last entry was written in a somewhat disheartened tone. I’d been here little less then a month, found an apartment and felt more alone then I have ever had prior to any other point in my entire life. I’m just not sure why that was a surprise to me as I moved to entirely different continent and country then any of my friends and acquaintances inhabit. I now know why more people don’t do it; it’s really hard and rough for a while.

I have since gotten involved with a local ex-pat church and met a few people here and became a regular attendee at a Spanish speaking church that has a large amount of people my age bracket. Prior to being involved in that, I’ve also been going to a Spanish class two nights a week. I have a good teacher that I like, who keeps being frustrated with us, her students, because none of us seem to study past doing the HW, if we even do that.

Both of those are sea changes from the way I spending my time for the first month. I never went anywhere and didn’t spend time with anyone except one of my coworkers on occasion. I’ve also spent a good a few evenings at this English speaking bar downtown just to not come back to these four white walls for a while. I’ve been surprised even with all the excursions I’ve been taking I haven’t been going over budget and seem to be keeping my head above water financially. It’s amazing to me Spain is both a fairly expensive place at points, but then is also really cheap if you know the places to look (this would also be helped if I didn’t live directly in Madrid).

Spain is a cool place and I can tell my language skills are ever so slowly getting better. I just wish it’s instantaneous as it is the movies. People seem to learn a language as if overnight, which unfortunately hasn’t happened to me yet. I’m also not been availing myself of all the opportunities, I have access to practice my Spanish, but if had what would I write about next month? I would also benefit a lot from living with some actually Spanish people because it seems like a whole weekend can go by and I can entirely avoid speaking any Spanish.

I also think I’m beginning to get glimmer of an understanding of what it’s like to be new immigrant in a country I’ve just arrived in. I’m not saying I plan on staying here or that I really know what it’s like to immigrate some place. I have just gotten better sense of that aspect of the American experience then I have before. The main culture and language is not my own. It isn’t my home country and I suppose with time it would feel like it was but I just miss my home a great deal. All of which is like immigrating to a new country. I would say that’s where the parallels end, but hopefully when I get back to the US, it will help me understand more about the new people who keep coming to its shores.