A Little Askew

So a funny thing happened in the last week.

I reached my halfway point here in Spain. And it may or may not have occurred when I was in the Madrid airport, just returned from Ireland, going through Customs, and walking through the International Arrivals door, just like it did on the 30th of August way back when.

If you ever want to figure out how far you've come, just go back to the place you began. I think you'll be surprised.

I know I was.

It was strange, walking through those doors, surrounded by new friends, a million times more confident with this language I've been trying to live in, a million times more confident in this country I've been trying to live in. I was in the exact same spot I had been in several weeks before, but a lot of things had changed. I actually found myself repeating to my friends "¡Que cambio! ¡Que impresionante!"  I couldn't really articulate it any better at the time, I was just suddenly aware of exactly how far I have come since August. 

Since I had been in Spain for nearly two months, I supposed that, sure my Spanish had improved and that I had gotten some great experiences under my  belt, but I didn't really have any kind of measuring stick to hold up to divine exactly how much I'd improved, exactly how far I'd come. Arriving in the airport provided that measuring stick. 

Well, the airport, and rereading Bodas de Sangre. I mentioned in an earlier blog post that I'd be rereading it. And, I have to admit, it has been extremely fun reading passages that went over my head that I now understand completely. Well nearly completely. I'm fairly certain that I only understand it as much as I do because I've previously read it.

Now, before you get all impressed thinking that I'm all fluent or something, let me tell you that that is in no way the case. There are still moments in everyday conversation, when I think about what I'm about to try and say and my mind goes blank and my mouth gets dry and I need to dredge up every ounce of confidence I have to open my mouth and let some words fall out. Sometimes the words fall right way up, lots of times they fall a askew.

But I like to think that every day, they fall more and more upright.