Sweet Dreams
Just several days and a couple more Ecua-tests to go before I’m off to the Galapagos Islands for a five day cruise with my program. Until then, I’ve been entertaining myself at home in the capital. Exciting things happen all the time around here, and while most days are full of small adventures to write about, sometimes the most thrilling moments occur at home in my house in Quito.
Someone told me before I left for this semester in Ecuador that their favorite thing about being abroad was finally crossing the language barrier. This person traveled to Paris for five months, enrolled in French courses and lived with a Parisian family. She said she was frustrated at first and had a lot of trouble making herself understood. Daily tasks were challenging and exhausting and she struggled with her school work in a new language. But at one point, something just clicked for her and she stopped thinking so hard before speaking and started understanding, not just listening to everything around her. “You’ll have a moment,” she told me, “when you’ll realize how far you’ve come with the language.”
Last night I had it. I dreamt about a big presentation I have next week in school. I dreamt my computer didn’t work, that I forgot the handouts I’d made, and that my partner never showed up and I had to give the presentation alone to a class of 25 Ecuadorians. But I dreamt in Spanish. I freaked out in Spanish, apologized to the professor in Spanish and even complained and cursed in Spanish. It was the best nightmare I’ve ever had and I woke up energized and excited and then immediately called my friend.
Every now and then I’ll be speaking to someone and a word will slip out of my English vocabulary for a couple of seconds. The other day I was trying to tell my parents (in English) about a class trip I took last week and my mind hit a speed bump when I got to the word “fieldtrip.” I started the sentence over several times and kept stopping at the word. It was only coming to my mind in Spanish. “Salido de campo, we took a salido de campo,” I kept saying to them. “You know, the thing when you leave school and go somewhere and it’s related to a class and sometimes you need a permission slip?” “Oh my goodness,” my mom said as she laughed over the phone, “you’ve crossed over.”
I know I’m not fluent and I still speak slowly and make many mistakes. But each day I get several words closer, my accent gets a little bit better and I feel just a little more Ecua and a little less gringa in this new city of mine. Keep the comments and the emails coming, friends and family. I promise I will try my best to answer them in any language I can.
Can anyone believe it’s already April?
-Ariel