Spanish Lessons

So as I am nearing my last week, some of you may be wondering how the actual purpose of my trip - to learn Spanish - has gone so far. After 11 weeks of rather intense Spanish, 4 to 5 hours a day of classes, a few hours of homework, and conversation with family and neighbors, I think its coming along pretty well. Some of my most exciting accomplishments:

-Straightening out a huge messy confusion with rental car agency over the phone en espanol
-Going out with my host sister and her girlfriend, salsa dancing and being able to gossip with the girls about boys, other girls’ outfits and the bar's music choices - some things are the same across cultures:)
-Reading the newspaper
-Going to a doctor who only spoke Spanish (I had gotten a very stupid-and embarassing!- infected ingrown hair in my armpit)
-Talking with my family about American politics, the environment and how the coastline is developing
-Telling the story of my encounter with the pastry thief on the 22 bus in SF en espanol

That being said there are some days I can barely order a medium. And if I talk to people without teeth I can't understand a single thing. And I definitely am still completely confused by telenovelas and am struggling through a book written for pre-teen girls called Pantolones Largos (long pants). This subject of weaknesses brings me to my pronunciation…

The other day I asked my teacher if my pronunciation was muy mal (very bad), she cringed and said, not muy mal, but mal (bad). Ouch! So this past week we spent perfecting my pronunciation and the subjunctive tense. One of these exercises included giving a very short presentation to the rest of the school. While I have never had public speaking fear, all of a sudden having to speak in front of people in Spanish was INCREDIBLY nerve-wracking and suddenly I had public speaking anxiety even though I just had to read something. Especially having to pronounce the word geomorfologico (hey-o-more-foe-laa-hee-co).

Sadly, my English grammar and vocabulary have also seemed to go to shit, so now I speak 2 languages muy mal!