Hola todos! How this week has flown! Another week of school is under my belt and I still feel like I’m struggling immensely to understand the Spanish that's flowing at rabbit-speed out of each of my teachers’ mouths. I’m sure my Spanish is getting better and I just don’t realize it- at least it better be! I think I can understand it more than I can speak it. I did have to pull a “No hablo Espanol” move a few days ago though. I was waiting for the bus to go home after having met a friend for coffee downtown when a dirty, crazy-eyed, cracked-out woman came up to me and asked me in Spanish if I would give her money for the bus. At first I just said no and turned away, but she started tapping on my arm and poking out her bottom lip saying “por favor”. A few people around me were looking at me shaking their heads no so that I wouldn’t cave to this persistent pest of a woman. Upon realizing that she wasn’t going away, I told her I didn’t have any money, which was the truth- I only had my bus pass that you scan when you get on the bus (I didn’t tell her that though). So of course when I said I didn’t have any money, she asked me if I had a card and if so, would I scan it for the both of us. This is when I started to act like I didn’t understand what she was saying by responding in a very American accent, “No hablo Espanol”. She wasn’t fooled. She started trying to make a scene by telling everyone around us that I understood her but was pretending not to. It became a game. Everyone caught on to the notion that I actually did understand everything that was going on, but they were all playing for team Callie. A few people were trying to get her to leave me alone, telling her that I was foreign and didn’t understand Spanish. After a couple minutes of this, I think she was finally convinced because she picked a used cigarette up off the ground, lit it, and walked away to find someone else to bother. And then I had a conversation in Spanish with the people still standing there, thanking them for helping me out.

On a much different note, I made a friend from Nashville this week in one of my classes. Coincidentally enough, we both went to Belmont the same year, both transferred away, and knew some of the same people there. We decided that must mean we're meant to be friends. It’s hard to believe I have been here for 3 weeks already and that September is coming to an end soon. The time seems to be flying! I’m sure the 3-day weekends have something to do with that. I’m heading to Faro, Portugal this weekend with Jennifer and some other people in my program to soak up some last minute sun and beach time before fall really sets in. Hopefully people in Portugal speak either English or Spanish because I most definitely don’t speak Portuguese. Maybe I’ll get by with a little “Spanglish”.