You really are lovely to be reading my updates like this. By the way, I really enjoy hearing from you guys, whether it's a comment on here or quick Facebook message or email or whatever. It's just nice hearing your thoughts, comments, opinions, questions, and such. It gives me motivation to keep writing! Also, I often don't know what to write about, so questions would greatly be appreciated, or if you would like me to write about a specific topic, just let me know!
Not too much has happened in the past week. The Hunger Games finally came out in theaters here, so I saw that. By the time I watched it, I'd read just over half the first book in English which definitely helped to understand the movie, as it was in Spanish. Needless to say, the movie is great (although I'd like to see it in English) and I can't wait for the next one to come out. I'm currently on the second book and man have I forgotten how much I enjoy reading. Yes, I'm reading my Spanish books as well, but it still isn't nearly as enjoyable as effortlessly reading my English books. I'm almost halfway through The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe in Spanish, so we're getting there.
Today I found out that I got a 6'3 on a legit Spanish Literature exam over this book called La Celestina which is written in old Spanish and is typically viewed as a complex work. Although I didn't actually read the story, I studied the plot and background about the author and such, and ended up getting a pretty good grade. In the US, 63% on an exam would be failing and wouldn't be considered a good grade, to say the least. In Spain, however, everyone's goal is usually to simply pass. Get a 5 or more (up to 10), and you're good. Not passing isn't very uncommon. For instance, when everyone receives their grades at the end of the trimester, everyone asks each other, "How many classes did you fail?" And then if you say, "Only one!" it's considered pretty good. Therefore, my 6'3 is a fairly admirable mark.
Moving on, remember when I wrote about Spanish slang? Well I have a couple of more words/phrases for you all!
Word: Leche
Translation: Milk
Pronunciation: late - chay
Uses: If somebody "is" the leche, that means that s/he is really cool or has swag or is just awesome in general. (Eres la leche! = You're the milk!) There is another phrase, "Hay que leche!" which doesn't really translate that well in English. But this would be a good exclamation to use when you see someone do something impressive, or when there's something cool/interesting.
Word: Selia! / Se lia!
Translation: To roll/bundle
Pronunciation: Seh - leey - uh
Uses: I should probably start by saying that only a certain group of friends of mine says this, so it's not a common phrase. However, with this group of friends, we pretty much yell "SELIIAAAA!" for anything good. When something makes us happy, we simply say "selia" and pretty much everyone is in agreement.
I don't have anymore phrases for now, but I'll continue to be listening for more to write about.
Since I don't know what else to tell you all, I'm going to conclude this post with a bit about Spanish doors. Not only are the door knobs in the center of the door -- they don't turn! I find this odd. Instead, you turn the key a certain way and push against the door for it to open. I don't know why the door knob is there since it can't be moved or anything. My best guess is that it's good to push against when opening the door. Since my first host house didn't have a typical door like this (they have sliding doors instead), it took me a good month or so to realize this about the doors here. Please take a few moments to appreciate door knobs that turn before leaving this page today.
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| A Spanish door. See that door knob? Yeah, it don't turn. |
Please ask me questions or give me topics to write about if you think of any!
Sincerely,
Writing about doors
SELIIAAAA!
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