Learning espagnol

big epiphany for the week - learning a new language is hard. Started a three week intensive course at UBA (univ of buenos aires - free to the locals and pricey for us expats) on tuesday. monday they cancelled class 10 minutes before it was supposed to start. gotta love it. the entire city shut down for 3 hours so all the teachers and students could protest the killing of a teacher in a southern province who was killed by the police (during a protest for better wages). confused yet? huge front page story for days and still going. i wanted to ck out the protest but a local scared me out of it. she said it would be very "pelligroso" (one of my new favorite spanish words) - dangerous. so, tuesday was the big first day. i tested into level 2 of 6 - essentially an advanced beginner level but i feel more like level zero. four hours a day of conjugating verbs, reading the spanish newspapers and trying to converse is somehow more draining than a 10 hr workday in downtown sf. ok, maybe not. i would like to fast track this whole process but i know it is just going to take a long time to sink in.

also, in the process, i've suddenly become "old". the classes are fairly small - 5-10 students and most are 18 yr olds from US, UK or China on exchange programs, living in hostels and 50 cent beers. i'm reminded each day what it was like at that age in school - lots of rolling of the eyes, staring out the window and general complaints about the homework. meanwhile i'm nerd beavis in the front row always raising my hand and trying to squeeze in some extra convo with the teacher during breaks to practice my vocab "tengo un marido muy pelligroso! ha! we had an exercise on friday where we had to break into pairs and converse freehand for 5 minutes on any topic while the teacher and other students critiqued and marked the errors. one of the students noted that my partner (a 19 yr old british girl) incorrectly used the formal term for "you" when addressing me. the brit said no - she did it on purpose as since I'm so much older than her, she assumed she should address me as an "elder". she said this with a totally straight face and no intent to offend. jesus, when did i become an elder? young people addressing me as they would a parent or grandparent? ouch. another similar incident occurred last week when hugo and i were at a cafe. we met a young couple from texas studying at a nearby language school. the manboy (no older than 21) made this unsolicited comment "we wish we were at a different school since all of the people in our class are y'alls age and we just want to go out at night and party". again, was i asleep when i suddenly became "y'alls age" or is it just that this is the first time i've been around college students since i was at university? i'm sure my mom's laughing her head off right now and feeling smug. yes, we all age....