Hasta _____

So the last few weeks in Madrid have proved to teach me more than how to conjugate my verbs correctly. In the last 17 days (which by the way, I amazed it has already been 17 days) I have learned how to speak with a lisp, cook a few decent meals, how to salsa, and the importance of deodorant – take care when choosing who you stand next to on a 10-minute train ride.

First and foremost, my Spanish has much room to improve during my time in Spain. Living with two Spanish speakers I am continuously noting my mistakes and trying to make the appropriate changes. I have been working talking with a lisp and making sure to hack a logy when I am talking about jamón. California’s governor popularized the salutation hasta la vista (baby) over a decade ago, which generally means see-ya later. Instead of dragging out the goodbye I have been shortening my adios to only hasta assuming that it would mean something more like see-ya instead of see-ya later. Thank goodness for my roommate who reminded me that saying hasta was literally until. I hope the Spaniards I have talked to up until now are not waiting until I finish my sentence.

Last night I went out with my roommate to go dancing with a few of her friends. I think Spain might kill me – Spanish, cooking, and dancing; this is the trifecta of my nightmares. Though my conversational Spanish and cooking have been improving quickly, I think dancing could be (I’m still optimistic about this) a lost cause. After having dinner at her friend’s apartment I had my first Salsa lesson. One of the guys who living at the apartment was a pseudo Fabio from the heart of Brazil. My new Brazilian amigo insisted on teaching me the art of Salsa. Having no background in dance it was difficult to understand the concept as it was being explained in Spanish over the music. Salsa is a dance led by the man and to my surprise I was grateful to not have to lead. My first lesson taught me to keep my elbows close to my body, stand on my tip-toes, and let the man lead – and for the first time in my life I was content to have a guy make all of the decisions.

Un beso (or maybe I will start using hasta), Rachel