An Afterthought of Extreme Appreciation...

I realize I just posted what could be considered a small novel, but I had a random thought that's been floating in my head for the past few days and I'm hoping that writing it down will help it settle for at least a little while. I've been thinking a lot about the differences in language between english in spanish, and there are a few things that strike me as completely peculiar. In english, when we want to change the subject of a sentence such as "i left" to "he left" or "you left", the verb stays the same. But in spanish, you have to change the verb as well. To use the previous example "Yo salí" would become "él salió" or "Tú saliste." So when you speak, you don't really need to include in a subject such as "yo" (I) or "tú" (you), because it comes pre-packaged with the verb. It's also really bizarre to think about the fact that when I mistakenly say "yo conozco" instead of "yo sé"...to me, I've gotten a whole word wrong, but when translated literally, I've said enough to get my point across (both translate to "I know," but in the first, "know" is used to describe people, where as in the latter, "know" is used to describe information and knowledge), but to them, I've used a completely different word...there is no translation to another language to help them better understand what I meant...I've simply used the wrong word. This may not make much sense --at times it doesn't even make sense in my head-- but I've been struggling to put it to words, and for the moment, I'm afraid this is all I can muster. I'll work on translating the whirlwind of thoughts a bit better...

To go along with this, It's been a bit of an odd experience being "the foreign kid." To try to stand in front of a class and explain a photograph in regards to philosophy when your vocabulary is still rather basic is quite challenging. I never know if I'm getting my point across or not. Thankfully my conjugation has severly improved, and I am able to speak without as many pauses before my verbs, but my vocabulary is still severly lacking when it comes to casual conversation. You'd be surprised how different it is to go from a classroom to the country. I thought I had a decent vocabulary, but I've realized how much I use small, common words such as "just" (as in "i just finished my homework"), and how they don't really teach you those in classes. I've really come to value each and every word...

And speaking of valuing things...I would like to take a moment to express to everyone how much I now appreciate michigan book and supply and michaels. I wanted to use wood for my project in one of my classes, and I realized that I have no idea where to buy wood. I have no clue where there is a hardware store or a general craft store. They have an art supply store with canvas and paint, but they don't even workable fixitive or matt medium. I wanted to do photo transfers as well, but I have to find a way to do them without matt medium...ahhhhhh Please cherish the stores that you have...I know I will when I return...

ok...so that was supposed to be short...although in all fairness, I did say that I was long winded today. On that note, I'm off to cook some food...