I'm fluent in Spanglish

So….I’m in my room with my door open, and I just heard Simon and Garfunkel’s Mrs. Robinson on the radio. And from the window I hear the church bells saying it’s 8p.m. I love it. I just had the best experience with my "intercambio" or interchange.

This is the second time Maria Jose and I have met to practice Spanish for me, and English for her. But I waited to blog about my new amiga because I wanted a photo. The first time we met, it started out a little shaky, but that was my fault.

It was Daylight savings time change…and I forgot to fix my clock. So I made sure to arrive “on time” and waited. And waited. I asked two different solitary looking girls if their names were Maria Jose, and I’m surprised they didn’t say yes, since that name is so common here. So I went shopping, bought some scarves and had a tiramisu ice cream. While I was standing by the fountain, two different people asked me for directions. I was so happy!! What is the name of this plaza? Bib Rambla. Where is the church of Fray Leopoldo? Ooo, that’s a little far, but the Cathedral is two blocks away. I have arrived. Either I looked Spanish, friendly, or they were just desperate.

So after 45 minutes of waiting, I realized, DUH! Time change. I am so glad I didn’t leave, because just then, I saw Maria Jose, and knew it was her. She looked so nice and approachable! We hugged right away, and I complimented her scarf, which she had made by hand-so beautiful. By the end of our three hours, she said she would make me one in green. Jesus, her friend that works for the tourism office, arrived shortly after, and we tried two bars before finally finding one with a free table at El Tren.

I found out that Maria is a U of Granada student studying farmacia, and she takes care of her grandmother who has Alzheimer’s. We talked about everything, in Spanglish really. Not one hour for English, one for Spanish, but a real mixture. I absolutely loved it! It helped that Jesus told me I was charming and spoke Spanish very well. I couldn’t believe it. I am still on Cloud 9 and floated all the way home to bound in the door and tell Sara all about it-but with her I feel like my Spanish is horrific.

Back to the intercambio, we talked about Ponte Vedra, tourism here, good restaurants in Granada, pueblos, golf, our school and more.

I really felt amazing, holding the attention of two Spainards in their native tongue. And their English was really excellent.

So today, I met Maria Jose for the second time, and I brought Misae with me, she wants to improve both her Spanish and English. I swear she's smarter than all of us. We met in the Plaza de Los Lobos, and headed to our coffee bar. After an hour of chatting, Maria Jose insisted we sit in her car and listen to lovelorn Spanish songs from the '50s. I loved it!! And she knew all the words and taught us how to twirl our wrists like the flamenco dancers....

She says she's going to take us to a tablao-or a bar just for flamenco-so we can see the real Spain. I'm looking forward to it....especially after my dance class last week.