girl with plan

Ah, so close. One final down, three to go. I have two tests tomorrow, and a paper due on Wednesday, and then that's it for the semester. I'm trying not to get too stressed about these finals; however, it is in my nature to be stressed out at all times.

I'm feeling a little anxious about not speaking Spanish between now and September. I felt rusty after winter break for crying out loud. But I have a plan, believe you me! First, I'm seeking out a language exchange--which is something worth looking into if you want to learn a language but don't want to commit to a class. There are several free websites (I chose lingofriends.com) where you can sign up and find what is essentially a pen pal whose native language is the one you want to learn and who is interested in learning English. There are options to chat and skype as well. I just signed up and sent some messages to prospective amigas, so I'm not entirely sure what will happen. I'm imagining writing emails back and forth that are half in English and half in Spanish. I'm also imagining that it will be awesome.

Beyond that, I'm planning on watching a bunch of movies and reading books in Spanish (I got a dual-language book of short stories which is much less frustrating than tackling a novel at this point), but my main plan is to teach Dan Spanish over the summer. I'm thinking about trying to find some students to tutor in the fall, so this will also be good practice for that. The only downside to Dan learning Spanish is that the game we like to play where he strings sentences together using words he's heard followed by me translating what he is saying will be much less fun. Example of what I'll be giving up: "No comprendé el poquito mono. ¡Tengo hambre!" (I didn't understand the little monkey. I'm hungry!) So basically, when my fall semester starts I'm going to be the greatest Spanish speaker the world has ever known.

!!