but what would you change if you could

i know everyone who lives in a foreign land and learns the language has this experience, but let me just emphasize how weird it is:

i'm on page 178 of my 250-page spanish workbook. i bought it after christmas, and i'm a little behind schedule, but basically if i do three pages every day, i'll be done before i leave. and that is the goal.

it's been really awesome to finally get a good grammar review and be able to use verb tenses other than present.

i've been doing an intercambio (language exchange) with my flamenco teacher, which is also awesome in several ways, such as: my flamenco teacher, who is so cool, wants to hang out with me! and she tells me sordid tales about her very famous flamenco friends! anyway, last week, while telling her a story, i successfully used past perfect tense: había estado. i said it, and i asked her if it was right, and she said yes, and i raised my arms victoriously. en serio.

all thanks to the workbook.

so yesterday there was an explanation of when to use the subjunctive tense, which is apparently way more important than my teachers made it out to be in high school. this explanation had to do with using the subjunctive tense when you precede an independent clause with a comment or evaluation. the example had a picture of a dad telling his daughter, "you should know that mommy and daddy have ordered a little brother from the stork..." and the girl says, "¡qué bien que mamá esté embarazada!" - how great that mom is pregnant!

i had to look up "cigüeña" for stork. 

later, after ballet class, i was stretching on the floor of the second studio, and loles ran in to grab something. they were practicing "big spender," so she was wearing crazy high heels, and as she ran back out she said, "i'm like that bird, you know, the one that stands on one leg" - and i said "flamingo?" - and she said, "the one that brings the babies" - stork. i tried to say it: "cir...ciru....cirgu...." and she said, "cigüeña."

seriously, what are the odds that on the same day i learn the word for "stork" it comes up in casual conversation?

--------

there's a new wrinkle in the living situation.
isn't there always a new wrinkle?

i don't really feel like talking about my living situation - ever again - but here we go.

cristian is in an open relationship, i guess, with this girl named desiree. she lived with cristian and alicia last year. she's the one who had put the ad up on easypiso.com and she's the first person i communicated with about renting the apartment. but she's been in canada the whole year, so i've never laid eyes on her before. obviously she doesn't pay rent or bills on the apartment, or live there.

when we first moved in, cristian and alicia told us that the three orange wax candle holders were desi's, and we should be careful with them. also the set of six purple wine glasses.

cecile's mom, over christmas, apparently did some damage to the smallest of the three orange wax candle holders. cristian asked cecile to try to get it repaired. she tried but couldn't.

so this weekend alicia mentioned that cristian was coming back on monday, just to get his things.  on tuesday i stuck my head in his room to say hello. there was a girl in there, who i recognized from pictures to be desi.

'hola,' i said.

she made a face, or an un-face, like i was not even worth smiling at, and said flatly, 'hola.'

no "hola, soy desi" - no kisses - nothing. no introduction.

i was like...uhhhhhh........okay. and said hi to cristian, who greeted me warmly, and then i went to my room.

later that night i went to cecile's room and she asks, "have you seen desi?" and i say, "yeah...she seems like..."

and cecile says, in her strongly accented english, "like a crazy bitch??" and i was like....yeah.

apparently cecile had the same no-introduction experience. then later, desi knocked on her door and told her, "you need to keep your window closed when you're not home, because someone will try to get in, and i have valuable things here."

cecile's like...i'm sorry, do you live here? why do you think you can tell me what to do?

that's pretty typical, the "tienes que...." stuff from spaniards. anyway, cecile's like, "i'm sure she's going to tell me something about the candle. i'm not giving her money for it."

now, i sort of think cecile should pay for the candle if she fucked it up. on the other hand, desi really does seem like a crazy bitch. and who wants to give anything to a crazy bitch?

so cecile and i go to fix dinner, and cristian comes into the kitchen, and in a very uncharacteristic asshole tone of voice, says, "what are you going to do about the candle?" and cecile explains that she tried to get it fixed, but couldn't. and he says, "so you're going to pay for it then?" and she says, "well, no."

then desi enters and basically goes totally berserk. she gets all up in cecile's face. she calls cecile "niña" - as in, "listen, child," - and says cecile is "verde." among the more interesting things she says: "this is my apartment. my boyfriend lives here. everything in this apartment is mine." cecile's like, "oh i didn't realize you were the dueña of the piso" - the landlord. and desi says, "almost!"

they start in spanish and switch to french and very long story short, cristian ends up between them and desi lunges at cecile and cecile lunges back and then storms off to her bedroom. i was chopping garlic for dinner during all this. i chopped it into tiny tiny tiny tiny pieces, and i was shaking. and it wasn't even my fight!

anyway, so desi's totally insane. but apparently a lot of the stuff in the apartment - most importantly, the kitchen stuff - is desi's, and not cristian's or alicia's. unbeknownst to me and cecile. and she's packing up. i overheard her today telling cristian something to the effect of: "i haven't seen alicia cooking so i don't see the point in leaving my pots and pans here."

i've been feeling anxious and guilty about bailing on the rent for june, etc. this has been replaced by anxiety about having to buy kitchen stuff for the last three weeks i'm here.

--------

it rained today, which was annoying because i was cold in my skirt. but i went and played piano for an hour. i started with 'raining in baltimore,' which i haven't played in over a year, probably. and i learned it so long ago that it isn't in my notebook. so i sat there with my hands on the keys to remember. 

i knew it had a Bb major, because every counting crows song i know on piano has a Bb major in it. and then i remembered part of the bridge that started with a C major. and the transition to the bridge that walks up from F.

i played it twice through on the grand piano. normally i play the upright; it costs 3 euros for an hour. the acoustics in the room with the upright are awful and tinny. i played the grand once and the room acoustics were far better, and of course the piano was nicer. but it's 5 euros for an hour, and i'm on a budget. (i actually have 12 euros set aside as my monthly piano 'bill' - i can play piano once a week - on the upright - and it doesn't count towards my daily allowance.)

so when i got to the piano shop, the guy told me to use the second room. i was hoping he didn't mean the grand piano, so i went to the room with the upright, but he said no. he led me to the grand and said something about not being able to use the other one right now.

i said, "and this one is five euros?"

and he's like "yeah...well....i guess it doesn't really matter to me."

meaning i could play it for three euros.

so this is me patting myself on the back. does that count for being assertive? in spanish? i think it does.

and the grand was so sweet. i played rainy day music for an hour and was so relaxed afterwards that i took a nap.

Comments

[Sarah]

Blech. Room mate woes are the worst . . . and all in your second language.

[Jenny]

I like the cigueña story. How random is that.

Anyway, I hope that Desi leaves soon!

[becca]

hi. boo for shitty living situations.
but yay for storks and awesome flamenco teachers.
and yay for you for being assertive
and also for conquering the second language!

[Rachel]

Cigüeña came up in my Spanish class today, and I'm already see by the Germans in that class as the stuck-up know-it-all, and when our teacher asked if we knew what it was and I raised my hand, they all gave me the death stare.