feliz navidad and no more charades.

25 Diciembre 2010

i woke up this morning not feeling like it was christmas at all.  i was still very tired from the night before… so maybe this lead to my bah-humbug attitude.  i rolled out of bed, and i made myself some oatmeal and coffee.  3 bites into my breakfast, i heard the man who sells big pots and pans in the street start singing some old peruvian folk song at the top of his lungs - which he does from time to time - but for some reason, this morning, the sound of his heartfelt canción echoing off the mountains that surround us was just enough to get me out of my grumpiness.

i went downstairs and said feliz navidad a mi familia, and i walked down to my favorite farmer’s little bodega for my usual purchase: ocho huevos, lata de leche, y verduras (this time, carrots and tomatoes).

before lunch, my host cousin, arturo, called my cell phone to wish me a feliz navidad.  he lives in lima, but has visited a few times (and is my age).  we met during the fiesta back in august.  he was actually my first catache friend!  

it was good to hear from him.  sometimes people dont understand my spanish, because of my americanized pronunciation, but he always understand what i am saying - even when i am slowly constructing sentences and when my pronunciation is muy mal.

mi hermana, andrea, invited me for lunch with the family this afternoon.  it was back to the normal peruvian food:  rice with potatoes - and a side of something.  but good, nonetheless.  we ate while watching WWF on the television - which i still cant get used to the fact that if you go into any catache home on a saturday afternoon you’ll find the entire family glued to their tv set, watching some good, old-fashioned, fake, american wrestling… qué raro!  

i was finally able to give my gift to the fam (with all of the commotion yesterday, i forgot to give them the picture).  of course they loved it.  they all passed it around the room while ooohing and awwwing.  when my mom finally had a chance to look at it, she said, “oh wow! qué bonita! está en arequipa!?”  my sisters corrected her and said, “no, mama!!! está CATACHE!”  ...we had a good laugh at that one for a while.

at lunch, i realized how much better my spanish is getting.  i am not anywhere near being fluent, but im to a point where i can understand pretty much everything people are talking to me about.  i can talk on the phone now (in spanish) - which was the hardest thing in the world for me to do before (because it’s super-hard to understand spanish when you aren’t face to face and can’t play a game of charades to get the point across).  so yeah, i sort-of reached a major turning point in my spanish progression.  nowhere to go now but up - up - UP!