Feliz Cumpleaños America!

Happy 4th of July! Not that it needs much explaining, but there has not been much fanfare here in Spain for our 4th of July...maybe we should have gone to McDonald's today to celebrate our American heritage, or maybe not. : )

Spanish class was fine today. I have come to realize that being the oldest person in the class means that I get to see all of my much younger (early 20's) classmates crawl into class and try to make the best of learning Spanish. One girl said she arrived home at 6:30 that morning...kudos to her that she actually made it. We had an interesting morning conversing and learning Spanish sayings with multiple meanings. The difference really has to do with whether you use ser or estar. Por ejemplo:

      ser listo = person with intelligence
      estar listo = to be prepared

      ser verde = to be the color green; or to be ecological
      estar verde =  immature or unprepared

      ser abierto = extrovert
      estar abierto = not closed

So it is little things like this that can cause some problems. I see how this complication can show up in English as well. One of my "a-ha" moments today was when our teacher had us listen to a very fast paced audio recording of two girls talking about a camping vacation. We listened to it once without any prompt or focus on set up by the teacher. I was able to pick up about 50% of what I heard. He then gave us four questions in which to try to answer and played it for us again. I was only able to answer two questions. He played it for us again, and alas I still was only able to answer two of the four questions. It wasn't until he provided me with the actual text and some pictures that I was able to completely follow along. Listening to the audio was valuable, but my learning was limited. It wasn't until I had all of them together: audio, text, and pictures that I was truly able to understand.

One of Dorothy's classmates is named Matt and we invited him to celebrate the 4th of July with us by having lunch. He is originally from Dallas but now lives in LA. He is also a former major league baseball player (he played for the A's right out of high school and even has baseball cards...well he didn't have them on him of course, but they are out there). He came to Spain knowing absolutely zero Spanish. It was interesting hearing how difficult it has been for him to adapt to the Spanish language. He shared that it has been a lot harder that he thought. He has only been here a week longer than us, so it will be interesting to speak to him in a couple of weeks to see how much he has learned. We will keep you posted on Matt's progress.

We ended our day by heading back to the center of Spain to el Puerta del Sol via Gran Via:

We ran into a bunch of screaming Spanish tweens who were outside a recording studio hoping to catch a glimpse of the English/Irish boy band "The Wanted."

We bought the best jamón today! Did you notice what is hanging from the walls? These hunks of  jamón typical site in Madrid.

Guess what they sell here...

No es un sandwich sin queso.

Catching protestas politicas in el Puerta del Sol.(The guy holding the large cardboard sign was wearing a shirt and women's underwear...guess that message was that the banks are taking the clothes off their backs.)

This coat of arms is the symbol of Madrid and is seen everywhere, including in the pavement. 

Hey, if the Spanish food pyramid says vino is a basic food group, then it must be true...