Monday, September 03, 2007
So I’m finally caught up journaling. I’m going to try to start journaling every night what I did the day before so I don’t get behind. Anyway, I woke up early around 8:15 to study and head to campus early. I left around 9:40 after frantically rereading all the readings and my notes. I almost fell asleep on the metro on the way and realized just how tired I was. At 10:30 I met up with Andres, who is my Tandem partner. This is a program to match up gringos with Chileans to help each other learn each other’s languages. Andres is 19, studies Civil Construction, and learned English in High School. I felt really bad because I was so tired I had a really hard time talking and listening. But seemed to understand and after about 45 minutes I headed out to cram a little more studying in before the test.
The test wasn’t as bad as it could have been. I did a good job of just repeating verbatim the definitions he gave us in class and certain things from the text. I’m hoping he doesn’t mind that it might now flow too well or that there might be tons of grammar mistakes during the transitions and recognizes that I worked really hard to memorize. Its kind of an old school way of learning and definitely against the whole: think critically, put it in your own words and apply what you’ve learned to real life. But it’s in another language and I was exhausted. We’ll see.
I went to mass then to my Education class. The teacher told us she hasn’t been to thrilled with the test results we took last week so that wasn’t too uplifting. But I’m really enjoying the class and she is a great teacher (she should be right. It’s about Education!) I had lunch with Christian and again could barely carry on a conversation. After we ate I helped him set up a facebook account. Its pretty excited about it and asked me if he could friend Trevor and my sisters! I told him of course.
Finally I headed back downtown for my Biblia class. I know my Spanish is getting a little better because despite my exhaustion, I followed along pretty well. Or actually, I just realized that I for once did the readings BEFORE class like we are supposed to, so maybe that’s why I understood more! After class I walked home. Olga wasn’t there, but I crawled into bed and started catching up on my journal. She got home around 7 and made us dinner. We finished around 8 and now I’m back in bed ready to go to sleep.
I don’t know what it is, but I haven’t been this tired in months. I got more sleep this weekend than usual. Olga has a theory that it is because I did so much with Nuestra Casa and it is very taxing. Plus she thinks I was very stressed about this test today. I didn’t feel more stressed than usual. I know working with Nuestra Casa was difficult, but I still shouldn’t be this tired. I’m hoping one night of excessive sleep (i.e. tonight) will cure it.
One other observation: sometimes I want to give up learning Spanish. I think it's a symptom of lack of sleep and it is usually only fleeting. But I definitely experienced it today. The scary thing is that it would be incredibly easy to quit trying to learn. I'd come back to the states not much better than when I left it! But don't worry. I'll be fine tomorrow and ready to dive back in.
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3 comments:
Giving up in not in your blood! I know you will feel better after you get some good sleep! OK? Love ya, Mom
I am sure you will feel better when you get some "regular" sleep! I am tired just reading about how much you are doing and how late at night.
Just take good care of yourself.
Love you, Mommer
Of course you're tired! Like your Grandma, it makes me tired reading about the late nights you keep. I'd be dead tired too. Thanks for your journaling efforts. I've really enjoyed them, and trying to get my kids to read it as well, as there is so much educational value to your entries!
Bev Green
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