a little cameo

So here I am, back in Bogotá studying Spanish at International House.

After I arrived in Colombia I discovered a couple of things about my ability to communicate in Spanish:

1. I´m not really very good at speaking Spanish, but at least I can get my message across, mas o menos.
2. I cannot for the life of me understand Colombians. They are supposed to have one of the clearest accents, but instead I find myself staring at them as though they´d just said something to me in Russian.
3. I don´t like not being able to participate in a conversation.
4. I HAVE to get better.

I do love speaking in Spanish. I love the novelty of being an Australian who can speak another language. I love being in Latin America.

Now that I´m in Bogotá for a couple of weeks, I´m taking this opportunity to get into a little routine, something I craved by the end of my roadtrip.

So I go to my classes in the morning, then at 1pm I go to a restaurant called Mele that has quickly become my favourite for the daily special and then either go to the after school activities or come back to the hostel to do my homework and study a little more on my own. I´m trying to avoid speaking English wherever possible, because that doesn´t help my fluency in Spanish.

I like that I´m the only foreigner at the restaurant amongst a sea of Colombian students and business people. I also like that today three of the staff of the restaurant recognised me and had a little chat with me. I want to be a regular!!