First Blog

Hola!
This is one of my first blogs so I imagine I'll be making some mistakes along the way. Please bear with me! It has taken a couple of hours to get this going. For some reason, everything in my Google account, except for Gmail, was in Japanese or something like that. At least in Spanish, I can probably muffle my way through figuring out the words, but Japanese? Hello? I couldn't even find a place to change the language. So, I refueled with dinner and jumped right back in. Finally, after starting at square one, I was able to find the language filter, which was offered no where I had looked earlier. I had been trying to access the start page from a friends blogspot. No can do, I guess, especially if it's in Japanese!

I mentioned Spanish because we have been living in Spain since July 10, 2008. My high school ('82) Spanish has helped a tiny bit, but not really knowing the language is quite crippling here. I have my first day of Spanish School tomorrow. It's a lucrative business here. People come from all over the world to learn Spanish in Spain. Makes sense. Except for the fact, they speak it different here than the Latin American version we learn in the states. To top it all off, we were told by our cultural person (a beautiful Spanish lady who majored in Tourism in a Spanish college) to try NOT to speak like those here in Southern Spain. She said that here they speak slangish, dropping the ends of words, etc. Apparently, those who speak Southern Spain are likened to those who speak Southern in the US! Now, ya'all don't get upset now, ya hear? I have lived in many places in the Southern United States and I think the accent is really cool. Anyhoo, here "gracias" should be pronounced "grathias" but the locals make it even more different by saying "grathea." Adios becomes adio, buenos dias becomes buenos dia. I hope to begin learning the correct way tomorrow. I'll keep you posted!
Buenos Noches!