The last four days, I was on vacation in Mexico City because a) I'd never been to a Spanish-speaking country before, and I knew I needed to do that before I got a job as a Spanish teacher so that I wouldn't feel like a tool b) to test out my Spanish skills c) to look at things and d) to buy handicrafts. With those objectives in mind, I'd say it was a pretty successful vacation.
This trip made me feel simultaneously good and awful about my Spanish skills, which seems paradoxical. For the most part, I understand what people are saying to me and I can respond with things that make sense. This made me feel good. I learned, however, that when people speak to me in Spanish, especially if they're saying things fast, I need an extra moment to process what's been said. Most people will assume that if you didn't respond right away, they need to repeat or rephrase what they just said, which actually does not help. I also became aware of some gaps in my vocabulary (just how does one say "I knocked it over"? Me lo cayó?). Most of my vocabulary problems are regarding what to say in everyday sorts of situations in terms of how to phrase things. I think I need to get a speaking buddy to practice these sorts of things.
The good news is that after even a few days immersed in Spanish-speaking culture, my brain is already tending more Spanish-wise. More of the thoughts in my head are in Spanish, which is awesome. I think if I spent a few months living in a Spanish-speaking country, I would get to a spoken fluency pretty quickly.
I found myself frequently comparing my experience in Mexico City with my experience in Cairo, probably because it's the main non-English speaking urban area that I've spent much time in. I am definitely more competent at Spanish on this trip than I was at Arabic on that trip, so it's interesting for me to compare the amount of effort I'm making to understand what's going on around me. I have to pay attention to what people are saying, but I'm not having a lot of acute "what the hell is going on here?" moments, like I did in Cairo. I understand all the shop signs I see. While it still takes some mental effort to understand things, I can generally understand them. Whereas when I was in Cairo, people would say things and my friends and I would all look at each other and try to puzzle out what was happening. Frequent use was made of dictionaries.
Another thing that's interesting about Mexico City is, in my opinion, it's so hard to find anything. In the US, everything is labelled very clearly. Here, you kind of have to know what you're looking for a bit better. Since the city is old and everything is kind of stacked on top of other things, a lot of shops are set back from the street and tricky to spot if you don't know they're there.
In terms of the actual vacationing part, I am kind of a low-key sight-seer. I went to the National Art Museum, the
Alameda Central, and
Tenotihuacan. My hotel is right next to the
Zocalo, so I saw that, too. I did a lot of walking around just idly looking at things and getting a feel for the place. I'd say the highlight of the trip was definitely taking a tour to Tenotihuacan, where I climbed to the top of the Pyramid of the Sun.
If you want to see the rest of the pictures, you can
check out the set on my flickr.
