Ay! Dios Mio!

I really hope I catch up on my Spanish soon!
Orientation was fine. They explained to us how the health insurance card OSDE worked. And then we all had lunch in a restaurant called Rancho Viejo. All of us CC-CS students tried to talk to each other in Spanish, and I think we're all close to the same level. But then, is we mess up, we all know what the other person is trying to say.
Then we had a quick tour of Córdoba in a tourbus. When the day was over, everyone's host parents came to pick them up, but Taylor and I were supposed to go home by ourselves by bus. Mimi told us to take the A10 bus home, but Taylor and I waited for well over an hour, and that bus never came! We eventually gave up and hailed a tax cab home. When we got back, we learned from Mimi that the A10 bus doesn't function on weekends. But we survived.
Mimi had made us cornbread when we returned. Apparently one of her former exchange students taught her how to make it.

Today, Mimi's son Juan Pablo, and his wife, Soledad, came over for dinner. They come over every Sunday, will be back next week. Soledad speaks a little English, and she tried to help Taylor and I communicate with everyone else when we didn't understand what was being said in Spanish. It was a little embarrassing when Soledad gave me a little lecture on how I should try to use full sentences and not just nod and say sí all the time. She then proceeded to tell us about Naty, who just said "yep" all the time, and then about an exchange student from Japan, who stayed with Mimi for only 10 days. He didn't know a word of Spanish when he came, and then spoke Spanish by the end of the week.

One thing I noticed here is that a lot of people think I am timidobecause I don't speak often. I'm asked why I'm so timid and don't talk a lot. I try to explain it's because I'm so busy trying to listen and understand, and that I don't hold long conversations in English in the first place, but I don't know if I got that point across. I'm hoping I'll be more confident by the end of the week.

Tomorrow we have our placement test to see whether we belong in the advanced or intermediate Spanish class for the intensive month. I hope all goes well. And that Taylor and I can figure out the buses tomorrow!