Internship

One of my classes this semester is an internship. Basically I had to go out and find a job. I would work for 70 hours throughout the semester, without pay, at any kind of business in town. I wanted to go to a place where I would be talking a lot, because I know that I would learn so much more that way. My friend Lorraine and I went to an elderly center today. It is run by nuns and we were told that they are always looking for volunteers. They have also had Tech students work their previously. Lorraine speaks Spanish fluently, so it was comforting to have her with me. The nun we spoke to remembered the students that had been there before and helped us make our work schedule. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday we will work 6-8pm; and Saturday and Sunday 10-2pm. If we have an excursion with our class then of course we will not work on the weekend. Both of our school schedules are a lot heavier the last half of the semester so we are going to try to put in as many hours now as possible.

However, we were not aware that we were going to start working today! The nun showed us to this older ladies room and just plopped us in there and left! Now of course Lorraine had no problem with it, because she can speak perfectly, but I on the other hand had some trouble. The 2 ladies that we talked with were very sweet and funny...when I understood them :). Lorraine had to translate a little. And sometimes I would just laugh and smile and nod...and then they caught on and made fun of me for it!! :) But they were very sweet. We then took them to dinner and helped serve some of the people. Unfortunatly they separated me and Lorraine and gave us different tables. I was filling water for my table and then I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do next. The nun walked by me, said something, and then left again. She knew that I didn't speak Spanish very well, but wouldn't give me a chance to figure out what she had said. Five minutes later I am still standing awkwardly at the table not really doing anything and she motions to me to come into the kitchen. She hands me a towel and I start drying the dishes. I guess I wasn't doing what she wanted (which I don't know what that was!) so I got kitchen duty. :( HAHA it wasn't that bad. The ladies in the kitchen were nice. So I will be interested to see what I will be doing next time. I think the hardest part was just understanding them. Older people are definitely harder to understand, but especially when its in another language!!

It is going to be extremely trying and overwhelming, but that is what I need; to just be dropped into the language.

After work, we went to a grocery store for a few things. We ran into our professor while we were there. This is the professor that is doing the internship class, so we told him about how we got a job and everything, and he was very proud of us. We ended up grocery shopping with him and he put me on the spot and made me talk to the cashier. After I talked to her she said, "Estas aprendido?" (Are you learning?) I said, "Si, es evidente?" (Yes, is it evident?) She replied, "Yes." :( HAHA well I did my best!!

Besides missing all of my loved ones, I have been able to mostly adapt to everything here. I do dearly miss Dr. Pepper and 2% milk. As well as air conditioning (although it will be cooling down pretty soon). School is definitely gonna be picking up this week, so my plate is quickly filling up!