5 Random Things + 2

1. Italian women wear boots to dance salsa, at least in the winter. A few wear heels. I was the *only* one wearing flats. In some way though, boots make more sense to me than flip-flops. This observation comes from going out to a salsa dance party Saturday night. I have a real knack for wearing the absolute wrong thing the first time that I go to a nightclub. I'll just say I wasn't dressed like anyone else there but that I didn't feel like I stuck out like a sore thumb. Just a regular normal feeling thumb.

2. I'm changing my mind about what being fluent in a language means. For some kooky reason, I had defined fluent to mean being able to say absolutely anything you want without problem and basically never encountering situations where you don't understand what is being said. A bit stringent of a definition. As I began to search for ways to describe the level in language where you can speak it fluidly, even having a lot to learn, I realized that that's what the literal meaning of "fluent" is. I'm still hesitant to use the word fluent, but perhaps I've lowered my unrealistic expectations of it.

3. I don't know how it is for other people, but I'm not sure I think in words until I have to. I mean that if I'm just in my own little world, there's usually not something ready to come out if asked what's going on up there. (Probably one reason why I hate the question, "Whatcha thinkin'?") The quickest language I could put it into is English. I've now taken the plunge into the world of dance class in a foreign language once again and I am seeing (again) that this creates a problem. As my brain processes movement, it's not processing words, and when my teacher sees that I look confused or asks me a question, it's not a quick process to try to express what I'm thinking. Add to this the fact that the class is in Italian but that my teacher is Cuban and we sometimes speak in Spanish, I can't even decide which language to answer in, which slows the process down even more. I'm happy when I leave class not feeling like a mute who can only shake her head yes or no.

4. A single spaghetti noodle is called a spaghetto. It's true. Even if it's rarely used.

5. Did you know that Indonesia is the 15th largest country in the world by area? It's bigger than Iran! Italy, on the other hand is just slightly larger than the state of Arizona. Spain is apparently twice the size of Oregon.

6. A week or so ago I saw "My Fair Lady" with Spanish subtitles (never mind why). For the phrase, "The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain" they substituted it with, "La lluvia en Sevilla es una maravilla," -- The rain in Seville is a wonder/astonishment. When Eliza Doolittle couldn't say it right, it came out, "La yuvia en seviya es una maraviya." I'm not sure I could pronounce those two spellings differently... On the subject of precipitation in Spain, it snowed in Barcelona! Biggest snowfall since 1962. Additionally, "Doolittle" is a recognized word by Blogger/Firefox's (not sure which) spellchecker. Oh, and one final thought on the subject. Recently, I read about someone who wanted to become a linguist after seeing "My Fair Lady" as a child because it looked like something you could get rich doing. Haha.

7. I used to have a xanga. Okay, so it's still out there somewhere. At some point, they integrated this feature called Xangazon where you could put a little icon of what you were currently reading, listening to or watching. I would occasionally post the album cover of whatever music I was digging lately, even if it weren't what I was listening to at the moment. If there were a bloggerzon, I'd share with you this awesome salsa song. However the reality is that I'm actually listening to the insanely loud irish jig playing over the speakers at the pub where I'm using wi-fi.

The end!