Before I tell you about my day today, I'm going to try and explain some of the ways that my thought processes have changed recently. The truth is that my head is a bit messed up: I no longer think in English, and I can't quite think in Spanish either, so instead I have been thinking in Spanglish!

I think at the moment I spend about half of my time thinking in each language, but it is not so simple as thinking in English for a while and then thinking in Spanish. Instead I have been mixing the two together in my head. Quite often I will start a sentence in 1 language, and then switch half way through to the other. This normally happens at points with simple words that join together two clauses in a sentence, for example 'but', 'and', 'so', 'because'. The following is an example:

"I am always hungry in the morning, pero si como demasiado por la mañana no puedo comer cuando vuelvo a la casa."

The change here happened on the Spanish word for 'but' which is 'pero'. (The Spanish bit translates to "but if I eat too much in the morning I can't eat when I return to the house".)

This in itself isn't a problem, but one of the words that often makes me switch languages is when I want to say 'actually', instead I say the Spanish word 'actualmente'. This is a problem because 'actualmente' is a false friend! It seems as though it should mean 'actually', but instead it means 'nowadays'. Because this is a word that I use so often in my head, I have learnt to use it incorrectly and it is very difficult to unlearn it (instead I should be using 'en realidad' or 'la verdad').

The other thing that I have noticed that is very strange, is that the Spanish word 'aqui' has become more natural for me than the English word 'here'. This is very strange, because when I am thinking of writing something in English I often think like this:

"I don't know anybody aqui, hmmmm what is the English word for 'aqui'? Oh yeah it's 'here'."

This also happens with the word 'Inglaterra' which has become more natural than 'England'. This is very strange, and only happens with these two words, and I have no idea why! It will be interesting to see what happens to my thought processes when I return to England.

Today class was fairly typical, but after we got back from our coffee, for some reason I had to say the Spanish word for dog (perro). I told Cristina that I was frustrated because I can't pronounce the letter 'R' in Spanish correctly, especially when there are two of them in a row. In Spanish, a single 'R' has a slightly different sound to the letter 'R' in English - it sounds kind of like a soft 'D', and the sound is made my flicking your tongue across the roof of your mouth. There is another 'R' sound in Spanish, which is pronounced whenever the letter 'R' is encountered at the beginning or end of a word, or when two of them are encountered next to each other in the middle of a word. All of the following words have this sound: 'rata', 'ser', 'perro'. This sound is called an alveolar trill, and is often known as 'rolling your Rs'.

When I told Cristina that I couldn't pronounce 'R' properly she told me that she couldn't help me because she is not the right kind of teacher, but somehow we ended up saying 'rata' (rat) over and over, trying to improve my pronunciation. This went on for about half an hour and was exhausting! A few times I became dizzy from trying so hard. It seems to me that you have to hold your tongue flat and wide in you mouth, with the tip of your tongue just behind your teeth. You then have to relax it a bit and make the tip vibrate. I can almost do it, but it is not quite right and Cristina says that I blow to much air out of my mouth and that sometimes I make the sound in my throat instead of on my tongue. Also, making this sound in isolation is one thing, but making it as part of a word, followed by a vowel sound is very difficult.

If you are interested in hearing what this sounds like here are some links: perro rata. On the perro example, make sure to click the button that says 'Hombre de España' as this sounds the most like what I am aiming for.

When I got in from class today I had a great starter, and a not so great main course. For my starter I had cream of vegetable soup with croutons, and for my main course I had grilled chicken breast and small pieces of battered fish with bread. I had watermelon for desert. I had to explain to Charo that I find it difficult to just eat a plate full of meat, and I actually feel quite bloated now. Also the air conditioning in the living room isn't working correctly so I am hot!