be fluent in Spanish

I had my first dream in Spanish – was in Barcelona. Of course, it wasn’t really Barcelona, rather some futuristic city that has no relevance to anything…but still. All I had been having in Spanish was academic advising sessions (it is a little intimidating to plan your college career in a language you don’t feel entirely comfortable in.)

For the first time, I may have a chance (a tentative, far-away one, but one!) to use Spanish not as an ends but as a means. I just got in contact with one of the up-and-coming researchers on a particular creole that is found in Belize and Guatemala. If I could go do field research using Spanish as my “home language” oh…:)

So five years of being told that my Spanish will help me to bridge the gap between the different cultures present in the United States finally came to fruition at the Miami airport:
Woman: Hablas español?
Elizabeth dons cape, Spanish-major hat
..and all I ended up having to say was “sí,” in reference to this being the exit for American Airlines. Sigh. It’s a start, though.

So I don’t have fluency…but I absolutely talked about the purgatory/heaven/hell metaphor in a story that our literature class read. In Spanish, that is (wouldn’t have been so impressive otherwise, heh.)