The long and winding road

This is probably going to be rambling because that´s the state of my mind and thoughts at the moment. Bear with me. I´ve spoken no English so far today so my thoughts don´t feel very clear.

I´m still having a good time Madrid and enjoying the city immensely. It´s a truly great place and I definitely want to return. Yesterday I had my best day so far. I had a great class in the morning, met up with Patricia (madrileña, but my friend in Sheffield), ate loads of cakes and drank posh slush puppies around Madrid´s posh parts, boughts some great Spanish books, went home and then went out with other students on the course. I didn´t get in until 2am, so today I am exhausted. It is years since I went to bed so late and had to get up the next day. I spoke ten minutes of English to Ezzie yesterday and Patricia says she can tell the progress with my Spanish already.

I am improving in Spanish, no doubt about it, but I am accutely aware just how much more studying I have to do and I am wondering whether I will ever manage it. German remains my true love and I´m obviously better at it because I´ve lived and worked in Germany and Switzerland and it´s because I can compare my abilities in the two languages that I feel depressed about my Spanish. I´m not going to have the opportunity to spend extended periods of time in Spain so my level of fluency will always be lacking.

Now I´ve done the A Level, I don´t know where to go with regards courses. There´s nothing appropriate in Sheffield and it seems once you get to a certain level, that´s your lot. I want to do an Open University degree eventually, but it´s not going to be this year. I start the new job on Monday and that is going to be taxing. I´m going to continue with my private speaking lessons every week but I´m going to have to work independently to maintain this and learning solitarily is not motivating with a language because you want to use it in speech with others. Learning a language is not easy and at the moment I feel I am at the beginning of a long and winding road called "Spanish Street".

On the knitting front I have started another pair of Monkey socks with a twist. The cuff, heel and toes are all to be the remains of my first dyed yarn and the pattern is in a plain dark green. They are my second pair of Christmas socks. I´m almost at the heel now and I like them. Photos next week when I return. There´s a debate at the moment are they male or female. (El o la?) When I post the photos please help me decide.

Before I forget, congratulations to Ezzie for getting an A in his German GCSE. He went to every class, revised hard and has done himself proud. It is so lovely to have a boyfriend who also loves German. Just can´t get him to knit, though.