In order to stop talking like a robot I've been studying a bunch of conversational words that in truth, mean very little on their own. However, a simple "pues" or "bueno" at the beginning of a sentence can make the difference between "I'm going home now" and and much friendlier, "Well, I guess I'll head home now," ideally making me sound more like a native speaker. There are so many layers in the process of learning a language that it can get a little frustrating sometimes. However, I enjoy the fact that I can invest a whole bunch of energy into learning Spanish and never run out of material to study. Plus, the benefit of being able to communicate more easily and confidently with people always makes it worth my while. I would say the hardest group to understand is ironically my Chilean peers. It's because they use all these new words that aren't in dictionaries. On top of that, they talk so fast that the vocabulary I do know is often shortened into abbreviations that barely register as words to my untrained ears. It is my lofty goal that by the end of this year I can hang out with a group of Chilean college students and follow the entire conversation...time will tell how that goes.

The weekend should be really great practice in that respect. I'm going to head over to the Un Techo Para Chile office with my neighbor around 7pm today to build some houses for a few days. I presumably get back to my house on Sunday, hopefully more proficient in Spanish and knowing more people than when I left. I have been feeling a little sick for the past week so I'm trying to take it easy today. I can make some really dramatic sounds when I take a deep breath because I have so much junk in my lungs. Oh well...Right now I am still in the "planting the seeds" phase of my time in Chile, so I don't really see the advantage of turning down opportunities to meet people and experience something new. Right now I am going to try and get a little more Spanish studying in so that I can whip out one or two cool sayings that sound totally fluent at some point this weekend.