Learning Spanish!

Sooo, one of my big projects is to learn Spanish… Reason being of course that mi novio is a hot-blooded Spaniard! Hahahaha ;)

When I was in school, eight years back, and had the option between Russian, Spanish and French, I choose French.. Hrmf!! Oh well, I don’t really remember that much of French either, even though I had it for two years, so probably wouldn’t have been any different if I had gone with Spanish..

Even though I really want to speak the language I’m finding it difficult to really engage in it,,, or rather to get really passionate about learning it…

I try my best though, and at one point I even had post-its all over that flat with Spanish words for all the different object.. Like for example: enchufe for socket, puerta for door, espejo for mirror and so on..

Now that I think about it, that was a really good idea, and I still remember all the words on the post-its… Hm.. Note to oneself, put up post-its in my new flat – when I finally find one!

When I was driving home from work this summer, I did indeed listen to podcasts, and I kinda still remember the intro to every single podcast: “Hi and welcome to Discover Spanish! My name is Johnny Spanish and I’m here in Miami Florida with Christina. Hola Johnny!“… Even though the intro was “only” for around 20 seconds it felt like 2 minutes,, and it was getting on my nerves! Hehe! Oh well, you have to take the good with the bad I guess.. :p

Well,, my next method for learning is to have mi novio teach me a new sentence every day.. Also whenever we say a number, it has to be in Spanish! Buuut we’re horrible at remembering to do the number thing..

But it’s like Johnny Spanish says in the podcasts: “The trick to learning Spanish is to practice a little bit Every Day” (said with a fake overenthusiastic voice).

Even though I'm progressing at a very slow rate, it's better than not progressing at all..

When I finally go to Spain I will at least be able to say some basic things..

Hola, me llamo Vanja. Encantado de conocerte! Cómo estás? Muy bien gracias. Soy la novia de Francisco. Tengo veinticinco años! Soy de las Islas Feroe.

I do know some more words and sentences, but am really looking forward to the time when my vocabulary has grown to the stage that I can communicate in this lovely language! If not fully then at least partially :)

August is festival time!

Being back in Edinburgh is great! And not just because this is where mi novio is ;)

Edinburgh in August is very busy and there is so much going on that it is overwhelming! There are shows every day for basically the whole month, from early afternoon till late evening. There is everything from Poetry Readings to Cabarets.

I went to around 15 shows, all of them being free except for one, which was a comedy show with the funny Dylan Moran, and it was absolutely great! Living in Edinburgh, where Dylan Moran lives as well, I’ve just been waiting for the opportunity to go to one of his shows!

The other shows were mostly comedy shows as well; however we did go to two cabarets and one play/storytelling.

I have to say that some of the shows were brilliant while some were absolutely horrible - and I do mean truly horrible! It was a comedy show (!) with this guy that was the worst thing I've ever been to... However, I was nice to the guy anyway,, gave him a tip at the end, where he gave me a kiss on the cheek and said "Did you like the show?"; I put on a fake smile and lied through my teeth saying "Yeah, it was fine", and then went running for the closest exit!

On the one side I really enjoy the August version of Edinburgh, but I have to admit that I was relieved when the festival was over. Not that I was that much among the crowds, but because one of the reasons that I love being in Edinburgh, is that even though it is a big city, it doesn’t feel as busy as some other big cities do.. I like that it’s kinda cozy – for lack of a better suited word (but I'm guessing that you know what I mean).

The festival was great though and it's definitely worth coming to Edinburgh in August - just in case anyone is thinking about coming to visit! :)

Indeed my mum did come to visit for a few days in August, and it was great to show her around the city that is starting to feel like a second home to me!

Summer at home on the Isles

Every summer I head back home to see all the lovely people that I miss when I’m not there!

Also one of the main things I do when I’m at home, is earn money! Obviously this is an important part of the summer, because money is needed for my “luxury” lifestyle in Edinburgh hehe

This year June was a very good month in the Faroes (weather wise), and I got sunburnt more than once – which even though it was painful, was a great feeling!

One of the highlights of the summer was indeed to see gumma’s little princess! The daughter of my best friend that I’m the godmother of. She is the cutest and sweetest little girl of them all and if ever I meet a sweeter girl it’ll be my own!

Also I’ve been in a crazy knitting mood these last few months and being at home where we have all this lovely lovely yarn only made it “worse”. Well, let me put it like this… I was home for just under 12 weeks and this is the stuff that I knitted:

• Jumper for my boyfriend
• Jumper for myself
• Jumper and hat for the little princess
• Bolero for myself
• Slippers for my dad
• 2 hats
• Aaaand started crocheting a blanket for a friend’s baby

Indeed I've done a few more things since I got back to Edinburgh, and still my hands are not tired :)

Another nice thing that happens at home over the summer, is all the festivals! This year one of the festivals was in my town and it was very nice getting together with everyone! Also at the National Festival in the capital, I enjoyed spending time with relatives; eating, eating, eating and wasting all my money on all the different tombolas.. Oh well, fun isn't always for free, and I did even win a doll that I gave to gumma's little princess!

I think that I'm kinda growing out of the whole festival thing though... Don't get me wrong, it's good fun, but when I was younger I used to stay out until 6am and this year I was home around midnight.. Oh youth,, Where have you gone?!

Another major thing I did was baking cakes! And I don't just mean three or four cakes, but I made 33! Just over half were for my dad, so he always has cakes in the freezer in case he wants something nice with his tea. The rest went to the lovely little island of Nólsoy, where I've got an uncle and two cousins. They were mainly for the festival that's out there, but 15 cakes is quite a lot for only one weekend right? hehe.. I just make plenty of cakes for them, so, like with my dad, they have something nice with a cup of tea for the rest of the year ;)

The summer at home was indeed lovely and I always look forward to it! Next year I'm hoping that it'll be even better than this past one! :)

Living up to expectations!

The first entry on my blog was in March, so I am really living up to my expectations that there’s months between each post…

There has been quite a lot of stuff going on for the last few months, so I'll be posting some stuff about what I’ve been up to!