it's the little things....

this whole immersion program business has got me thinking: its amazing how much a person can learn in such a short period of time. it's the little things i notice--things that, when i first arrived i found frustratingly difficult to understand and aggravatingly hard to ignore--the small acts of settling into a new situation. for example: when watching "mr and mrs smith" while eating my curry (it was good, not great, i give it 3.5/5, although chock full of veg and very nutritious--missing my african spice collection that waits for me patiently in a box at the uhaul storage place) the 6 minute commercial breaks...a week ago they would've annoyed the hell out of me, i mean, come on, why must you have to wait 6 minutes to see your show. however, now i've become accustomed to them and use these 6 minutes to my advantage and go and do something else. i feel as though i should follow up on my week of frustration by adding that i am finally settling in. and i'm pretty sure i grasp (for the most part) the various schedules of things (farmacies, groceries, etc etc) i dont know if it was the zumba or the rum and cokes but last night i felt like i left all my inhibitions behind and really attempted to speak spanish without regard to my self-consciousness of making mistakes.
whats really crazy is that one day of sun made all of this bad weather worth it. the difference is the people...when it rains they stay indoors, but when the sun is shining they fill the streets with music, dance, and life. tonight was a terrible storm--the first lightning i've seen, very strange the kind that lights up the entire sky and you cannot see the bolt itself. followed by deafening claps of thunder. the storms blow throug here fast. i like to think that san francisco has a relatively variable climate, but serious, within any given day here you can see:sun, fog, hail, snow,rain, thunder, lightning, or humidity. and when its beautiful weather, the entire city lights up with exuberant energy. i am head over heels for the spaniard's passion for everything-food, drink, life. its an easy lifestyle to fall in love with. when the sun is out i have to pinch myself but it's finally sunk in that i'm living here until april and its such an amazing feeling to learn a vast amount of new information everyday....in all, it was a very satisfying and awesome weekend and i am fully rested and prepared to start another week of stuffing my brain new crazy spanish grammar....oh yeah.