Operation: Start Speaking Spanish

So this weekend made me realize that I've been here for nearly two weeks, and eventually, I'll have to stop using the "I just got here" excuse for not speaking Spanish. As some of you might know, I hate being bad at things.  So much so, that I just don't do them if I have a choice.  But with Spanish here, I don't really have that choice.  I just have to be a grown up and ... Start Speaking Spanish.

I know more Spanish than I give myself credit for, I think.  I was just going through all my notes from my Spanish teacher last year, as well as some worksheets and books I have, and I'm starting to realize that I probably can hold my own in conversation.  But I need some more work.  Starting this week at work, I think I get to start Spanish classes 4 days a week for an hour a day.  I'm also going to try to watch an hour of Spanish TV a day + listen to Spanish podcasts/radio at least once a day.  There's no reason I can't listen to a podcast while I'm cooking or cleaning.  Then I need to work on grammar and vocabulary.  Unfortunately, I had to leave many of my grammar/vocab books at home, but so much is available online.

I'm trying to put this out there publicly, so in a month, you can all ask me how it's going.  In a month, I want to be much more confident about speaking Spanish in shops and around town.  In six weeks, I want to be more confident speaking to people I meet (and the Spanish speakers at work) in regular conversations.  So, those are my two goals now!  Hopefully, I can meet them.

In non-Spanish news, I'm also working on improving my knitting and crocheting skills while I'm here, so I may update every so often about projects I'm working on.