Linguistic Hurricanes

So now I'm in Denmark again. On Monday it snowed in Madrid, and only half the students came to school. Well, probably less than half, and although they all live in the town where the school is, most did not come. Yet, somehow, I made it all the way from Madrid to school on time. So my classes consisted of me playing hangman, and sitting in the teachers room huddled around the radiator. It snowed 1 inch that day.

I arrived in Denmark yesterday afternoon, and it was snowing here too. On my flight all the announcements were made in this order: first Spanish, then English, then Danish-Swedish hybrid. It was very interesting. Then I took public transportation to Gentofte (where I'm staying with my host family), and the metro was stopped in one station for 45 minutes. I don't know why because the announcement was in Danish and I was listening to music (not that that made any difference). I finally arrived to the Refstrups' house, and it felt like I was home. It's so great to see them, and Johan hasn't left my side. I actually just kicked him out of my room because he was going through my suitcase. Some things never change.

What has changed, however, is my knowledge of Danish. Although it's coming back to me relatively quickly, I definitely don't know it like I used to. I can understand some of it, and if I think really hard, I can speak a little. Overall, it ends up coming out in Spanish. I literally feel as if my brain was hit by a linguistic hurricane. English I'm still pretty good at; Spanish is my go-to foreign language; Danish I understand when people speak it to me, but when I try to respond, it comes out in Spanish. It's going to be great going to France in 10-ish days, and trying to communicate in that one. God help me.

Countries visited/will visit between Dec 5 and Jan 5:

--Spain, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland (for a couple hours), France

Languages spoken in that same time period (some more than others, obviously):

--Spanish, English, Danish, Swedish, French, Italian

Despite the linguistic hurricane, I gotta say, "Life is good."

PS I'm stealing this link from my friend's blog, but I just wanted to share it here.

Things I wish I knew when I was 22