Que difícil es hablar el español

Today, Parkee (also an AFS student) showed me a song lyric, 'Que difícil es hablar el español' which literally means 'It Is Difficult To Speak Spanish'.

Spanish is, well, spoken in a lot of countries especially in the Latin America. So naturally, each country will eventually have their own 'version' of Spanish. For example, in Argentina we speak 'Castellano'. The double 'l' pronounced as j instead of y. It is kind of difficult for me at first since the one month I learnt Spanish two years ago, I learned Spain Spanish and it was pronounce as y. But now, if I try to pronounce it with a 'y' it will just sound funny and weird. And also, since there's so many slang, sometimes the word that may not cause harm in one country, can be quite insulting in other countries. Below is the video of the song. And also the lyric (but only the chorus since the Google translate version is just bull and my Spanish is crappy to even try to translate this all by my own)... I'll put the translation beside the sentence.

Qué difícil es hablar el español, (It is difficult to speak Spanish)
Porque todo lo que dices tiene otra definición, (Because everything you say means something else as well)
Que difícil entender el español, (It is difficult to understand Spanish)
Si lo aprendes no te muevas de región.(If you learned it, don't move from that region) *as different Spanish speaking countries have different slang of Spanish... So yeah... Stay where you learned the language!

I will try to translate all the lyric since it is quite long. Actually, it is one the longest lyric I've ever seen... The song itself is like 8 minutes. Totally defeated Bollywood songs! Once I get that done (hopefully) I will post it here.

So, today at school we did something called 'Bomba' which is a tradition for all the fifth year student whom will graduate this year. The girls gathered in this large circle and the guys will form a smaller circle in the middle. And then the guys will initiate a few shouts (I can't really remember what they shout actually) and the girls will shout after that. I'll post the video in the next pose. The video wasn't mine, by the way. I took it from Parkee.

I'll add pictures too in the next pose since internet connection is kinda slow now. So BYE!

XOXO mArIaNi

Pictures of February... and March.

Just pictures from the past month in this post.

My cellphone camera is the only camera I have right now so the quality

aren't that nice.

Top left: Carwen and me in front of the orientation camp, Top right: View from UP!

Bottom left: Only got the picture of the feet of the people who greeted us at

 Jujuy airport. (thanks to my dumb cellphone camera)

Bottom right: Ezeiza Airport, Buenos Aires!

Top left: Where I stand every morning, waiting for the bus to school.

Top right: My host sister recently signed up for golf course.

Bottom: THE RED SHOES (the only shoes I have, for now)

Left: Again, THE RED SHOES

Top right: A view of the Iglesia (church) from Professora Halabi's apartment.

Bottom right: ME

Top: Picture time!

Bottom: Cumbio POSE!

Top left: Rained for two days... I'm cold!

Top right: Mip acting cute >.<

Middle left: Quin's cold too. Meowwwwwwwwwwww~

Middle right: My birthday present from Marta!

Bottom left: My blurry birthday present from Marta!!

Bottom right: Escuela Normal, the school I go to.

Middle: Isn't she LOVELY?

Top left: Biscuits!!!!!! And some Dulce de Leche, pleaseeeeee!!!!!

Middle left: Pizza.... duh!

Bottom left: The largest bread I've ever seen.

Top right: Pool, Bottom right: Abigail and MIP! <3

XOXO MaRiAnI

A lunch invitation, and speaking Spanglish(?)

The first day of school, I was a bundle of nerves! I mean, it's like entering primary school for the first time, all over again! Why primary school? Because first, I know no one there. And second, I know nothing on how to communicate with them since they speak Spanish like a machine gun spitting bullets and I speak Spanish like a snail. Literally. So I kept close to my host father all the time... Turned out another AFS student from Thailand goes to the school I'm going. And he's in my class. So I was a bit relieved and plus my classmates are so friendly, I really don't know why I should be afraid of going to school. Dumb me... -_-

Before I went into the class for the first time, a teacher, we call them 'Professora' here warmly greeted me in perfect English, in fact she had this very pleasant accent, kind of like British accent, but not too thick. She asked me if I was from the Middle East or do I speak Arabic. I assumed she thought I was since I wear veils and I said to her no but I read Arabic, though I can't understand them. She smiled and said, it's a pity... Then I told her that I'm from Malaysia and blah blah blah, I can't really remember what I told her... Then she told my father that she wants to invite me to her house for lunch. And so I went to her house for lunch on Saturday.

Her house is in the middle of Jujuy city so my sister and I had to take a bus from Palpala to Jujuy. And I don't even remember the name of the Professora. I'm really bad in remembering names. But luckily we had her address and phone number. Finally we arrived at her house and then I can finally remember her name. Professora Ana Maria Halabi. Her grandparents were from the Middle East. No wonder she was so interested on whether I was from there or not. We talked and ate the 'empanadas arabes', 'empanadas de qeso', and 'empanadas de pollo'... Mmm mmm! ES MUY RICO! And since I said that I play a little guitar, her son, which is a musician (he plays jazz) took out his guitar and let me play with it for a while. We also talked about Malaysia since I brought along some postcards and when I showed her the Petronas Twin Towers' postcard, she said: 'The architecture of this building is from Tucuman, do you know that?' (Tucuman is a province in the North of Argentina). No, I never knew that. It's really weird to learn something about your country from a foreigner. But it's one of the thing that happens to me through my AFS journey since hosting the two German students. It makes me more appreciate my own country. And eager to learn more about the world.

Professora Halabi then told me and Abi, my sister, that she is retiring this year since she has been teaching for the past 50 years. 50 YEARS! I was like, are you kidding me? My mom wasn't even born when you started teaching. I think she is an amazing woman. To be able to teach for 50 years straight is not something easy. We talked some more while eating ice-cream and drinking coffee (Argentinian loves coffee). At about 4, we finally went home.

Spanglish. Well, that's basically the language that I've come to speak this past month. I try really hard to express myself in Spanish but at one point I'll be stuck and that's when I'll just mix my Spanish and English and Walaaah! We got a Spanglish!

I also went with my sister to her English institution and talked with the students there. The problem that the students have is that they can write in English very well but since they don't have any means to practice speaking their English, it's hard for them to communicate in English and that's a real pity since they had committed so much time to learn English but can't truly master the language. So the teacher always looks for any people who can speak English to practice with the students. And although I know my English is not even really good it's nice to know that I can help in some way. One of these days, I might follow the teacher to a school to help the students with their English.

Oh! And I also learned how to play pool. Although I can be considered the expert in 'Facebook Pool'. Jaja.

The weather has been terribly cold for autumn. My hands and feet are always cold. Well I am not exactly used to living in cold weather considering that Malaysia never goes down below 22 degrees celcius (except for in air-conditioned room and higher altitudes, of course). And I sneezes every five minutes. It is terrible. I just wish I'll adapt faster to this kind of weather...

The other day, we were watching White Chicks and there's a scene where Tyler Crews sang A Thousand Miles. It was pretty hilarious so I made a 9gag post out of it. Enjoy!

XOXO mArIaNi

It's morning when you say midnight

IT's been 13 days. I speak very little Spanish (though buying cookies at the shop next to my host mum's office is a piece of cake) and I think I've just gained a few (very few) extra clingy little demon that starts with the word 'F' that never fail to make you look and feel just BLURGHHH - FAT! Oh yes, I should start to decrease the amount of beef meat that I consume everyday. But it's so damn hard to refuse when your host grandma's cooking is just OH-SO-DELICIOUS!

Back to my daily routine, there's a few small changes since school has started. I'm not going to school yet though, for some minor problem which I believe will be solved once this week is over. For the rest of the week though, I'm just killing time by going online or accompanying my host mum to her office. She works as a journalist for the local newspaper which is El Tribuno De Jujuy and at night she's a radio announcer which is quite cool except for the fact that we have to always keep silent when she's on air since she does it at home. We have no certain rules on how many time we can go online so it's not a big deal that I am online all the time. But I know my role as a part of my host family and I help when I can. Which is mostly preparing the utensils for meal times, helping my host sister clean the dishes and when it's weekend, help in cleaning the house.

Last Saturday was my eighteenth birthday! Weehee! I had a really nice birthday this year compared to the last two years - which really was just birthday wishes from a few of my bestest friends (love you guys) and a present from my little sister (love you too!). We had a birthday party^^ And yes, I do have to admit that the kids who came to celebrate my birthday were a least 4 years younger than me but hey! Who says you'll miss all the fun hanging out with kids? They are just as fun. If not a bit louder...

I'm really glad that I was so persistent on bringing those chili sauce I've collected back home courtesy to McD. The nice people I live with in Argentina NEVER eat chilies. Alright, that might be a little bit exaggerated. They do eat them, but it's either pickled (it was on my slice of pizza when I went out with Abby (my host sister) and her friends last week, or they don't really taste like chili. At least my tongue don't think they do. It's not as spicy as it is back home.

The dogs here still scares the hell out of me. Last night when I was accompanying my host father and sister to buy something, this really HUGEEEEE dog - I am NOT exaggerating, came and sniffed my trousers. I was freaked out! Luckily, my host sister was there to protect me! Protect! What a word to describe it. Well, she just basically shooed the dog away. But that dog was really huge, my host sister jokingly said it's a werewolf. Shudders. I'll post the picture of that dog soon if I have enough courage to take it.

Alright... I think I rambled enough to compete with a sulking grandmama that I feel the need to must end this now. By the way, I HATE SCIENCE SUBJECT. PHYSICS, CHEMISTRY, BIOLOGY... DOESN'T MATTER IF THEY HAD PROVIDED ME WITH WARMTH AND ENERGY FOR THE PAST EIGHTEEN YEARS OF MY LIFE. I STILL DESPISE THEM!

Chao chao! ;)
XOXO MaRiAnI

videos are here

These are some of the videos I took...

Enjoy!
XOXO mArIaNi

This I do...

Well, tomorrow school is starting so I probably would have less time to play around and update my blog... We had to go to Jujuy city today to buy my uniform and stuffs for school... The uniform is just a shirt which you can wear with jeans and black shoes. It's different according to school and my school uses a white and red shirt.

I started Spanish lesson yesterday!!! YEAY! Although we were mostly just talking about stuffs... We haven't go into serious mode yet... It's just about basic things in daily life like stationary, things you can find in home, etc.

Anyway, I posted pictures before this post.... Guess it will give you guys idea about what I'm exactly doing here in Argentina.

LISTEN TO ME

XOXO MaRiAnI

It's image time!!!

I Love THIS QUIN!!!!

^oh YEAH!!! I'm learning how to ride this^^

We use this in school instead of loads of exercise books...

Escuchame

XOXO mArIaNi