On the linguistic front...

Hey everyone

So I am currently in Cordoba, Argentina. It´s the second largest city in Argentina (after Buenos Aires, of course), and it´s quite a nice place. There are seven universities in the city, so I could theoretically compare it to Boston, but there´s really no comparison. In contrast to Boston´s historic and orderly nature, Cordoba is a bustling city of parties and bars. After a fun weekend in the city, my friends and I decided yesterday that it was time to explore the surrounding area, since we heard that there were many nice little towns in this provence. So off to Villa Carlos Paz we went.

Villa Carlos Paz is a relatively small town and as far as I could tell, it´s not a tourist hot spot. Which was exactly what we were looking for. The attraction in this town is Lago San Roque, a nice lake. We planned to go sit next to the lake, but ended up sitting on a beach on the river that leads to the lake itself. It was great to be surrounded by local families instead of just tourists- it was like being on vacation from vacation for the day.

One of the people I went with is a lovely girl from Belgium who is in Argentina for a few months working. Why is she so interesting to me? Because she speaks French, English, and Spanish. And as a linguistics student, I have been having a ball observing her and her language habits. French is her mother tongue, she learned English in university, and until two months ago she didn´t speak a word of Spanish. But now not only is her Spanish pretty good, but her Spanish, her third language, has totally messed up her English, her second language. Her sentences are half and half (just as interesting to me is the fact that I have no trouble understanding her Spanglish, assuming that she doesn´t slip any French words in). I´m working on figuring out the patterns of which sorts of words she says in English and which come out in Spanish. I know that I´m supposed to be taking a break from college but I can´t help myself... I´m still a dork, even when I´m traveling far away from home.

As for my own language journey, I´ll write more about it soon because it´s also interesting (at least it is for me). In the meantime, I´m heading off to Buenos Aires tonight and that is where we´ll be for the beginning of Passover, which begins Wednesday night. So for all of you celebrating, chag kasher v´sameach. And wish me luck finding what to eat for a week here. And to my family, I love and miss you all very much and I hope you have a wonderful time together at the seders!