Small Talking

Yesterday, after being in Xela two weeks, I finally got around to paying a visit to the family that Chris and I lived with for six weeks as well as the school that we attended the last time we were here. I have been dreading it in no small way but everytime I speak to Chris he harrasses me (just a little) to the point that I knew I couldn´t put it off any longer. Plus the I'm sick excuse was become overused, even to myself. So in keeping with my new year's resolution that I am going to stop avoiding situations that make me uncomfortable I headed out, braced to make some small talk with people I hadn't been in touch with for over a year.

I am not sure why I was so reluctant to make these visits. I suppose a part of me was worried they wouldn't remember me (very akward). I know a big part was worried that I wouldn't be able to understand what they said to me (a little less akward). But really it is just that I hate that small talk conversation that never amounts to anything of much substance.

Anyone who knows me has heard me rant about how much I hate small talk. I hate the akwardness. I hate the raking my brain for what to say next. Now multiple this by about a gizillion and you can begin to imagine how much I hate small talk in spanish. There is still a limited breadth to how I can phrase things in Spanish when trying to hold a conversation that flows faster than a tortoise pace.

But in the end, after all that worry, it all went okay. As I mentioned in a previous post, Guatemaltecans are an extremely gratious and friendly people. Sheny, my former homestay mother, just kept repeating how happy it made her that that I had come to visit. She even invited me back next week for a very special lunch with the entire family.

Things were much the same at the school. Though perhaps made a little testy by the fact that I opted to study at another school. (Well really only the directora seemed to care about that) The teachers greeted me with many hugs and questions about my life in Australia and Chris. My head was spinning trying to get my spanish words out fast enough to answer their inquiries.

Funny how two situations that I was dreading turned out to be absolutely heart warming.