“Snowquestration” 2013

posted in: American Travel | 0
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A play on the words snow storm and sequestration? We are definitely living in D.C. Well, close enough that we are literally one metro stop away, anyway.

Sorry I’ve been MIA for much longer than I wanted to be. For some reason, time seems to pass by much faster here than in Dayton (gee, I wonder why? hehehe). Anyway, it seems hard to believe that we’ve already been here in Arlington for two weeks! It’s finally March as well, which means (or should mean) that spring is just around the corner and I couldn’t be happier about it. This cold weather is just ungodly. Today has been declared a snow day for much of Virginia, Maryland, and the D.C. area I believe. Yet, not even a single snowflake has fallen in our area. But whose complaining about that? Definitely not me.

Since the last post, Jaime and I visited the National Archives, home of American treasures such as the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Very exciting stuff, although I was surprised at how faded the documents were.

I also began Italian language classes last Friday! I was extremely excited about it…that is, until the end of the first day. Having Cuban parents, knowing how to speak Spanish since I can remember, and living in Miami for most of my life, I underestimated the difficulty of learning a new language (even Italian which is, after all, supposed to have 80% similarity to Spanish). I quickly figured out that while vocabulary is simple to understand and only moderately difficult to remember, but actually making sentences and conjugating verbs is hard!

On the first day I learned basics such as how to introduce myself, how to greet people, how to count, and how to talk about my family. The teacher made me describe every family member until halfway through I really just wanted to say I was an orphan and be done with the whole thing.

As of today, I have taken three classes in total and I’m still frustrated to the point of almost being in tears. I know I obviously can’t expect to understand and learn everything overnight, but I just feel like the class is getting more and more complicated and I can’t even understand the basics. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see and stop complaining so much about the whole thing.

Anyway, I shall go back to enjoying my day of being “snowquestered” inside and catch up on some studying (by which I really mean I’m probably going to catch up on Vampire Diaries) ;).

The National Archives
The National Archives
The Capitol
The Capitol Building with looming “Snowquestration” clouds in the background
The Capitol Building and the Reflecting Pool
Freezing my butt off!
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Blogger at My Napoleon Complex, wife, husky mom, and American Expat living in Rome, Italy.