Engrish

Never again will I complain about classes in English.

Actually, that's probably a lie... but at least I will complain with added perspective.

Class is SO much harder in Portuguese.  Why, you ask?

Here, let me tell you:

• Classes go FOREVER.  Instead of having classes multiple times a week, most of them just meet once for several hours.  So all my classes are for 2-3 hours.  The worst is my class that meets every Friday night from 6-9:40pm.  Gross.
• It's hard to pay attention.  Even in English it gets hard to focus sometimes in class, but when it takes twice as much concentration as usual to be able to learn anything from class, it gets even harder.
• I sit in constant fear of being called in.  Ok, that's a big of an exaggeration, but not too much.  I'm getting to the point where I understand a lot more of my classes, but still not quite enough to feel confident commenting or answering questions.  Usually the teachers mostly ignore me, but sometimes they pose a question to the class, and my heart beats so fast when they look at me, because I know if they really do call on me, it probably won't go well...
• It stinks being a foreigner in school.  I've lived in Tonga and China, but for some reason I feel a lot more labeled as a foreigner or "estrangeira"in my classes.  
• My Portuguese class is ridiculously easy.  Which is good when I tell myself that it's easy because I'm so smart/naturally gifted at Portuguese...but less good when I remember that I really need to learn Portuguese, so if that class isn't teaching me anything, what's the point? 

But there are a lot of good things, too.

• Lots of nice teachers.  I love not having really intimidating professors.  So far, I feel like I can approach all my teachers with questions (as long as I already figured out how to say it).
• Days when I understand!  I understand way more of my classes than I thought I would.  Some days are still hard, but sometimes I walk out of class and just want to tell everybody, "guess what?  I understood most of that discussion!"
• Friends.  Lisa and Kaitlyn, the other two girls from BYU, are fantastic.  Lisa lives in another apartment, but probably spends more time at our apartment than hers.  They're both better at Portuguese (Lisa served her mission here, and Kaitlyn served in Honduras, so she's picking up the Portuguese a lot faster with her Spanish), and they're super helpful.  Sometimes we feel like missionaries.  It's fantastic.
• This list is a lot shorter than the other, for some reason.  Really, there is a lot more good stuff than bad/frustrating!

And best of all:

• IT'S GETTING BETTER.  It wasn't ever bad to begin with, but sometimes it was a little discouraging.  But every day is a little better than the last.  I already love it so much here, and the next few months are going to fly past way too quickly.
  

Life is good.  So very good.  :)