I just recently started thinking in Spanish again.  That is, I will put the thoughts from the inner conversation I have running in my head into Spanish.  Just because.  I like playing this game where I ease-drop on people speaking Spanish on the streets or in the markets, linger a bit more slowly in the range of their conversation (discretely, of course) to test if I can understand what they are talking about and how quickly I can do it, maybe even guess which country they are from.  It’s a nice pick-me-up.

Friday, I ran into a guy from the lab who’s from Columbia and, instead of chatting in English, we reverted to Spanish.  I was definitely a bit rusty.  (He admitted to it, too, after living in an English-speaking country for so long.)  But, boy, do I miss Spanish.  I miss reading the labels and signs in Spain (or even in the US), hearing it all around me and being pleasantly surprised and proud when I could figure out what was going on.  Speaking is what I miss most.  That constant struggle for the word, pronunciation, correct grammatical structure–all while trying to keep your cool and enjoy the flow of the exotic, foreign words coming out of your mouth.  It’s about optimizing the skills and tools you have on-the-fly in order to achieve some pre-determined goal (i.e., having a conversation).  This is exactly the challenge I love about research, engineering, even cooking, though I never thought of it that way.  Apparently my brain is craving some mental stimulation.  Speaking “Canadian” English certainly doesn’t afford to these same types of mental exercises, but I do like the surprise little chuckles I get when I hear a different pronunciation or word choice than I am used to.