My attitude has always been to say Yes, no matter the circumstance, at least when diving head first into a new culture where a mastery of the language is not one of my fortes. Will I say it’s worked pretty well? Actually…yes, yes it has. Sure, there have been times when I might have agreed to do things without having an idea what that was, or some kids may have thought I was either their father or a soon to be father but for the most part I came out unscathed. In Costa Rica, I’ve come to realize that the strategy still works. Because of course it does. Of course it would. At the very least in romantic movies that follow this same premise the end result is always the same: the faking turns into something more real. I was pretending to like the girl, now I love her. It’s a cliche it’s so common. I think that’s what is happening here. Lo and behold, I may actually know a word or two of Spanish. Or at the very least I’ve gotten convincing enough that people are actually thinking I may not be a complete imbecile. It’s true, I do know some words and can use them to even formulate sentences from time to time but I wouldn’t call myself particularly proficient. Doesn’t matter. Improvement! I am basing all of this off the situation of my fellow volunteer though. A girl who like me didn’t come into a foreign speaking country with much knowledge of the foreign language of which they speak. I don’t blame her, I was her. The “Tia” may blame her though. I say that as a boy offered the equivalent to bread pudding while the girl was offering nothing. Actually, she did wash my dishes afterwards but that was only due to the fact that she was trying to butter up to the tia, not because she was commanded to. Still. It is her name that is called throughout the day while I go about my business without disturbance. Either because she is trying to instill the word of Spanish into this girl through repetition or well, I don’t even know why. I just know that it seems I almost get preferential treatment based off my limited, limited knowledge of espanol. Will I ride this as long as I can though? Of course I will. This girl is only here for two weeks. I can assure you that once she’s gone, the facade will be up and I’ll be ruined. Crap, I only have one more week with her. I’ll have to make the most of it. Or you know, actually improve my Spanish to a respectable level. But what’s the fun in that. I’ve been faking it for so long that I can’t quit now. Plus…there’s a small chance that this is actually rubbing off on me and I’m getting better. Let’s go with that attitude. I like that one. So it goes.