Update!

Wow, the start of the school year was pretty darn crazy. I am now officially a Spanish instructor and let me tell you, it's a lot of work! But it's also been fun. We design our curriculum around communicative activities, which means getting the students to talk in groups, in front of the classroom, or just respond to my questions. The game of "Family Feud" last week was particularly successful. Once you tell the students to create team names, they all of a sudden become emotionally attached to their team and will do anything to win. And as long as they're learning Spanish in the process, everyone wins in my book.

When I'm not teaching, planning for class, or grading, I'm working on my grad classes (oh yea, that's why I'm in grad school!). I absolutely LOVE the second language class I'm in. We look at how instruction can help (or in some cases) hurt acquisition. Really interesting stuff. And to top it off, Dr. VanPatten is a wonderful professor. My second class is a Spanish literature class. It's a good class, but I think I am finally literature-d out. I find my true interest in the Applied Linguistics classes I take, but the literature course is a good way for me to brush up on my Spanish. Lastly, I have my thesis course. I already proposed an idea for what experiment I would like to conduct for that. Dr. Farley seemed pleased with the idea, so things are looking good in that regard.

This past weekend I went to my first academic conference. And I went to my first big Texas city outside of Lubbock - San Antonio! What a beautiful place. It has a really relaxed feel to it that is so welcoming. The conference was really interesting and I got to talk with other teachers in my field, which was a good learning experience. San Antonio was great with the Alamo and the Riverwalk. I'd love to go back to explore it even more.

The Angels clinched the division yesterday. They're looking good (though they're currently losing to the Rangers...), so hopefully they'll make a strong run in the playoffs. How I (and my family!) would love that.

To finish, a shout out to my sisters who are both loyal blog readers. Love you! (or should I say "Love y'all" in typical Texas fashion?).

Paz.