Beginning to settle

Some new words learned today….

Patada (kick), abrochar (fasten),desabrochar (unfasten), cuchara (spoon), tenedor (fork), cuchillo (knife) food (comida).

Things have felt a little better today, learning some more Spanish and even attended a Spanish class this evening (run for the clients by the psychologist) however she kindly said I could join in….!! We learned all about cities in Spanish – not going to get me very far at work but will come in useful elsewhere when hopefully I venture out..!! Oh and have discovered I can use the gym in the basement if I want to before or after work

I did find that my poor Spanish vocabulary was used today when doing a memory activity with clients with dementia by only choosing pictures that I knew the Spanish words for.. e.g. House = Casa..!!!

At the moment we are preparing for a carnival party next Friday, however I am struggling to find out the reason for the carnival. All I keep being told is it's a big event in other regions of Spain (but not the Costa del Sol) – I think some internet surfing to find out more is in order..!

Anyway, so today for instance we were preparing masks in art group and I was helping an English client make a cow (vaca) from a sheet and a bin liner – you can use your imagination!! We even taught my supervisor a new word when trying to describe the black shapes on the cow – calling them "splodges" …!

I have been given some assessments/scales although they are in Spanish and so I am doing my best to translate them to understand! Some things are the same or similar but much of it I am having to resort to my limited Spanish vocab although it is easier to read it than understand the very fast speech of the staff and Spanish clients – I need to learn the word for slower....!

I am looking forward to tomorrow as we have a cooking class and we will be making traditional Spanish sweets for carnivals called "Flores de Carnival" (flowers of the carnival) I have read the recipe in Spanish (I am very slow!) and we use a special tool which looks a bit like a branding iron but with a flower shaped mould on the end…. Can't wait to see, make and of course taste them!