Español - me encanta mucho?

Spanish... Oh, I have so many comments about Spanish and my studies!

1. First of all, my Spanish did not improve significantly while traveling in S. America. I understand more now, but I do not speak any better. Why? Because I did not really speak much to locals, it just did not happen for me. I spent most of the time with fellow travellers whose first language was predominately English. Why travellers do not speak with locals in Ecuador, Peru or Bolivia, it is a completely different topic. So for three months I was using my basic Spanish to answer where I was from, buy a bus ticket, ask for directions, negotiate prices and order food. Nada más.

2. I first heard Spanish in Spain. And I loved how they pronounced certain soft sounds. When I got to Mexico I was told "to loose" my soft "c" in gracias. After three months in South America, soft "c" and other similar sounds sound funny to me! It is incredible given that Bar[th]elona was the reason I started my studies.

3. No news to people who know me personally, but I realized I am impatient with my Spanish! I want to speak not translate. I am OK with the accent, but I don´t want to speak English in my Spanish bad interpretation! I am being ridiculous! I calculated I only studied Spanish for 92 hours in my life! How many hours did I spend studying English? Years and years, not to mention 4.5 years living in the US. So I took a placement test yesterday and I am in level Intermediate 2 (the 4th level out of 8). If for some students in my class subjunctive tense is repetition, it is news to me. Also I have to study by myself passive voice as it was part of Intermediate 1. I also studied simple past by myself because I missed it in Oaxaca, Mexico. I am trying to convince myself here that I have no reason to be impatient and upset with myself.

4. What else did I realize yesterday in the class besides that I am confusing all the endings and accents (á, é...) (at first I thought accents are for decorative purposes only, how wrong I was!). I realized I am lazy!! Yeah, I would have been perfectly happy to slack off for a month in BA. Why did I decide to study? Now I have to do homework and systemize all the tenses and conjugations I learned in the past. I only paid for a week of schooling, so maybe I will take vacation during my vacation?

5. Spanish is hard. If I knew there were 17 commonly used tenses (in different modes) I would have never picked up that book in the first place! And then different endings, irregular verbs that become regular in some tenses and regular verbs that change to being irregular. Ah, ah and on top of that all Spanish-speaking countries have particularities. If only pronunciation would be different. For example, in Argentina they say "vos", not tú for you, and verbs are conjugated slightly differently. Then the use of words is different. Name of fruits changes differently, verbs are used differently... My basic "I take pictures" has at least three version I know of. Yes, I am complaining, it is my hobby just as taking pictures.

Leaving for classes...