A Kid Named Alfredo

So I've been in cuarto for nearly 2 weeks, and it's gotten better.  Although it's hard to be away from my best friend Emilie from Denmark (she remained in quinto) and my closest peruvian friend Chachi (also in quinto), I have to admit that the kids in cuarto actually talk to me more than most in quinto ever did.  And although the class is almost completely boys (I believe it's 17 boys, 4 girls) it's actually not too weird.  They all admire my drawings, and are always willing to help me with my spanish and explain anything I don't understand.  They have also been teaching me lots of jerga (slang) but a lot of it seems....how do I put this.....obscure? questionable?  Unofficial?  I think a lot of it is just what they say amongst themselves.  Like we were in communication class (like spanish class=the equivalent of our english class) and one boy said "don't let the teacher see that" because I had been writing down the words that they taught me, and I said "why?" and he said "she'll get mad if she sees we've been teaching you that, because she doesn't think it's real spanish".  And I understood what he meant, it's like using bad grammar/nonsense words in front of a literature professor or something (like waddup homie, shizzle wuts crackin dawg (lmao I don't even know what I'm saying anymore)).  It's not that they're teaching me bad words, it's just that, well, it's jerga.  It's slang, it's basically made-up, but it's understood within a certain crowd.  Does that make sense?  I hope that was somewhat coherent.

Here's some of the things they taught me.  They are all very happy when I actually say these things in the right context (and they laugh because, well, it is amusing, and I don't get offended when they laugh, I get it)

* Also, like I said, all of this is pretty questionable so typing it into a translator won't help you in the slightest!

Causa (cow-sah) = :friend
Habla causa (ah-blah cow-sah) = it's like a greeting, how you would greet a good friend, it basically translates to "speak friend"
Ya pe (yah pay) = this one is super obscure...I'm still not even sure what it really means haha... they explained to me that it's like, for example, if a friend is eating cookies, and you want them to give you a cookie, you would go up and be like "invitame una, ya pe" which is basically like saying "give me one/can I have one" so ya pe= something along the lines of please/begging hahaha from what I understood...I'll ask for a more concrete definition on that tomorrow but I doubt I'll get one haha
Tabas (tah-bahs) = shoes.  sneakers.  When they taught me this one, they had me go around to random people in the school saying "que cheveres son tus tabas" = "How cool are your shoes" = "Your shoes are cool"
Jato (hah-tah) = house
Jatear (hah-tay-ahr) = to sleep

So that's some more jerga.  Also, if you're wondering why the name of this blog post is called "A Kid Named Alfredo" it is because in my class, there is a kid..........named Alfredo.   Yes, you read that right.   His name is ALFREDO.  I'll put that again..................................Alfredo.  OMGGGGG isn't that just hilarious/great/unbelievable?  After I mentioned to some classmates that I thought it was funny that his name was Alfredo, a kid named Diego asked me if I thought his name was funny, and I explained to him that yes, his name is funny because of the whole Dora connection.  

 Oh and one last thing, I received a package yesterday!  Well, we picked up my package yesterday.  I won't tell the whole story because it is exhausting/confusing/long, but basically getting my package was a nightmare.  A slight error in the addressing of the package led to nearly 6 hours of filling out forms/scanning and copying documents/going to a notary/getting told we needed to fill out different forms than the ones we had already filled out/going back and forth from the post office/me screaming a little bit/me missing school because it took all day/finally getting my package the next day.  WHEW.   So, for those reading this, if anyone is ever considering sending me a package, PLEASE CONTACT ME FIRST so I can explain how it should be addressed.  because it was super confusing and I don't want to go through that nightmare again ahahaha. 

Peace out
-Ginger