#10 - Cellophane Tape

I am determined (and praying hard) that  I will pass the DELE (the Spanish proficiency exam) in May (May 24 to be exact).  My life revolves around Spanish verb conjugations and periphrases (if you don't know what that is - don't worry - I didn't know the name for them either - but they are phrases that always go together and don't usually mean what they literally say).  The joke in the house is that I am wallpapering the kitchen with Spanish rules.  But the problem with wallpaper is that it is permanent - so today I am thankful for cellophane tape - tape that sticks, but isn't permanent.  It gives me hope that I won't be permanently studying all these finite details (just new ones).

(Sara and Joanne Wood - if you are reading this you would be proud) All around my kitchen are things I need to work on, and each time I come across something I should have already mastered, it gets added to the cabinets.

When I wash dishes I get to study verb conjugations - the names of the tenses and when each one is used.  The long paper on the left is the conjugation of haber - one day that conjugation is just going to flow from my head without thinking, including all the irregularities!  (Haber is to have and it is used in combination with lots of other verbs to say things like "I had gone to the store or I am having fun or .....) 

Every time I get coffee or tea I see Preterite vs Imperfect - oh my!  Someone just shoot me and explain to me why we need two past teneses - why can't we just say it has already happened.  But in Spanish you have a past tense for things completed and things that are habitually done/repeated, but in the past.  I finally get most of the conjugations, now to master when to use one tense or the other.  

And while I cook - I get to compare SER and ESTAR (yep, two verbs that mean to be but are used at different times) and when to use Subjuntivo (the hardest verb tense to master according to not only all the foreigners, but the Spaniards - used for things you hope for or wish for or desire or that aren't real).  And when I can take no more - directly over the stove are lots of Bible verses in Spanish.