It's independence day in Costa Rica (I love the google logos), and in the central plaza of San Joaquin a parade was held this morning. It was fun watching everyone display red, white, and blue on this day of patriotism. I saw Ingrid, Jose Mario, Luis, Oscar, Stephen, and Iliana, all of whom I met in my dance class, or through people I met in my dance class. I've finally made some good friends and am definitely going to miss this place when I leave. =(

After Gustav in LA and Hanna on the east coast, Ike hit TX this weekend. It's shaping up to be another busy hurricane season similar to 2005. It's actually been quite an eventful year so far. Hurricanes, the olympics, the presidential elections. My life has also been churned up with Motorola, the car accident, and Costa Rica. Also, my friends and family are having life-changing events: Byron and Shea are getting married next month, Nitin and Carolina in December; Stephen and Jackie got married this summer, along with Charbel and Katia. Elliott Arant was born, along with Holly's son, Rowan. Allison is now pregnant and Dan is making a great recovery from cancer. Andy is also in recovery after a freak accident which broke both his legs. Many of my friends from Motorola are working for different companies or living in a new city, or both. Thus, it's been an eventful year, and there's 4 months more to go. =)

Just for fun, and something I didn't realize prior to learning Spanish, is the amount of verb conjugations that exist in other languages. Just for example, let's take the infinitive of the verb "comer" which means "to eat". Instead of "I eat, you eat, etc." each verb is conjugated depending on the pronoun. Spanish differentiates "you" singular and "you" plural, along with formal and informal versions of each. Therefore,

yo como		I eat
tu comes		you (informal) eat
usted come		you (formal) eat
el come		he/it eats
ella come		she eats
nosotros comemos		we eat
ustedes comen		you (plural, formal) eat
vosotros comeis		you (plural, informal) eat
ellos comen		they (masculine) eat
ellas comen		they (feminine) eat

To simplify things, I have omitted the "you" plural infomal (vosotros) forms of verb conjugation and have combined usted, el, ella along with ustedes, ellos, and ellas since these have the same conjugation. Now to account for all the different verb tenses:

pronoun

present

preterit

imperfect

present progressive

yo/I

como

eat

comí

ate

comía

was eating

estoy comiendo

am eating

tu/you

comes

eat

comiste

ate

comías

were eating

estás comiendo

are eating

el/he

come

eats

comió

ate

comiá

was eating

está comiendo

is eating

nosotros/we

comemos

eat

comimos

ate

comíamos

were eating

estamos comiendo

are eating

ellos/they

comen

eat

comieron

ate

comían

were eating

están comiendo

are eating

pronoun		perfect			pluperfect
yo/I		he comido	have eaten		había comido	had eaten
tu/you		has comido	have eaten		habías comido	had eaten
el/he		ha comido	has eaten		había comido	had eaten
nosotros/we		hemos comido	have eaten		habíamos comido	had eaten
ellos/they		han comido	have eaten		habían comido	had eaten

pronoun		future			conditional			imperative
yo/I		comeré	will eat		comería	would eat		n/a	n/a
tu/you		comerás	will eat		comerías	would eat		¡come!	eat!
el/he		comerá	will eat		comería	would eat		¡coma!	eat!
nosotros/we		comeremos	will eat		comeríamos	would eat		n/a	n/a
ellos/they		comerán	will eat		comerían	would eat		¡coman!	eat!

pronoun		pres subj		imp subj		perfect subj		pluperfect subj
yo/I		coma		comiera		haya comido		hubiera comido
tu/you		comas		comieras		hayas comido		hubieras comido
el/he		coma		comiera		haya comido		hubiera comido
nosotros/we		comamos		comiéramos		hayamos comido		hubiéramos comido
ellos/they		coman		comieran		hayan comido		hubieran comido

This verb is a regular conjugation; there are hundreds of irregular verbs that conjugate according to different rules. It's crazy. However, the advantage of having conjugations for each pronoun, is that the pronoun can be omitted. Also, I left out the English translation for the subjunctive conjugations because the subjunctive case requires more explanation as it does not have a one-to-one translation to English, thus, it can be a topic for another day. For that matter, the preterit and imperfect don't have a one-to-one translation either, but the above translation is, more or less, acceptable. Overall, my lack of learning a foreign language (German) in highschool has been remedied. I still have much to improve on my Spanish, my reading comprehension is much better than my listening comprehension, so now I just need more time. I've had hours long conversations in Spanish and can hold up o.k. It all depends on the person I'm talking to, how well they pronounce words, and how patient they are with my Spanish. It's been fun! I now need to somehow maintain my Spanish when I return to the U.S. =)