I'm understanding more and more at church, in overheard conversations on the bus, and in texts with friends and my landlords. But there are always setbacks. The other day I went out for lunch with some friends at a fast food type of restaurant. I ordered everything in Bulgarian, responded to some questions about my order and then was stumped by the last question I was asked--what's your name? Y'all, that's one of the first things I leaned. I had to ask him to repeat the question. Twice.
So far most of my lessons (3 hours each!) are enjoyable. My teacher and I are both a little nerdy about words and language usage, so sometimes we follow rabbit trails that relate more to interesting features of the language more than actual language learning. I keep thinking, Oh, I want to write a blog post about that," only to leave my lesson exhausted. A friend of mine told me that when you learn another language you need an extra hour of sleep every night. I think she makes a compelling argument, especially when I'm not really sure if I just said something in English, Bulgarian, or a weird mix including a random Spanish or Czech word!