Week Ahead & A Realization

Them red lines be my travel plans

I'm flying from Buenos Aires to Montevideo tomorrow afternoon. We'll be having a journalism expedition for the rest of the week- touring a newspaper, radio and television stations. After Friday morning we are free to travel for the weekend, so I booked a Hostel in Punto del Este. So far, we don't have plans for Friday/Saturday, but I'm sure I'll find something awesome to do.

The last time I showed up to a random hostel and asked what to do at the front desk, I was advised to take a 20 minute walk to Tres Fronteras (the border of Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina) which was a cool place to be. I'm feeling good about the coming week. There has been a lack of photo-taking on my part lately; I'm glad to know that this will not be the case for these next few posts. 

I also had a very slight revelation this afternoon, again, of course, about the Spanish language. I was picking up my laundry from the tintorería and chatting with the woman who always works there. 

She remarked, "¿Hace frio, no? ¿Porque no tenés un abrigo?" (Isn't it cold out? Why don't you have a coat on?)

I said, "Pues, yo soy de Chicago, éste no es tan frio." (Well, I'm from Chicago, this isn't really that cold.)

As I was walking out, I was thinking about how the use of yo was unnecessary. In Spanish, the verbs contain the information about who is doing the action. What I essentially said was, "I am from Chicago," which seems unnatural when spoken. Whereas saying "Soy de Chicago" is similar to the more natural contraction, "I'm from Chicago."

The cool thing is that Spanish has the ability to always use this pattern. I'm is one word that contains subject and verb- I am. Every single verb in Spanish has this information - beben (they drink), subieron el collectivo (they boarded the bus), diseñamos (we design). 

In thinking about this contraction comparison, it's easier to see why I don't ever need to add the subject before a verb I'm using. Of course, there are certain times when it's useful for emphasis, but the majority of the time, the information is redundant. It's not a huge break through or anything, but something of an interesting comparison.