Here we go! I have officially started working on my PIRE fellowship this week and excited is a bit of an understatement. Right now, the thing I am most focused on is staying organized. With all the data I expect to start collecting soon, I have been making and combining spreadsheet after spreadsheet in preparation. I’m hoping that by being organized now, it will make everything easier when it starts getting busy and hectic.

I had the opportunity today to run a practice session with 2 members of my lab who speak both English and Spanish. This session was so helpful because it really made me realize I have to practice confidence in my Spanish. I cannot expect to feel confident in my abilities if I continue to second guess myself, so this is something I hope to work on during this summer. While listening to the conversations between participants, I can understand just about everything they were saying, I just have a hard time keeping all the tenses and conjugations correct. I realized today that I default to the el/ella form, which is interesting (and I am hoping to work on). I plan on reviewing lots of verb conjugation worksheets and watching TV/movies in Spanish!

Overall, I would say that this week has been successful in setting me up for success. It wasn’t easy, and I do not see it getting any easier from here, but I signed up for a summer full of learning and pushing myself out of my comfort zone. I cannot wait to see what next week brings.

Words of the week: Organization, Confidence, Vosotros