A long race

Although Fluenz discourages going through multiple lessons in a day, I feel pretty comfortable that it is reasonable for me.  The material is essentially review.  My problem is that the words have been locked away for a long time, and I need practice.  In any case, I will only keep up a faster pace until I am up against truly new material or I just don't have time. 

I am lucky to have opportunities to speak Spanish daily with people at work.  I get to ask, "What do you think about saying something this way" to colleagues and I get a chance to try it out on patients.  Many of them look at me sideways.  I'm optimistic that I will be able to attain some level of proficiency but I am concerned that I will lose steam after a couple of months.  I know I learn intensely in bursts.  At the same time, I see learning Spanish as a need and I will be confronted with opportunities daily. 

Activities I have been intent on in the past but stopped include guitar, snowboarding, poker, eating salads, and working out (ha!).

Activities in which I have maintained long-term effort include studying anesthesia, being more punctual, cutting out coffee and softdrinks (for heartburn reasons), and taking maintenance meds.

I think having daily confrontation with the Spanish language will maintain my attention.
Will it be a challenge not to get overwhelmed and not to get bored.  We'll see.

The Google Translate tool: translate.google.com What an amazing tool!  It makes mistakes, but if you can bounce the statements off of people, you can learn a lot. 

Something I recently learned to say:  Mientras usted respira el medicamento, va a mantenar dormido.  Cuando voy a parar darle el medicamento, va a despertarse despues diez minutos.  (minus the accent marks).  That's my two liner for my description of general anesthesia, and now I can say it in Spanish.  The ir + a construction may not be as cool as the future tense conjugation, but it's easy to say it this way, and it will be understood.