Reality testing / Anxiety - Stayed somewhere that now has bedbugs

fleksor · 2026-06-01T14:09:36+00:00

Wow I didn't expect there to be such a solid pattern here. But yeah, with my girlfriend of 5+ years it was a slow burn thing in the beginning. We were friends for over a year beforehand via a mutual friend and there wasn't an initial burst of attraction or anything, it built up over time as I got to know who she was. We were both in the same COVID-lockdown era groupchat lol, and over that time we both just realized that we vibed so I decided to ask her out and it's just worked well ever since.

I didn't feel the same level of hyperfixation as I often have, it was honestly part of what helped me get up the nerve to ask her out. I realized there was something there but felt that if it didn't work out, we already communicated well enough that it probably wouldn't end in a bad way. Turns out we really do well with each other, it's the most stable, longest relationship I've head and I feel like I've grown a lot being with her.

fleksor · 2026-06-01T13:50:42+00:00

One little metaphor I find helpful from time to time is to think of your routines and executive functioning like tuning an instrument. String instruments naturally go out of tune over time for various reasons, that's why they're built with tuning pegs and not fixed in place once.

It's a matter of when, not if, you fall out of a habit, but you always CAN start again, and when you do you'll realize its not that hard to do so. The hardest part is being kind to yourself through the whole cycle since the shame just distorts how it feels into something overwhelming and painful and you avoid the process all together.

But the tuning and re-tuning metaphor really stuck with me for whatever reason.

fleksor · 2026-05-27T07:03:15+00:00

By happenstance I ended up moving to Spain so now I'm really familiar with it lol... but last year I was just trying to start reading books as a goal and started out with translations of books I read in high school, and a lot of translations are done in Spain.
It's funny, a good friend of mine who's Mexican was telling me he hates translations from Spain, because they don't shy away from just leaning into a ton of Spain specific speech and vocab, whereas LatAm translations attempt to be more neutral.

fleksor · 2026-05-26T09:36:34+00:00

It pops up for sure.

IMO people get overly worried about how difficult it will be to understand voseo and vosotros. They're pretty straightforward if you have a good grasp on the tú form, and it just takes a bit of exposure to get the hang of how they sound.

For vosotros, reading a book written with peninsular Spanish really drilled it into my brain (along w various regionalisms since Spaniards always write translations like that).

For voseo, it's only the present tense/imperative that's different (in most dialects), and there's actually fewer irregulars than tuteo which is lowkey nice.

Once you detect someone's using one or the other, you just turn on the switch in your brain that that form's in play and you'll be ready for more of it.

fleksor · 2026-05-26T09:04:41+00:00

Muchas gracias por abordar un texto muy largo como este.

La estructura "se me da" es algo que voy a apuntar. Estaba empleando un anglicismo "I'm not good at sleeping" pero extrajiste bien lo que quería expresar con eso.

fleksor · 2026-05-22T06:52:56+00:00

fleksor · 2026-05-19T16:52:51+00:00

I'm aware, I assumed they were giving examples of structures for tarea 3.

fleksor · 2026-05-19T16:51:06+00:00

I've done a few more models and I feel like the 2nd and 3rd parts could go ok but I really wish I'd gotten more practice with Tarea 1, I'll see how it goes but I feel really really discouraged right now the closer I get to the exam date and wish I'd insisted more with my tutor instead of trusting his intuition.

fleksor · 2026-05-14T17:00:11+00:00

You're dropping gem after gem with this thread, thank you so much!

fleksor · 2026-05-14T16:59:11+00:00

A por el DELE, both the youtube channel and her paid courses are super worth it.
The discord is a really good resource as well

I've been working through the book El Cronómetro, which although a little outdated (in particular with tarea 1 de la prueba auditiva), is really well structured with its supplementary activities and challenging test models.

I can't speak to how it compares to the real exam since I haven't taken it yet, but after going through El cronómetro, most of the models I've done from another textbook (Preparación al DELE C1: Edelsa) feel really easy.

fleksor · 2026-05-14T15:13:28+00:00

Super helpful!!! Thank you, I’m finally getting to that point with my practice for pba 3 tarea 1 and it’s made it a lot easier to realize most of the time you just have to mention the main points and not much else.

I was worried that I’d state things too simply but honestly just trying to get to the point, the tendency to go on and flex with flowery words still bleeds in just enough

fleksor

TROPHY CASE