If you have been following my quest from the beginning, you will know that just a few days into my challenge I had to go to Amsterdam on business which created a bit of a challenge for me. Well today was another one of those days when I had to get on a very early flight from London to Amsterdam (which meant an even earlier start so I could get to the airport on time).

As I mentioned then, life will get in the way of you trying to learn Spanish and today was no exception for me. However, I was probably able to get more Spanish done today than I usually do. What with the drive to the airport (3 hours round trip - podcast time), an hour waiting for the flight (flash card time), the flight itself (had to use this to prepare for my meeting), the train from Schipol airport to the Hague (1 hour round trip - more flash card time), another wait at the airport for the return flight (out come the flash cards) and then the return flight (too tired to do anything too mentally taxing!).

Now I am not sure whether it is because I am super keen (I am sure that will have an impact) or because I was away from the normal distractions of the office and home, or because I had quite a bit of deadtime that I got so much done. I suspect it was a blend of all three but it was interesting to notice that when I get away from my usual surroundings, I do tend to be far more productive.

So where do you learn your Spanish? If it is at home or in your office, try getting out of those familiar surroundings and take yourself off somewhere different. I can remember on day 1 of this challenge to learn as much Spanish as I can in 33 days (only using free stuff from the internet) spending a few hours in the local Starbucks and getting quite focussed on my learning.

Anyway back to my day today. When I was at the airport waiting to catch the return flight, I got chatting to a German lady. The conversation was initiated because whilst we were waiting to be screened before departure, Iris turned up and her first action on reaching the end of the queue where I was standing was to chomp her way through an enormous bar of chocolate! Well we got chatting and coincidentally she worked for my client’s company (small world) and I discovered she spoke Spanish (these people just keep appearing to help me get better!).

She let me practice some Spanish with her and my confidence in my abilities grew because she was very complimentary about my pronunciation and grammar (thanks Coffee Break Spanish and Finally Learn Spanish). We parted as we were getting on the plane and then I found myself chatting to another passenger who was a trainer/salesman for Rosetta Stone - the language training people - who that day had been demonstrating his product (the Spanish version!) to one of his clients!

To quote my girlfriend - "that’s uncanny". Maybe the universe is on my side today because I also found a 5 Euro note on a busy platform at Haag Central Station! Now I did want to share with you a distinction I made about some grammar today but it seems a little out of place after my cosmic assistance revelations!

Maybe I will tell you tomorrow.