most frustrating

While it would seem like the most frustrating thing about living in a foreign country would be speaking the language, for me it's getting to speak THEIR language. The minute I say "Soy de Los Estados Unidos" (I'm from the United States), the majority of people automatically switch over to English. Everyone wants to practice their English with me, and A LOT of people can speak it. I completely understand where they're coming from. To be honest if there was a foreign exchange student from Spain or Latin America in the US, I would want to speak spanish with them. I don't even mind when friends ask me questions here and there, or helping with English homework. I actually really enjoy helping people, but when people try to have full conversations with me it bothers me. I always talk back in Spanish, but people still talk to me in English. It gets annoying because I speak English every day of my life in the United States, and I didn't sign up for this program to speak more English. I don't think that's too crazy of a request. Sometimes I'm tempted to be like "I'm from a small town in africa and I speak my tribes special language," but I highly doubt anyone would believe that...especially with my thick North American accent. There's an exchange student from Japan here, and she doesn't speak English. I'm ridiculously jealous of her because everyone HAS to speak with her in Spanish. Of all the things that have changed and all the frustrations that I've had over the past 3 months, getting people to speak Spanish with me is sometimes the hardest thing to do.

I seriously need this shirt!