Don't get discouraged if you think you speak a good spanish only to go on vacation to, lets say, Mexico to learn that you cant understand a word they're saying. There are significant differences between countries to make an indigenous speakers dizzy. I still remember the first time I spoke with a chilean, and an argentinian! jeez! they have funny words. <g>

The best time I've had (speaking spanish) was when I went to a meeting in Argentina, and was on a table with at least one person from the following countries: Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela, and,,, another country. We were laughing our heads off trying to describe things we saw.