Weekend Spanish

When we were in Ecuador, Joe, Jesse's ceramic professor, spoke Spanish fairly well for a boy from Kentucky. He was able to converse easily with the locals. Maybe it was that he was a fun, easy going sort of guy that everyone liked that helped him to get along so well. He was the sort to tell funny stories and jokes and keep everyone laughing. Toby, Jesse, and I had listened to the first set of Pimsleur's Spanish language program.  It helped. We were able to understand and speak a little, but we were no where near where we needed to be to converse like Joe.  At some point in the trip, Joe told us how he had also listened to a Spanish language program. We all laughed at some of the things you learn to say while listening to the CDs. One of the first things we learned that I thought was rather silly was, "Soy de Chicago."  They made us say "Chicago" with a Spanish accent over and over. Now why would I need to say I was from Chicago or even talk to someone about Chicago?  Joe told us that he remembered learning to say, "I hunt lions and tigers and other animals in Africa." And where would he ever use that? But he said now and then when conversation lulls, he throws it in as a conversion filler. We all had a big laugh at that.

Yesterday while driving to WF, Toby and I were listening to our Spanish CDs.  One of the things we learned to say was, "donde esta la officina para aquiler de coches" or "where is the office to rent a car." When we finished the lesson, Toby said that we needed to go somewhere where we could practice what we have learned. I agreed. We need to go somewhere where we can say we need to rent a car, and we can go hunt lions and tigers and other animals in Africa.

On the return trip from WF, we learned to say, "Quiero pedir vino tinto de Chile." or "I want to order red wine from Chile." Now this could come in handy when spending time with our friends Gene and Jo who lived in South America.  Gene loves his red wine from Chili.  Although, I would probably say, "Una cerveza porfavor."  By the way, I had to use Google translate to write out what I learned in Spanish since my spelling is so bad. The Pimsleur Program encourages you to say the words over and over, but does not necessarily want you look the words up or write them out. Being a "sight" person, I need to see the words written out sometimes.

While in WF on Saturday, we visited our mothers. Mine was doing well, but Toby's was not doing well. Such is life right now.

Sunday the we had Bo and Sara and the GGs and GB. Lindz and Shay came too. It was a full house and lots of fun. I will post some pics of the GKs (grand-kids) soon.