Wednesday, September 26, 2007

you speaka de ingles?

dinner at my house usually consists of us eating in silence while maría luisa talks to the tv and then looks at us expectantly. at which point, we make the appropriate nod or "i know. i can´t believe it either" face. occasionally, she talks to us at length, but is very hard to understand so we never really know what´s going on.

the other night, we were peacefully enjoying the awesome tortilla de españa that i´ve grown to love (and will make for everyone when i return), when maría luisa starts talking to us. she started out slowly, so i was able to catch "two men....known a long time...very nice...english....pay." then she got fast so i just kept nodding and smiling because we were in "what the heck is going on?" territory. when we left the table, i asked my roommate if she got any of it, and we came up with something like this: maría luisa and miguel have two old man friends who might be lawyers and want to speak english. and we´d practice our spanish with them. but we have to pay. and i think we agreed to do it already. crap.

the next day, miguel approached me with the same proposition. however, he is much easier to understand to i was able to get this: "two men...i work out at the gym with them....very nice...they want to practice english...they pay." at this point things started to make sense. i like this idea. we go, once a week, and speak english to these two men, and they pay us!

last night was our first class. it wasn´t until we left that i actually understood what was going to take place every week. just like miguel said, they´re lawyers who took english classes a long time ago and want to stay fluent. they pay us 7.50 euros a week for an hour to sit and discuss topics and read to them and translate. they´re hilarious too! when we got there, they were only speaking spanish to us and they explained what was going to go down in spanish, so i still wasnt too sure what we were getting into, but it all turned out ok. the only problem we had was getting out of the building. there´s a button you have to push for one door, and a button for another door, and the elevator´s really confusing. we were locked in for a little while because he explained to us how to exit the building, but it was in spanish. don´t these people get that i don´t understand them?! oh well, it was an adventure, and now i´m 7.50 richer, so all in all, it´s a good deal.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

My dearest Jo!!!!! I MISS YOU SOOO MUCH!!! Sorry I haven't written you yet. I think about you all the time though and can see you are having an amazing time! - You make me laugh so hard in your blogs. ;)
Anyways, things here are busy, busy. Matt and I no longer work at Mya's, we quit b/c the new owners were pretty much jerks. So now I am going to watching Ian for a little and just doing hair at night. - My belly still isn't growing a whole lot yet, I'm usre i'll be popping soon though. He/She did discover that they can move though and I feel him all the time. It's so neat, I love it! - I have been freeling pretty great, so that is a huge blessing.

anyways i just wanted to drop you a line to say hi! I will be sending pictures soon to record the baby taking over my body. should be interesting. LOVE YOU LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS!!!!!

Always, Kar & co.

mama said...

Hi Jo,
It was soooooooooo great to hear your voice and talk with you today prec. Sure does sound like you are doing well and we are so very thankful for that!
Sorry to hear that had trouble getting out of the bldg. Hey if they want to speak english next time have them tell you in english how to get out. Glad you are getting a chance to make a little extra spending money.
Will try and call again soon. Looking forward to the meals that you are going to fix when you get back. Not squid or lobster heads though thank you just the same. Love you much and keeping you before our God in prayer,mama

Megan Lyn said...

dear Joanna,

I didn't realize you had a blog until today and instead of studying for an exam I have tomorrow morning, I decided to read about your life. It sounds very interesting and exciting! I have to say paella and those potato omelet things are my favorite spanish foods!! Hope your project on the amish went well, haha.
Have fun traveling too!!!

Can't wait to hear more about your time in Sevilla.

Miss and love you!!

Jeff Robinson said...

Hey Jo, sounds like fun. I'm glad you're not paying people so that you can talk to them in english. I miss you. Peace.

bonnie said...

Hi Jo...Not sure if I'm doing this blog thing right. I tried sending you one with your first article, but don't know if it came through. But, I'm not going to give up! I loved the first article with the living room "dressing room" scene. I decided if you can get through that embarrassment, nothing else should phase you. I'd love to be a fly on a wall and watch all your reactions to the things around you. It would be a hoot! Same with Meg. I can just imagine her reactions...she wouldn't hold back. She can be so dramatic. Particularly in her articles she writes. What memories you both are making. I'm keeping you in my prayers for God's protection and His guidance. Love, Bonnie

Samuel said...

ha! i was actually expecting a prostitution story after what you caught of maría luisa's sentence. oh well.

but those dinners sound hilarious! i would kill to be able to watch you guys.