See it.
August 23, 2008 at 12:36 pm | Posted in la vida | Leave a commentTags: caprichos
If for nothing more than the music and Javier Bardem.
Turning of the tables
August 8, 2008 at 4:56 pm | Posted in Real-life adventures | 2 CommentsTags: caprichos, lost in translation, the joys of working
I’ve been back in the United States for about six(!) weeks now, and I’ve already gotten to use my Spanish several times, causing me to become borderline giddy on each occasion.
First, I interpreted for a woman in the Atlanta airport when I was there to pick up Jaime. It was funny seeing how quickly the airline employees changed from all-knowing, powerful machines to awkward, semi-rude adolescents when they didn’t know how to communicate with this woman. She wanted to know how she could locate the man who was supposed to pick her up at the airport, and the first employee just got nervous and said to her co-worker, “You know Spanish; you talk to her!” But the co-worker apparently lied on his job application because he just got all nervous and repeated what the other employee had already told the lady in English. An hour late because a nasty storm had followed me from Knoxville, I jumped right in and helped her explain her problem and got them to page her friend over the intercom. And that’s how just a few sentences validated all my efforts to learn Spanish.
Then, I took on a story for a local alternative newspaper, and it involved talking to some Hispanic people around town. I didn’t even think about the fact that I might have to interview these people in Spanish when I accepted the story, but when I got ready to make my first call to a Mexican mother, it occured to me that she might not speak English. I must admit, I got so nervous I almost chickened out. I wasn’t worried about not being able to communicate with her, but it’s hard enough to give an interview in English and try to write down everything they say, so in Spanish??!! I was scared. But it turned out to be OK, and then I was much more comfortable and even excited when I had to call a recent high school graduate and former ESL student. I realized that maybe people were right when they said knowing Spanish could give me a leg up in the journalism game, but mainly, I just had fun.
And finally, I was nearing the end of my first day of work at a “Latino and Southern” restaurant when the server who was training me got a Spanish-speaking lady at her table. At first, I wasn’t sure what language she spoke because the platinum-blonde (dyed) woman didn’t have the pinta of Latina or Spanish. She asked what an eggplant was, and the server/ my trainer was like, “a big purple vegetable?” And then she said, “I don’t understand anything,” so I asked her what language she spoke. When the answer was Spanish, I suddenly got over my new-job awkwardness and answered her questions about the menu and later gave her detailed descriptions of our desserts. I went home that night feeling like I picked the right place to work.
Having gotten a small taste of using my knowledge of a second language to communicate with people who might otherwise be isolated, or at least inconvenienced, I’m going to be sniffing around for more opportunities to speak Spanish in my States-side life. Funny how my first post, written while in Spain, was about appreciating the times I got to speak English with other native speakers. Like most things in life, a balance is always good.
An uneventful adiós
June 22, 2008 at 11:03 pm | Posted in Why I love Granada | 1 CommentTags: caprichos
It’s my last night in Granada. Last night in Granada. Last night in Granada??!!
It’s really quite anti-climactic, as most of the people I knew (granted, there weren’t that many) left a couple of weeks ago. I kinda feel like those were my last days too because I accompanied friends to do lots of “last” things — ice cream cones (see below), walks by the Alhambra, tapas-ing, etc.
My real last weekend (the one that’s still in progress) has consisted of the following:
-more ice cream cones. by myself except for once. I always feel a little guilty as if I were drinking alcohol by myself instead of eating fruity and/or chocolatey deliciousness.
-looking at job boards and thinking about applying to some and then not applying for fear of actually getting said job. (it’s probably better that I didn’t apply.)
-facebooking. trying to absorb the fact that I’ll be seeing some of these faces in person in just a few days.
-cleaning. discovered lemony-fresh cleaning liquid in my closet and now my floors are fit to be eaten off of.
-packing. I love packing because it lets me weed through my belongings and get rid of (recycle!) the things I don’t love enough to lug through an airport — clothes that don’t make me feel pretty, for the most part.
-walking. alone or accompanied, this activity has been my way of getting closure as I part ways with this city. I doubt there are many places with the charm and ambiente found in Granada, which is why I’ve compared it to a vacuum, catching people off guard and sucking them in for good, either physically or in their hearts. Today I walked past a couple of bored-looking American girls who were undoubtedly studying abroad and I thought, what’s wrong with them? Don’t they see what’s around them? And I realized I’m ready to feel the way I used to feel about Granada somewhere else. It’s good I’m leaving now. And it’s not sad because I know I’ll be back.
-baking. not cakes or cookies, or anything fun like that, but myself. ”En Granada en verano, no se puede estar.” (You can’t be in Granada in the summer.) Now I understand what everybody meant. My apartment’s so hot in the afternoon that I have to close the Persian blinds and strip down if I want to hang out in the living room. Outside, the streets are empty from lunchtime until dusk because everyone else is also closed up in their pisos naked, with the blinds down.
*BTW – this doesn’t really fit into this post, but baking reminded me…I just found out from the Metro Pulse online (a Knoxville magazine) that there is currently a cupcake craze in Knoxville, possibly influenced by the debut of the Sex and the City movie. I told Jaime, who is coming to visit in July, about this news and proceeded to show him google images of cupcakes so he would know what to look forward to. *
-eating. I ate lunch with my Spanish host mom from two years ago (seen below performing her famous napkin tricks) to say goodbye, and I remembered why I put on a few pounds that year. Some goood food, but heavy, and served in portion sizes more than twice my norm. but I indulged for old times’ sake.
And that’s about it. Tomorrow I leave for Madrid, and Tuesday I fly home.
Bizarre, I tell you.
P.S. I should mention that during the writing of this post, SPAIN BEAT ITALY at soccer! We had the windows closed and we could still hear everyone shouting and singing from their apartments and on the street.
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