Spanglish is ugly. You know, where "ignorant" people think they can add an "o" to the end of any English word to make a Spanish one? Well, in typical fashion, stereotypes DO generally come from somewhere, and those "brilliant" people were totally light years ahead of me. Quick examples of what I'm talking about: American becomes Americano, Mexican becomes Mexicano, etc. To be perfectly correct, you add an "o" AND try not to pronounce it like a gringo. But it doesn't stop there. Here are a few examples of the times I felt the stupidest for asking ¿Como se dice...
- traffic = trafico
- graffiti = grafiti
- space = espacio
- idea = idea (particularly embarrassing...)
There is a funny story about someone (as in, not me...) asking how to say "cilantro" in English. After several attempts to explain, in a situation resembling Abbott and Costello's "Who's On First" skit, it wasn't until someone finally said "cilantro" in a redneck accent that she understood it was the same word. But not like that's never happened to me...
In general though, I'm finally at a point with my Spanish where I can use it to communicate clearly and easily. There are times at work where I still get stuck on technical issues (i.e. my Spanish hasn't yet grown enough to encompass technical discussions about welding processes). But one-on-one, outside of work issues, I actually hold pretty decent conversations in Spanish. In groups, there are times when I lose the thread of the conversation, but I usually pick it up again when I realize I'm the butt of a joke. In cases like these, my Spanish is luckily strong enough to crack a good joke, and then change the subject. So while I definitely wouldn't say my Spanish is fluent, I do feel like I could accurately call it functional.
My favorite is talking to taxi drivers. Since i don't have a car of my own, I do find myself in taxis pretty often, and it's kinda funny that these conversations always follow a similar pattern:
Me: "Eres de aqui?" (Are you from here?)
Cabbie: "No, soy del DF" (No, I'm from Mexico City, Districto Federal)
Me: "Jaja, hay bastante personas aqui de Mexico. Te gusta Queretaro?" (Haha, there are tons of people here from Mexico City. You like Queretaro?)
Cabbie: "Ooo, si. [y much mas, muy rapido, que no pude entender] Tu?" (Ooh, sure. [and then a lot more, super fast, that I couldn't understand] You?)
Me: "Por su puesto! Queretaro es bonita, tranquila... me gusta mucho. Solamente falta una playa, nada mas." (Of course! Queretaro is pretty, laid-back... I like it a lot. It's only missing a beach, nothing else.)
The conversation then usually turns to Mexican beaches, but sometimes changes all together to talk about sports, work, etc. But it almost ALWAYS starts off just like that. And it's really funny, because a vast majority of the taxi drivers I've met are all from Mexico City. [Side note: there are signs all over the highway, pointing you simply towards "Mexico"... cracks me up every time.] It's my guess in general that Queretaro has a huge population of people here from Mexico City. Queretaro is actually supposed to be the fastest growing city in Mexico, according to the unbiased Queretanos that I have talked to. So, assuming they're right, it would make sense that there are so many people coming here from Mexico City and other parts of the country. It's kind of rare to meet someone who was born and raised here. And not because it's a terrible place--it really is beautiful--but more because it's had such an unbelievable influx of people and rapid expansion in the last 10 years or so.
Speaking of the beautiful city, I took the picture below while walking around the town one night with some folks from the Peace Corps. Towards the top/right of the picture, you'll notice Los Arcos (The Arches). They are Queretaro's second most famous monument, and are a set of aquaducts that were constructed way back in the day by a rich guy who was trying to woo a nun. She promised they'd be together if he brought water to the city, he called her bluff, and she reneged. As you can tell, I know this story real well. But anyways, if you follow Los Arcos to the left, off into the distance, my house is located on the backside of that hill. Just an FYI.
Ok, so I also promised an update about a really important soccer game and a really big party. Really big party: didn't go. I was at the really big soccer game, and by the time I got home and was able to head that way, my friend was too far into the party to hear his phone. Oh well.
Big soccer game: Queretaro (Gallos Blancos) vs. Guadalajara (Chivas). I asked what a "chiva" is, and I think I've deduced that it's more or less a billy goat. So, the Billy Goats of Guadalajara took second place in La Cope de Libertadors this year, which more or less should signify that they are the second best team in all of Latin America. And when you add that there are a lot of people living here from Guadalajara, you can see why the game was a big deal. We over-achieved and tied them 2-2, a very respectable result for us.
There was another--more important--game that took place this last week as well. On Tuesday, our Siemens team had our last regular season game, which we needed to win to qualify for the post-season. After securing a quick 1-0 lead, we even quicker conceded the equalizer (1-1). We held it down at 2-1 until halftime, our first goal coming from Alejandro on his birthday, and the second from Roberto on an impossible volley. In the second half, Roberto notched his second goal in equally impressive fashion, and then unsuccessfully attempted a bicycle kick and hurt his hand (he returned to the game after some medical attention). So, with 10 minutes left in the game, we held a lead of 3-2, with visions of glory before us. Plagued by injuries (I was head-butted in the temple pretty hard and refused medical attention like a real man/idiot, Robert hurt his hand, and Oscar nearly broke his collar bone), however, we conceded two quick goals in the last 5 minutes or so and lost, with a final score of 4-3. And thus ended our first, tragic season. Now I get to focus on my American football career... blah. I need to find another soccer team.
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