Goodbye Alfredo. Hello Maria Jose. That’s my new Spanish teacher. She’s from Spain and a fellow teacher at my school. When she speaks she sounds like a 45 record on 78 speed. That’s fast. After she’s done pelting me with Spanish questions she stands back and assesses me with her head cocked, an amused look on her face. I carry a stunned expression on mine. I require a v. long response time. First, I latch onto whatever words I can untangle from the stream that just poured out of her smiling mouth. Next, I decide on the meaning of the question. Then, I begin the round- up. That’s where I search the dusty files of my brain for known words that will fit into the blanks of the answer I’m trying to piece together. Finally, I tell Maria Jose about 10 times not to interrupt me no matter what I say. I tell her that I may appear to be finished, but pauses aren’t periods. They just mean I’m dusting more words off and plugging them into my growing sentence. She zips her lips closed and throws away the key. I DO NOT look at her under any circumstances. That will cause explosive laughter to erupt from both of us. Then I begin. After 45 minutes of this I had to mop the sweat off my brow. Practicing Spanish is exhausting. And hot. Midway through today’s lesson 2 more Spanish-speaking teachers sat down at our lunch table. They all started firing questions at me. One of them told a dirty joke. Raucous laughter broke out. Everyone looked at me eagerly, expectantly. Did I, would I, get the punchline? No, alas I would not. Someone shrugged. Someone else clucked their tongue. Maria Jose sipped her coffee and looked at me out of the corner of her eye. Sizing me up. Thinking about what she’d gotten herself into. I may not understand Spanish jokes yet, but I know exactly what she was thinking as she thought ahead to Monday’s lunch lesson. Somos jodidos.
I was thinking the exact same thing.
This appropriate mailart (up top) from SHE of the Mighty Moon Pies was tucked neatly in my mailbox when I got home. A perfect gift for my first day back at work. Thanks Nik!
Down below, at the bottom, is some of my mailart that finally made it safely, albeit slowly, to its new home. And of course a couple of visual journal pages thrown in for good measure.
I really dig that top photo!
Chris
I just ate a red velvet cupcake for breakfast while I read about your lunch. Cuando me visitar in el verano quierro almuerzo cada dia con Maria Jose. Es cierto somos jodidos. Me gusta la photografia mucho porque puedo veo sus dientes. I can’t wait to meet Maria Jose – maybe you better not tell her about our plans… yet.
Now I am completely jealous, I could use some lunch room Spanish lessons especially since I live in a non-English speaking city. All I know are the words for beef and chicken, guess that’s all I need but I have found that if this red head just stares stupidly enough someone eventually either speaks in a mix of language or uses international sign language (not the version that is taught but the street version).
Hmm…I have to say that your story about Spanish class takes me back to high school and college when I suffered through it…It just didn’t soak in. My high school Spanish teacher’s favorite quip back to me was “Well, LIFE isn’t fair…” I guess I complained something wasn’t fair quite a bit…And college: a whole ‘nother story. I skipped my third semester and went right on to the fourth because it was my last class I needed to graduate. I lucked out and got a cool TA that taught us a lot of curse words. None of which I can remember…Except for one, but I won’t write it here!
Oh well. I’m willing to try Italian at some point…