In the news

In the paper here, subprime mortgages are called trash mortgages and our presence in Iraq is called our invasion of Iraq.

Se mueve un diente

In class today one of the five-year-olds, Manolito, whispered across the room to me, Sean, que se mueve un diente. That´s Spanish for Sean, my tooth is loose. That´s a big deal. Manolito went on to remind Alberto, his tablemate, that Ratoncito Perez - a little rat that corresponds to the Tooth Fairy in Spanish folklore - would be visiting him to give him a little present. Ratoncito Perez is gray and wears a red shirt, blue pants and gold-rimmed glasses, and carries a little bag - there you go in case you see him. I found out how he looks from an official description of him online. I don´t know if he travels outside of Spain though so you might not see him in the States.

Flex

The 5th and 6th grade boys in the school are interested in muscles. This is what the conversations go like with them. Every one without exception. They go in Spanish of course because we can´t talk freely about much in English. I´m going to translate them.

-Hey, Juan, what´s going on?
-Seeeaaaaannnn!!! Did you watch Smackdown? (Smackdown is a weekly WWF wrestling show. All the boys watch it and then try to beat the crap out of eachother on the playground. I now understand the effect of TV on young people.)
-No. I missed it again. Sorry dude.
-(With a look of disappointment)Oh, man.....(Recovering with a look of excitement)Flex your biceps!
-(Quite sure I shouldn´t do that in school)Sure. (Flex)
-Woah, man! José, check out Sean´s arms. How strong!


Another conversation:

-Mohamed, what´s up?
-Sean, what´s up? Flex your biceps.
-Uh, ok. (Flex)

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice, banaaaaaanas, miiiiiiiiiilk

In class with the first graders, in an effort to get them to pronounce words in English how a native says them I pronounce them slowy - as anyone would, right? Nothing special there. With the first graders though I don´t think that they get it that I´m saying these words EXTRA slowly. I think they think that you´re supposed to hang on the long I in the word rice for 3 seconds like I´ve been doing. The point of me being here is to help create a student body that speaks English but that speaks English naturally. I hope somewhere along the way these poor students learn that Sean the American was just trying to make the pronunciation clear. You don´t actually speak like that. If you come to Spain in a couple years and find an eager young person, say, working in a restaurant, who speaks English and says words like rice and milk by hanging on the vowel for a really long time, it might be my fault. Oh whatever that´s not going to happen.

Have a nice day.

Liam's Visit

My American buddy Liam, who lives and works in Sevilla, came to check out Jerez this weekend. He arrived Thursday and spent until Saturday afternoon IN Jerez. This entry is about all that happened during those 48 hours or so....sure to be boring all this.

I met Liam at the train station Thursday night and we went to meet up with some friends at the bar Cuatro Gatos, which means Four Cats. A good time which was made funner when Liam suggested that we ask to ride the tricycle-size bike sitting next to the stage area. The bike belonged to the bar and turned out to be part of a bike-themed photo exhibit promoting bikes against motor vehicles as a means of transportation around Jerez. There were photos of folks on bikes all around the bar. So I asked if we could take the bike outside for a ride. The bar tender smiled and gave permission. The bike turned out to be too small and the chain too tending-to-fall-off to be able to ride the bike far. After we put the chain back on its track we returned it and continued with our friends inside. The bar tender walked up to me after a bit and asked if I wanted to take the bike home......PSHAW!!!! WELP! YEA! What do you think? So she gave it to us. She went on to explain all about the photos and the theme of the exhibit. I didn't think at the time of accepting the bike that we would have to walk it home. It's tiny and walking it home was a pain - the walk is like 45 minutes. But I did it and now it's sitting in the laundry room of our apartment. It's all busted - the tires are flat and a brake doesn't work - but I'm telling myself that I'm going fix it. Why? No reason. Anyway, it's sitting next to right now another larger bike which I borrowed from a friend to take a bike ride around Jerez yesterday to show how is the city to Liam. During this bike ride, the bike I was on, which was also borrowed, broke. The spokes of the rear wheel caught the gear changer and twisted it all out of shape. I have no idea how to say that - twisted it all out of shape - in Spanish so when I called my buddy who'd lent me the bike to tell him that I'd broke the bike, I told him that the spokes had EATEN the gear changer. I think he understood and told me it was no big deal. Phew. What a nice guy.

Thanks for reading. Happy Mother's Day, Mothers.