That Thing I feared

15 mayo 2014

Every time I leave town and someone is taking care of my dog, a little part of me wonders: what if she dies while I'm gone? The thought has nothing to do with reality, or illness, or the dogsitter's skills; it's just a thing I wonder. Every pet owner thinks this, right? With an older dog it had become more possible than it used to be, but still. Just a fear.

My dog died today. I am far away in Buenos Aires, surrounded by light and noise and wine and dance and life is a little unreal already, and now That Thing has happened. How real could it be? When I get home, my logical brain tells me she will not be there. My muscle memory will still tell me to lower my feet slowly from the bed in case she's underfoot.

Brynn came to me eleven years ago by way of the Lewis County animal shelter just when I needed her. She was with me through two states, three jobs, four nieces, five relationships, seven homes, and an untold number of slimy tennis balls.

Vaya con Dios, querida perrita mia.

Hang up your skin suits

Kat and I went to a bookstore a few months ago and bought books in Spanish. The option that appealed to me the most was not originally written in Spanish, but I needed motivation more than I needed an authentic local voice. I went with Crónicas Marcianas– Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles. It was a good choice because I am in the mood for classic sci-fi, so I push through and make the effort to read something that is honestly too hard for me. On the other hand, I have discovered that science fiction might not make the best language learning genre, and here's an example of why.

At the very beginning of the book, right in the first paragraph, I came to phrase made up of two words I thought I knew, but I didn't know what they meant together: "abrigos de piel." "Abrigo" means "coat," and "piel," as far as I knew, means "skin." Keep in mind, this is sci-fi, and I don't remember anything about the beginning of the story from reading it in English decades ago. What's a coat of skin? Who are these characters? Are they aliens? Are they people-skinning Reavers like in Firefly, or maybe Martians that can take off their skins?

After a few puzzled moments, it clicked. Fur coats! It's winter, and these people are wearing fur coats. Not a removable alien exo-layer, just fur coats.

If I had been reading realistic fiction, I probably would have passed right over "the flayed skins of thine enemy" as a translation option and gotten to the right answer faster.

Then again, where's the fun in that?

Close enough...

...right?

PFUDOR!

Question words can be hard to get straight early on in the language learning process. I know this from recent (and ongoing) experience. I am still working on getting cuando, cuanto, cuantos, quien, que, and cual to pop out at the appropriate times without having to think about it first.

So I completely sympathize with my little students for getting it wrong, but it's still funny.

     Me: How many crayons?

     Enthusiastic little boy: BLUE!!

 

The crayons in question

Well, you're not wrong...but you are.

All I could think of was the "Pink Fluffy Unicorns Dancing On Rainbows" song/meme and SMIIIIIILLLES!! If you haven't seen PFUDOR, here ya go. And you're welcome. If you must skip, skip to 0:33.

Put your finger where?!

Our preschool uses an English curriculum series called Gumdrops, and overall I think it's pretty solid. Unfortunately for me, I am very hard to please when it comes to children's music. About 80% makes me want to puncture my own eardrums with safety scissors, and the CD that accompanies this curriculum falls into that bracket. That doesn't mean it isn't effective– the kids were singing along in English after the first week or so– but I don't have to like it.

These are gumdrops. They teach English.

However, the songs have a few pitfalls even aside from a music appreciation standpoint. The first unit in the Level One curriculum (three-year-olds) introduces the words "boy," "girl," and "teacher." The corresponding action song is titled, "Put Your Finger On The..." and is sung to the tune of "If You're Happy And You Know It," only instead of clapping and stomping, you put your finger on the boy– or the girl, or the teacher. Depends on what verse you're singing.

As far as simple action songs go, I've heard worse, and like I said, the kids responded pretty well. It sounded a little risqué to my ears, but I thought that maybe I've just worked with teens for too long to not see dirty humor everywhere.

Then, after English class one day, I heard a girl singing to herself: "Put your finger in the boy, in the boy... Put your finger in the girl, in the girl..."  In, on, whatever.

I'm hoping she forgets this little gem of her childhood before she turns 16 and goes on an exchange trip to a U.S. high school.

La Casa Mostaza

For the first three weeks in Viña, we lived on the 16th floor of a luxury high-rise condo with our boss's mother-in-law, Cecilia. The housing possibility we were waiting on fell through, so the good ol' internet helped us find another one. We now live in a big house (relatively speaking) in the neighborhood of Recreo, book-ended by a church on one side of the block and a sushi delivery place on the other. At the end of the street is a scenic overlook (overlooking the ocean). I call the house La Casa Mostaza because it is mustard yellow, and because rhyming is fun. Kat and I are the only ones who call it that, though.

The one in the middle

The neighbors are quiet

Here's a short visual tour of the place.

My room: small, but big enough

The hallway

Common room w/ kitchen on the left, backyard behind

Lots of room for asados (barbeques) and for the kitten to roam

View from the end of the street

Here are some of our housemates. La Señora Fresia on the left and her son Pablo in the middle are the managers/caretakers. Ten people currently live here, although it doesn't seem like that many. Life in Mostaza provides a nice combination of quiet time and chances to socialize with actual chilenos. Here's to good people when you're far from home.

Thinking like Yoda

One of the hardest things about learning Spanish has been learning to form sentences in reverse. "I gave it to her" becomes "Se lo di", or literally "to her it I gave". The best I can do right now is think it in English order, reverse it, then speak it, usually at least 10 seconds late. Listening? Also decoding much too late to follow a conversation well. It turns out that changing the way your brain processes thought and language is not easy. Should I have realized this before? Maybe. But learn it I will! It will I learn! Mmm!

Festivus Park

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Museo Fonck, Palacio Carrasco, and the city of Viña del Mar for having a park conveniently located just two blocks from my school.

There are benches and trees in both shade and sun,

This guy is enjoying the shady half

a moai from Easter Island,

a Rodin sculpture, and more.

"La Defensa"

Most of all, it is an excellent place for the Airing of Grievances when we are frustrated with something at work. I don't know what the space is actually called, but we call it Festivus Park.*

¡Feliz Festivus!


*Seinfeld reference, in case you spent the '90's under a rock