Spanish + a Joke

There is such a fine line between me feeling GREAT about my Spanish and feeling completely crappy about it.

An example for each.....I just got out of a 15-minute cab ride, where I never spoke a word of English, yet I still feel like we had a legitimate conversation. If one of us didn't know what the other was talking about, we figured it out. In Spanish. For example, we talked about the economy in the US, the difference in languages (his wife is Catalunyan, and his kids speak both), etc. When I got out of the cab, I was king of the world.

As opposed to yesterday, when I went to the phone store (Vodafone), and the guy (who spoke Catalan) could not understand ANYTHING I was trying to say in Spanish. He kept calling his colleague over, and I was like "don't call her over dude, let's figure this out like men". At that point, I felt retarded.

Bottom line is that I still have a chance to be almost almost fluent (2 steps below fluent) when I leave Spain. There are words and phrases that fly out of mouth that I didn't know were there, and others I know but can't quite put my finger on. As intimidated as I was on Saturday, I am feeling a 6 on my ability to get by right now.

There was a ship out at sea getting attacked by a little pirate ship. The crew rushed to the Captain, and said, "Captain! We're being attacked by a pirate ship!!" The Captain said in most manly, leader-guy voice, "BRING MY RED SHIRT!". So he went to the deck, and single-handedly defeated the pirate attack. Over dinner that night, his second-in-charge asked why he wanted his red shirt. "You see," he said, "that way if I get wounded, the good men of this ship won't notice, and so they will keep the faith."

The next day about the same time, the officers ran to the Captain again. "Captain, Captain, we're being attacked by TWO pirate ships!!" And once again the fearless leader said "BRING MY RED SHIRT!" The officers now knew the secret, and confidently smiled at each other. Once again he donned the shirt, and once again he defeated the pirates.

The NEXT day about the same time, the officers ran to the Captain, their faces white with fear. "Captain. We're being attacked by 5 pirate ships. They have us surrounded." The Captain swallowed hard, then said, "BRING MY BROWN PANTS."

This joke makes me wish the tradition at Pamplona was for red and brown pants. Not white.

Salud!

-S