Language Bloopers, A Funny Character and Good Luck!

I wish I had written down every time students said or wrote something funny in English. Its always humorous when you misuse the language. Fortunately I havent said anything like 'estoy excitada' (Which means I'm horny, not excited!!), but I haven´t said anything super funny either. I did say one thing that got me and my host person laughing pretty hard. She asked me why I didn´t bring my laptop and I told her that a lot of people warned me about thieves and I didnt want to wake my computer up. (I confused perder with despertar, lose and wake up). She was like, why would you wake your computer up? huh? haha Another funny thing (Dan and Olga will appreciate this) is the word 'yo'. In Czech 'jo' (pronounced yo) means 'yes'. In Spanish it means 'I'. Many, many times I have found myself saying 'yo' when I mean to say 'sí'! Kelly, do you want to have some ice cream? I! Kelly, can I use the computer now? I! hahaha! All in favor say ay! Ay!

I met a funny character here. He could be a movie character. The crazy/particular father in law, almost like Jerry Seinfeld's dad. He is the father of my male host person, Alejandro. His name is Oscar (even sounds like a movie character name, and hes the kind of guy who you think is super cute if you meet him, but probably a real pain in the neck if you have to deal with him). First things first, I'm really used to using the tú form here, so I botched things up with him by using the familiar tú instead of the formal usted. Eek. Even my female host person, Gise, has to use usted with him and she is the girlfriend of his son!! But, he didn't seem to be too bothered by it. He started talking to me like I was latin american, as if I could remotely understand him. And he´s a cute slow old guy who speaks in a mutter! Impossible to understand!! Haha, but I managed to have a conversation with him with the help of Alejandro. He was asking me who I was travelling with. I said I was travelling alone. He did not like this one bit. He said: Viaja sola? (You travel alone?)I said: Sí. He said: Sola??!!!! I said: Sí, sola. He exclaimed: SOLA?!!!!! He didn´t like that too much. LOL!

One piece of good luck was meeting Jaime. I found a language exchange website and sent off several emails to try and meet people. I only got one response. It turned out to be perfect for me because he has an American girlfriend and doesn´t need to practice English, and someone helped him a lot when he was in the states, so he wants to help people here. He ended up taking me to a zillion different places (hiking, a lake, different lookout points for the city and the beach and to eat famous local food such as mote con huesillos (a sweet drink with a whole dried peach and barley in the bottom) and chorrillanas (french fries with grilled onions, eggs and beef strips on top), yum!) I spoke Spanish almost the whole time. It was a great experience! Now, I have to pay it forward like he did!

I only have two weeks left here. I can hardly believe it. I am ready to come home, but still enjoying the time I have left.

Besos