Testing Myself on Vocabulary Today

I’m a little bit lazy today, so I’m not trying too hard to come up with a more fascinating blog post idea than posting my most recent vocabulary words. I like to feature my dogs for these exercises, but then again….I’m lazy today! So, I’ll bring out the dogs in a later post, and I promise that it will be cute. I already have some ideas for that! I quiz myself regularly on vocabulary, so for today, I am going to look at my flashcards in English, and then write them here to see how well I do. Therefore, I will leave whatever I write without fixing them so that you can see how I did. I will then re-write whatever I got wrong after that! By the way, these are not in any particular order.

 

School of Medicine                                          Facultad de Medicina

School of Humanities                                     Facultad de Humanidades

Plaza                                                                     Plaza

Computer Science                                            Informatica

I have                                                                   Yo tengo

Do you have?/he has…                                   Tiene(s)

Nothing                                                               Nada

Dedicated                                                            Dedicado

To get                                                                   Sacar

I get                                                                      Yo saco

To get bad grades                                             Sacar malas notas

Excellent                                                             Excelentes

How many classes do you have?                 Cuantos clases tienes?

How much?                                                        Cuanto es?  o  Cuanto cuesta?

I write                                                                  Yo escribo

Library                                                                 Biblioteca

Cafeteria                                                              Cafeteria

To listen                                                               Escuchar

To look                                                                  Mirar

School of Computer Science                         Facultad de Informatica

School of Science                                              Facultad de Ciencias

To get good grades                                            Sacar buenas notas

Wow!                                                                      !Vaya!

School of law                                                        Facultad de Derecho

Book store                                                             Libreria

Gymnasium                                                           Gimnasio

To write                                                                  Escribir

To have                                                                   Tener

Do you write?/He writes…                                Escribe(s)?…

Boring                                                                     Aburrida

 

Well…..It looks like I got them all right! 🙂 !Vaya!

 

 

Spanish Tapas

Let me just start by saying I am a huge fan of Anthony Bourdain. I recently watched an episode of “Parts Unknown” that focused on Granada, Spain, which focused heavily, of course, on the tapas! I was more interested in staring at the screen to see what was on the little plates that were brought to Mr. Bourdain’s table, delighting in the diversity of the dishes, and daydreaming about taking my own trip to Spain one day than I was learning about the actual tradition, or rituals of tapas, which are small plates of food, and how they differ from region to region …and that they spark passionate debates amongst those who regularly partake in them.

 

Now that we are discussing Spanish culture in class, I’m thinking once again about these tiny feats of gastronomy. I love the beauty of them–just looking at them! But then, I love all food, so that’s nothing new with me. But this time I’ve done a little research and can actually say a little bit about what tapas are.

Naturally, each region of Spain has it’s own way of doing things. I learned that tapas are part of the every day culture all over Spain, but the ways in which the ritual is carried out are different, and the featured dishes are specific to each region. The main reason tapas culture exists in Spain is because people don’t particularly do much entertaining within their homes. Therefore, people typically will go to a bar for shots of wine, or small glasses of beer, and they will nibble on the tapas that are brought to them gratis (as long as one is drinking). Patrons will meet each other out much like they do here in the States for happy hour. Friends will meet each other, family, and co-workers. Strangers will greet one another and pick up on conversations, perhaps discuss sporting events. And then one will wander on to the next bar, repeating the pattern until one goes home for dinner. So in some regions the tapas ritual is carried out as a bar hopping experience, or, to put it more eloquently, the tapas are integrated into an evening stroll, which is followed by a fuller meal at home, and in other regions patrons will simply stay put in one bar and continue to drink and eat until they are full. With such diversity of flavorful dishes it is easy to see how one could debate which dishes are superior, but then, taste is subjective, isn’t it? I’m going to have to try it out, in person, for myself!

Billboards!

Billboards in Spanish all around Phoenix? I dig it!

 

My husband was so kind as to take a photo of this billboard outside of the driver’s side window while driving us to dinner downtown last Friday night. I’ve been wanting to get a photo of the billboard that says something to the effect of “Choose any two, mix and match for $2”, but of course that is my interpretation because it was all in Spanish. But alas I haven’t seen that billboard lately, so this one will have to do! I just translated it on Google and it tells me that it means, “breakfast, lunch and dinner”. Sounds good to me!

 

I really like seeing billboards in other languages. My family still occasionally talks about the one we saw in Montreal several years ago for the movie, “Snakes on a Plane” –“Serpents D’abord!”.  We think it sounds scarier in French! Then, there was the one we saw in Italy for the Nicholas Sparks movie, “The Longest Ride” — “La Cavalcata Piu Lunga”. It is so much fun to find these billboards and do the research to interpret them. It gives me a fun little challenge and I learn something  new every time.

 

Helpful Word Chart

One of my favorite pastimes is looking at Pinterest, a website hub of information and photos for everything under the sun. I found this Spanish word chart today. Although it is very simple, I think it is quite helpful! So I am saving it here:

Puppies & Prepositions!

BUTTERS ESTA AL LADO DEL SALAMANDRA AMARILLO, Y EL ESTA SOBRE LA CAMA.

MAGGIE ESTA DEBAJO DEL SABANA. ELLA ES ENTRE LAS HOJAS.

 

BUTTERS ESTA ENFRENTE DE MAGGIE, Y MAGGIE ESTA DETRAS DE BUTTERS.

Puerto Penasco, Sonora

The weather in Phoenix has me thinking a lot about Puerto Penasco in Sonora. Last year my husband and I drove there from Phoenix for the first time, after hearing so many people talk about this beautiful and relaxing little beach town in Mexico. We stayed for three nights at the Penasco Del Sol hotel and had a wonderful time. The Penasco Del Sol is a family oriented resort hotel with pools and a restaurant, and balconies overlooking the ocean. After our stay, I reviewed our hotel experience at Tripadvisor, and to date it has had over 30,000 views! It can be read here:

 

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g153981-d456365-r213376261-Penasco_Del_Sol_Hotel-Puerto_Penasco_Northern_Mexico.html#CHECK_RATES_CONT

 

So, today I wanted to share a funny story about our quest to find one simple item while we were there: a ladies hair band….

My intentions were to find a simple hairband to put my hair in a pony tail so it would be easier for spending time in the water and while riding recreational vehicles. Why I never thought to bring one with me is beyond me! So, my husband and I set off one morning to the drug store across the street. Did they have $17 sun screen? Yes. But no hair bands. There were very few options in the store, and nothing that we needed, so off we went to the other side of the cove. On our way we stopped at a gas station/convenience store. None of the cashiers spoke English, and I couldn’t speak Spanish, so our form of communication was a lot of gestures and pointing. Mostly, it was the cashier pointing to other store employees with whom she’d prefer I attempt communication. We ultimately spoke with a man at a liquor counter in the back of the store who had limited English skills. He drew a map for us. We were so grateful! Off we went, following the map…only to wind up at a beauty parlor that looked like someone’s run-down house. Not exactly what we had in mind, but impressed, nevertheless, with the man’s attempt at communicating with us. So onward we went, ultimately making our way to the lines of shops along the beach on the other side of the cove. We wandered into a tiny souvenir shop (which, in French, means “to remember”, by the way!) and in there was a young couple who was running the business. The lady was behind the counter and the young man was up in front. He wanted to sell us pharmaceuticals, and I’m pretty sure he was high. However, we actually were able to gesture what we were looking for, so he walks up to his wife, says something in Spanish we couldn’t understand, and voila!, she reaches under the counter and comes back up with a giant ball of rubber bands. She peeled one off and simply handed it to me for free. SUCCESS! To this day I have no idea how we got the idea across to him, but thankfully the guy was intelligent and figured it out for us.

 

 

This Is What’s On Early A.M. Television!

So I watched about twenty minutes of this super cute show for kids and tweens. It is about a group of friends in high school. I didn’t understand any of what they were saying, however, I did pick up a lot from context and expressions. In one scene, the “popular girl” was selling treats to raise money for something. The cafeteria lady left this young lady in charge of making some of the food and drinks, and when she walked away, the girl added salt to the drinks instead of sugar, and she topped the cupcakes with hot sauce, because she was so dumb. It was really funny when people ate the food and drank the drinks. Also, there was a misunderstanding between “the girl next door”, type character, and her boyfriend, the popular soccer player, but in the end they figured it out and made up.