Espanola! Santiago - February 26-27, 2020

Day three and four are complete! Our heads are spinning. After the first day of lessons our brans were in pain. . . .

I have decided. I am not going to write descriptions of the blow by blow stress we are enduring. , I'm not going to elaborate on how difficult this endeavor may be. Enough! It's hard. I've made this point. But we are getting there.

We have to force ourselves NOT to Say "do you speak English." when enter a store or restaurant. No mas. Stan and I have agreed that we will try our Spanish where ever we go. We have made a vow to each other --- no more.
Let me share a little about our Espanol classmates, Ludwig and Tim. Si, eso es muy interesante!

Ludwig smiles constantly especially when he speaks. He speaks through a smile. Sweet! He wears garro but today his garro bore a symbol of a cangora. We have learned Ludwig finances his travels through Poker. He is a profecionale. He plays his games online primarily. He has been playing poker since he was dieciseite. It is his living today. Online gambling is a $40 billion per year industry. He can play anywhere in the world except in countries where online poker is illegal (we are thinking China, Middle East, North Korea and most US states). Pretty much anywhere else, it is legal, and Ludwig makes his living so. I will say this, he is definitely a numbers man - we saw him grasp all numbers in Espanole immediately while the rest of us still struggled. Ocho, Ochenta, Ochocientos .. .

Tim, on the other hand is muy curiosos. He is only diecinueve (19) --- yikes!! And traveling alone for a year. Just a baby, but he is tall, almost bald and muy inteligente. He seems much older. Yes, he is traveling a free schedule but it appears he is paying his way as he goes. For example, he will leave us at the end of the week to travel to a smaller city in Chile to work in a hotel at the front desk and in the restaurant for a time. How long? He does not know. Perhaps until he earns enough money to move along. Somewhere along the line he will meet his brother in Scandinavia to tour and bond. Regardless, he can do what he wants and can afford until Septiembre. At that time he must start real life. He will attend on school and work. He will do both at once. It is a practical approach to education in Germany. He will be studying mechanical engineering.

Switching gears for a moment, here is an update on Stan's health. We visited the doctora here, Dr. Maria Gambra, for a follow-up with lab results. Looks like he had a combination of urinary tract infection, prostatitis and kidney stones. My goodness he was indeed sick, but I am delighted to say he is 100% perfectly well and all-together himself now!!!

We have been staying for the afternoon practice session but we opted out of the tour of the Barrio Italia today. We signed up to go but when we realized it would be in 100% Spanish language we opted out. We are babies. We have had only three days of Espanol exposure. Maybe we will do this tour next week.

Instead we asked where we could go to find typical Chilean comida. The restaurant, Galindo, was recommended. It was nearby and in the same direction as our apartment. Galindo was a pleasant place, very busy. They do a great business. Our cool-looking, very fit waiter with long braided hair is from Haiti. Haiti, who would imagine??? What a mixed up world we occupy! He told us the "Pastel de choclo" is the numero uno authentica Chilean dish and "Cazuel de Pollo" is number 2. We ordered such. Stan's Pastel de Chocclo was a custard "pie" of mashed corn, beans, ground beef, chicken and black olives. It had a very sweet touch. My lunch was a huge cast iron bowl of bubbling hot soup with a whole breast of pollo, a small piece of corn on the cob, and a big hunks of pumpkin and white potato plus slivered green beans topped with fresh chopped herbs. Although Stan's choice for lunch is everyone's favorite here in Chile, in my opinion, my dish was the best!!! It was delicious - I could eat this rich, savory chicken soup every meal, every day!!

Well crap! I just don't know how things happen but we stepped outside on our tiny deck to observe the beautiful sunset. Down below on the 7th floor we again saw the dog we have seen on the deck to our left and three floors below us several times before. Of course each time we see him we whistle and talk to him. Why not? All dogs speak the same language not matter in which country they live. As we and the pero were chatting back and forth, the dog's owner came out. Viola, instant friends! Just imagine this; here we are in Santiago, Chile, positioned on our tiny deck on the tenth floor talking in broken English and broken Espanola to a couple on their tiny deck tres floors below. Life is crazy but wonderful in even the smallest of things.

We eat at home most days now. One if we eat lunch at a restaurant, we usually have leftovers. Two If we cook, we usually have leftovers, plus, after walking to school, experiencing 4 hours of intense training and then staying after for the extra practice time, we are usually gone from the apartment from 9:30 am until 4:30 or 5pm. We retired from our respective occupations a few years ago, right? Yes! Okay, we are out of shape! We definitely are not accustomed to such rigorous schedules.

Yes, we do comer at home quite often but the comida es bueno. Tonight we had pork medallions with arroz con steamed verduras y ensalade. Last night we had soup made by extending the leftover Consuela de Pollo with the addition of a packet of "soup for one" and chopped fresh vegetables. Muy delicioso!

I said I would not go into the difficulty we are encountering, but . . . our head are bursting! But bit by bit we are getting it. On day one, we were introduced to greeting conversations, like hello, how are you, what is your name, where are you from, yada, yada. The next day they threw us into days of the week, months of the year, how to name you birthday, holidays and how old you are. Then they threw us into numbers uno through mil. Learning numbers in Espanola makes me understand that our number scheme is complex too but a bit more simple than those in Espanol. The writers of the Spanish language must have taken great pleasure in throwing in complexities like . . . insert "y" for the last digits when in tens position is 31-99. Lord, I hope I have described this correctly!!

They also like to trip up Gringos by setting a pattern like doscientos, trescientos, cuatrocientos and then ….quinientos - that's 500! Does that make sense???

Now we are knee-deep into to be , to have . to want,

Smoking brains!!! I think I've made my point. Learning a new language with at age 72 with no prior experience is most taxing! I'm delighted that we are getting it. Certainly not as quickly or as surely as our younger classmates, but we ARE getting it. Yaay Stan!!! Yaay Janie!!!

I truly hope my insertion of a few Spanish words here and there are acceptable and not an irritant.