Lost in Translation

Hi Everyone,
I had an interesting day on Wednesday. We arranged through our landlord to have someone come in and help clean the house. She's a very nice woman who doesn't speak any English. We've had some humourous conversations. But, the great thing about her is that she laughs it off with me and we keep muddling through until we're sure we understand what we're trying to say.

Wednesday, she was asking something of me. I couldn't figure it out. She pulled out her train ticket. I thought she meant that she needed a ride to the station. She had worked a little later than we had anticipated. So, I thought she might have missed the bus she normally takes from the neighborhood to the train station. When I asked if she needed a ride to the train station. She said yes. So, I got ready to bring her and she followed me to the car. We set out only to find that due to the contruction around the town circle the main road was backed up past our neighborhood. It would take some time to get there so I thought, the next train station is in the other direction. I thought I had passed it on Tuesday picking up Joe from a friends. I offered to take her there. Now, remember we're speaking in one word sentences. "La Floresta?" pointing in the direction. "Si." she says. So, off I go to find the other train station, which is not where I thought it was. There was a big official looking sign for the train but no station. So, I had to stop and plug in the GPS to find out how to get to the station. Once we did that, I had to maneuver through several thin alleyways and onto gravel roads to get to the station. We found it rather quickly, thin alleyways and gravel roads aside. So, here I am sitting at the train station ready to have her leave when she looks at me again and pulls out the train ticket. This time she writes a price on it and says she needs for next week. Suddenly it dawns on me, she is asking for me to pay for her train ticket for next week. The whole time that was what she wanted. The poor woman got lost riding around with me trying to find a train station when all she wanted was to ask for the money for the ticket. *sigh* I really don't know enough Spanish yet. I hope she can laugh about this too.

I spent yesterday morning in my Spanish class, which I still very clearly need. It's going ok. They speak in Spanish so there are times I'm just completely guessing at what he is saying. We've got two teachers. One is a woman who teaches on Tuesdays. Her style is more by the book. She teaches in a very organized fashion. His style is much more laid back and kind of a "here's how you use what Laura taught you." kind of approach. I think it works really well together. I'm in the class with 7 other women. Three are from the US. Two are from Sweden . One is from Hungary. And one is from Brazil, which I always thought spoke Spanish but they speak Portugese. Still, she's the best in the class. The woman from Hungary is a general practice doctor. One of the US women is a teacher on sabaticle. Her and her husband work for a university/college in Gettysburg. They've heard of the George's School, Thom. It's a really interesting mix of women and we have some great conversations while we struggle through our Spanish lesson.

After class yesterday I finally made it to a Barcelona Women's Network meeting. I joined right away. I need all the help I can get in making the transition. I met another fabulous woman who has lived in Barcelona for ten years. She has worked around the world in various consulate positions. It was fascinating to talk to her. She's retired now but had a lot of good advice for settling into the city.

I'm still working on getting some pictures to you all. Hopefully this weekend.
love you all!!