Communication Breakdown

If you laugh when I say I´m shy, this one is for you. Yes, I studied Spanish for nine years. But I did so with the least amount of conversation possible. At one point, I could write a term paper en Espanol. These days, I´m lucky if I can order a beer. Double that - remember all those days where our American teachers told us not to worry about the Vosotros tense, because that's just for Spain? Right. That would have come in handy this week.

It took about five drinks to get me to a point where I´d even open my mouth to try. But, it has been an interesting experience since. Some things just flow without me having to think. Like, after 30 minutes driving around the parking garage, finally asking someone where we pay for the ticket. Others, like arriving at a winery andasking for a tour, don´t go so well. ¨Do you a speaka English?¨ Words come back to me every hour. Seeing things in print certainly helps.

But there are two thinks I´ve learned about communication in Espana; they don´t want you to get out of the City and there are universal truths.

Driving in a foreign country with your spouse is a trial of any mariage. I don´t care who you are. Me...I´m map girl. Try that when traffic is flying 100 MPH. In the States, we would let you know if you are on I5 south or I5 north. Here, not so much. We would also give you a nice heads up of how far your exit may be. Here, not so much. After several wrong turns and yes, one hot lap around a round-about, we have always been successful. But a little more communication on the part of the Spain department of transportation would be greatly appreciated.

Two - there are some universial truths. We have witnessed several interactions that just crack us up. One, a couple in a plaza in Madrid. He´s holding the baby in the shade, she is storming around. She walks back to him all pisssed off. He laughs - ¨did you think you were going to find it? You have no idea what you are doing.¨She lets him have it. Ditto an exchange we saw in a bar. The bar owner, 60ish male, has a 30ish girl show up to work. To be honest, I couldn´t tell if they were married, lovers or just co-workers. She LET HIM HAVE IT. It was so freaking funny. Just like every Spanish woman portrayed in every movie - passionate and vocal to a fault. She kept going even when he left the room, several times. We were just laughing, others left the bar. I couldn´t pick up much between her rapido rambling and the difference in dialect here, but it sounded like he´d been out living the life of a single man when he has a family. I´m sorry, but I laughed out loud when he tried to end the tirade, in font of everyone, by telling her to ¨shut her mouth.¨It was pretty darn funny. Passions run high.