So it turns out that I am not working all of the time here. I know that you've all seen photos of me outside of the office, but you probably attributed them to wifey's rapidly developing Photoshop mastery. Luckily, my time at the office has yielded more than a few weird images on yesterday's post and a paycheck that might be coming soon. I work with OTHER PEOPLE! These other people also like spending time with people other than themselves. We did get one crazy night with the whole lot of them, but who knew that we had not completely scared them off then?!?
So far the roster of the office has included: Myself, José María (the boss-in Boston), José Luís (the admin assistant), José Chilón, Chema (whose real name is also José María, but is now off at arch. school here in Alicante), Paco (off at arch. school in Pamplona), Cecilia and Ana.
When I interviewed in June, José Chilón was one of three people that I met, and the other two are no longer working here. He is a Peruvian born chico who just moved here in June after two years in Madrid and the previous 16 years in Argentina. Cecilia is his mujer who is a native of Argentina, which can easily be heard in her thick Argentinian accent. The two of them are AWESOME for a few reasons: they are unbelievably nice (actually, most people are here), they have a great understanding of the political struggle of being a non-EU citizen in Spain, their South-American Spanish is MUCH easier to understand than the garbled Alicante version, they are very thrifty in a city full of pricey activities and it is more fun for us newly-weds to hang out with couples. This is why we were so stoked to be invited to dinner with them last night!
restaurant of course! Before you grumble that we're not photographing the storefronts of authentic local places that we'll be taking you to, let me say 6.30€ Where in the world of awesome spanish food did we go? A budget chinesemenú del día....that's all we needed to hear! The food was alright and a total bargain, but the highlight of the evening of 5 straight hours of non-stop conversation in CASTELLANO! That's right! Wifey and I not only held our own, but did a mighty good job of entertaining and understanding. We are still patting each other on the back! What's more is that we did not just talk about coming here, how we don't know Spanish enough and teach about US culture (all common default topics of conversation for foreigners with a limited vocabulary). We just HUNG OUT! That's right! We talked about the weather, buying televisions, horror stories from airlines, maybe a little too much about architecture (sorry Steffa!), college stories, embarrassing moments and things I do that annoy the wifey...that is, we talked about whatever came to mind...that is, we carried on NATURAL CONVERSATION! They even seemed to enjoy it as much as we did!
We got to hear about how José Chilón was once married to a girl that is both Cecilia's cousin and the mother of his brother's children...YIKES! Draw that family tree! We know that they lived in Madrid without TV just long enough to be driven crazy and buy a sweet flatscreen. We shared our feelings on the joys and woes of Spanish culture, and we made probably a million grammatical errors without turning red. All in all...a GREAT night!
Today we've been to our local castle and beach...just because we can!
Hopefully there will be more reports of fun double dates in future issues!
5 comments:
hubby's right -- we had an awesome time, and we totally did hold our own... he did far better than me (as should be expected), but i was proud that i walked away with 1/8 of the conversations understood... good thing hubbs was there to fill me in on everything i missed after the double date was over! ha!
Remember when we used to go on double dates? And we talked about how cold it was at the freezin' restaurants in PHX in the summer?
It sounds like so much fun! I totally understand what you mean by "normal" conversations. And strange geneology.
Next time you are in Phoenix, we'll go to a budget Chinese restaurant, I promise. But I can't promise to carry on the whole night's conversation in Spanish. Mom and I could try to remember a bit of our high school French, but I am sure it just wouldn't be the same. Glad you're having some fun together with other people.
but what about monica?
hahaha you guys are awesome!! what a fun night! i'm sure there will be many more! i seriously el oh el'd when steph said she only understood 1/8 of the conversations!!! thank goodness for the hubs and his understanding or she woulda been confused all night :P at least it was fun regardless of understanding!! :D
and i'm glad to see that you really are able to get out of the office and go out and enjoy yourself :) you can't always work and have no fun time :P
can't wait for the next double date! :P
wuwuw
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