El Lorax: En Busca de la Trúfula Perdida

Given my love for all things Dr. Suess and animated, seeing the Lorax was something I have been looking forward to, especially since Horton Hear a Who was so great.  Yes, I have seen all of the Madagascars, Ice Ages, Shreks and as well as most of the rest of the animated "kids" films released in the last 10 years, and I love them.  I even own quite a few.  They're the type of movie I can watch again and again and they still get a laugh out of me;  I have easily seen Monsters Inc. 10+ times.  When The Lorax finally came out here in Cali, I knew there was a good chance it would only be in the theatres in Spanish since it is easier to dub animated films and kids movies usually come in Spanish.  And so it was.  Last weekend I finally decided to go see El Lorax: En Busca de la Trúfula Perdida, and even recruited Jess to go with me.  I accepted the fact that I may end up lost in a Spanish movie, but thought since the intended audience was children under the age of 12, I might be able to pick up on a few things.  To my surprise, I understood just about everything that was being said, outside of the some of the songs.  Now, yes, I probably could have watched it in silence and picked up on the storyline, but the point is that I actually was able to follow the dialogue, which is pretty awesome. 

Luckily, there were less than 25 people in the entire 2:20 showing, as my tolerance for children in movies is low, so there were few interruptions to our viewing.  We were both quite happy with the movie and found ourselves laughing louder than anyone else in the theatre on multiple occasions.  And while I do think I understood at least 85-90% of the movie, I do want to watch it again, in English, just to check my understanding, and because it was a great movie.  Not to mention Pipsqueak, the most adorable little creature in the movie.   How could you not love him?

Even better, given the message of taking care of the environment, I have every intention of showing some all of this in my class next year during our Human Impacts unit.

No Sé

Since returning from winter break, I have been trying to seriously rev up my Spanish studying so that I can stop sounding kind of like an idiot in my day to day interactions with non-English speakers.  I have started one-on-one Spanish lessons for an hour every week, 1.5 hours with  group at school (I actually skipped today, oops). in addition to my random studying of flashcards online and reading Spanish subtitles on movies and while David watches Mad Men.  I do have to say that I feel like I am improving past and future tense conversations no longer scare the bejeezus out of me (well, not as much) and my end of a conversation has a little more substance to it.  Unfortunately, I still have a very serious weak point: random conversation.  Understanding conversations in Spanish is a piece of cake when you have context; most science department meetings are a breeze because I have at least an idea of what conversations are going to be about.  Today I had one of those terrifying interactions with a stranger that leaves me feeling like well, a complete idiot. 

I was in Carrefour shopping for some goodies for David's birthday pool party this weekend when a man walking past me asks me a question.  I did happen to catch the word "donde" so he's obviously asking the location of something, but what?   My mind suddenly starts reeling with possible conversation topics in a grocery store.  Where are the apples? Where can I pay my bills?  I politely respond "como?" asking him to repeat it (as is still the norm with me) hoping that I can catch what he said the second time.  Dammit.  Nothing.  I have a rule about asking "como?" more than once:  I don't do it.  It's embarrassing and I want to at least feign comprehension (poor decision).  I try to work with what I got.  I think I caught a "crucero", but I have no idea how that will help me.  Well, we are in the mall, maybe he wants to know where another store is?  If that is the case I have no idea anyway.  After some awkward silence, I give up on trying to be helpful and revert to my "no sé" - "I don't know".  If someone told me they didn't know something, I'd say thanks anyway and walk away.  Not this guy.  He follows up with asking if the place is close - cerca - to where we are; at least I was right he was looking for a place.  Now I'm even more nervous and sweating, and still have no response but "no estoy seguro" - "I'm not sure".  I awkwardly start to walk away, having not even an inkling as to how to properly continue or end this conversation.  As I turn, the man smiles with a light laugh and points to his forehead, where on my own, I have a cross of ashes that I got at school today.  And suddenly I realized why he was looking at me like I was a complete moron; he had asked where I got my cenizas (ashes) or my cross and I told him I didn't know...  He asked if the place was close and I said I wasn't sure.  I deserved that look and that laugh.  I quickly made my way to the checkout line as a flurry of Spanish words and sentences sailed through my mind for all the things I do know how to say and should have responded, direct object pronouns and all.  I was close to going and finding the guy to prove I in fact did speak more Spanish that just "no sé".  But the damage was done.  Looks like I'll be practicing extra hard this week.  No sé.

No Pork Castle for Me, Thank You

Every Wednesday I play volleyball with some other teachers, who happen to all be better than me, and speak more Spanish than me.  But, despite my lack of skills in both I managed to get the invite to play at the Binational teachers tournament in October, score.  Let's face it I'll probably sit the bench, but I'll take it.  Anyway, earlier this week (meaning yesterday, since its only Tuesday) one of the teachers, Octavio, sent out an email, which was entirely in Spanish.  Usually somewhere along the way someone will translate it to English, but this one didn't.  I read my way through it and used a little Google translate, but finally decided to kindly ask Amy to give me a quick run down of the invite.  As I suspected, Octavio was inviting us all to his house after volleyball Wednesday to celebrate the upcoming games as well as other various things, for some chorizos and beer, but if we preferred a pork chop (costilla de cerdo) to email him so he could order it.  I decided this morning that I'd be able to go and emailed back "Voy a asistir tambien, pero no castillo de cerdo para mi.  ¡Muchas gracias Octavio!", Reply All of course.  Now perhaps you didn't notice the slight spelling error, just as I hadn't, but my word has an O on the end, not an A.  Which means I replied "I am going to attend as well, but no pork castle for me.  Thank you!"  Within the hour I got a response informing me of my mistake, and when I saw Octavio on the bus he mentioned it too and assured that we'd all have a good long laugh about it tomorrow with our beers and castillos. 

Cassie, Casi

Before coming down to Colombia, I pondered how people would pronounce my name since Spanish doens’t really have the A sound like in “aaaaapple”, nor do Colombians have an obnoxious Chicaaaaaago accent. They also don’t have the long A sound like in “basement” (no idea why that was the example that came to mind) which would rule out “Casey” that I have learned to respond to over the last 24 years. Which by the way people, its pretty obvious its Cassie with A like in “apple” and not Casey with an A like in “basement”, I mean look at it: 2 S’s and “ASS” is right there in case you needed help figuring it out. I digress. So when I came down I was not surprised when people would hesitate when saying my name because the only A sound they use is like in the word….well I’m stuck. It’s just a Spanish A, which kind of sounds like the sound an O makes in the word “obvious”. Also, I just realized that “ape” would have been better than “basement”. Darnit. Focus.

As if my last name were’t foreign enough, these poor people can’t pronounce my first name either. I kindly pronounce it for them as I would in the US and receive confused stares, not surprisingly so as this is a vowel sound unknown to them. However, it seems that they DO know the long A sound and alas, Casey I am again. I kindly repeat it using the Spanish sounds turning my name to Casi, with a Spanish A and an emphasized I (which soulds like a long E). I knew before coming down here that casi in Spanish means “almost”. Although I did NOT realize just how hilarious people would find it. Like when I play volleyball after school on Wednesdays with some Colombian teachers. I’m running and running for a poorly hit ball and just miss it and John Freddy (who speaks little English) says, “casi, Cassie” and then laughs to himself. Funny right? Or when I am running for the bus (which was leaving 3 min too early) after softball on Friday and Harold yells, “Corre Cassie, casi allí Cassie!” (“run Cassie, almost there Cassie!). Or when I almost get a hit past David in softball (because for some reason they always put us on different teams). Si casi.

I may have to change my name.