As my time here is winding down, I'm trying to take advantage of my opportunity to live abroad. A while back, I realized just how little Spanish I speak here, seeing as I live with Americans and teach all my classes in English (in fact, some of my students still believe that I can't say more than "hola" and "adios" in Spanish). Therefore, I've started to take a few steps to aprovechar of my surroundings and I've been speaking and reading Spanish a lot more. I've been making an effort to chat with my teachers, and I've even set up intercambios with a few of them, where we speak half the time in English and half the time in Spanish. And even though I stumble through much of the conversations, I've been a lot more confident with my speaking skills. I've also been reading the newspaper on the metro on the way to work, and I've been reading "Como agua para chocolate" ("Like Water for Chocolate"), which is a book that I started to read two summers ago, but never finished. The author is Mexican, so the Spanish is a little different than it is here, but it's Spanish none-the-less, and one of the most famous novels in the world. Anyway, I've made some big strides in the last few weeks, but I've still got quite a ways to go, as you will see in my attempt to stop a thief...
This Saturday I was in San Sebastian with my good friend Maggie and her friend Kate (who are both doing the same program in the south of Spain). We were soaking up the sun on some benches by the beach when I turned around and noticed some sketchy little guy lingering behind us. We made eye contact and he winked at me and flashed me a smile. Just as he turned to walk away, I noticed he was holding a rather feminine black wallet. I asked my friends if they had their wallets and Maggie discovered hers was missing. I took off running down the boardwalk after this guy and Maggie followed behind me. As I was sprinting after him, my mind was absolutely vacant of Spanish words. Half my energy was focused on catching this guy, and half was racking my mind for any word in Spanish that might be appropriate in this situation. Behind me, Maggie was yelling "Para! Para! Mi carpeta! Mi carpeta!" Eventually I settled on "ladrillo!", which I thought might be the word for "thief". So luckily this guy was not in the best shape because I was gaining on him pretty quickly. He must have realized he had no chance against me (he was also pretty small), so he tossed the wallet on a bench, and we got it back! I couldn't believe it! We were on an adrenaline high for like the next hour. Maggie swears the song "Bad Boys" was playing in her head as we were running. It was like a scene from a movie. ...And when I say "movie", I mean a "poorly-dubbed film".
What Maggie should've said: Mi cartera! (My wallet!)
What she actually said: Mi carpeta! (My folder!)
What I should've said: Ladrón! (Thief!)
What I actually said: Ladrillo! (Brick!)
Well, you can't win 'em all... But we got a great story out of it! And I don't think we'll ever forget those words again. In the end, some nice man called the police, and we came across an undercover cop dealing with the little ladrón. He asked us if we got everything back (which we did), and as we turned to walk away the little thief winked at us again! Looking back on it, we should've asked for a picture with him. It would've made a great souvenir... ;-)
Well, I'd write more, but nothing I have to say is nearly as exciting as the story I just told. So, sorry for the hiatus, but hopefully I'll have some more fun stories to tell in the near future!
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