Looks Like We Made It...

 Image from thatboycanteach.co.uk

It's Friday! I don't go to work until 3:00 pm today, so I'll have this morning and part of the afternoon to do a little catching up. When I'm finished with my shift tonight, I'll have off the rest of the weekend!!! 

I'm really feeling my age after this week. The trouble coworker texted my boss about a half hour before her scheduled shift last night to say she was sick. That means the kitchen had to be closed again, because our manager had already put in a thirteen hour day in the kitchen and wasn't going to to keep cooking. She still had a couple hours worth of bookwork and real manager work of her own to do. That worker not showing up cost dollars lost for the owners in (no) food sales. Even thought we're shorthanded, how this woman still has a job is completely beyond me. 

I have to remind myself that it's "Not my circus. Not my monkeys." but it's difficult knowing how the rest of us have to pick up the slack. I'll be glad when my shift is over tonight. Perhaps I can put this whole week behind me then.

One fun thing about my job - and I don't know whether or not I've shared this before - is that I'm bilingual. I speak pretty fluent Spanish, but haven't had much occasion to use it in years until I started this job. I have a regular Hispanic clientele at the station because they know I can communicate with them, so I wanted to improve.

One day I'd spent more time than I should have trying to understand a young man who didn't speak a word of English (except "hi") and who had lost his passport. In my defense, he began the conversation by saying he "didn't have his passport" - which started me down the whole wrong path. "You don't need a passport to purchase anything here." "Do you have an ID if you want to purchase beer?" among other completely unnecessary questions and answers. Finally, he typed into his cell phone translator that he "lost his passport". Ah ha! I opened the lost and found drawer in front of me to find his passport at the top of the pile. After that, he and I laughed, he made a purchase and left. 

Enter Paulina, a beautiful, young Hispanic woman who is completely bilingual. I recounted this incident with her, telling her it had happened about twenty minutes earlier. I really could have used her help. I had misunderstood one word that made all the difference. Pierda. I thought he'd said, pierna. One means "lost", and the second means "leg". We both laughed knowing that I'd been trying to sell him some of our delicious broasted chicken, instead of opening a drawer for his lost item. (Insert facepalm here.)

Paulina suggested I could increase my Spanish word power using an app called "Duolingo" on my cell phone. I immediately installed it, and as of today have been learning and becoming more fluent over the past ninety three days! 

I understand how having people to converse with helps, as in high school two of my dad's friends spoke Spanish with me all the time - a Mexican tailor and a Catholic priest, both SCUBA diving friends. Dad was an instructor in his spare time, so he had a wide array of students and diving buddies who would come to the house to have their air cylinders filled. I learned Mexican Spanish from the tailor, and the priest spoke to me in Portuguese and Castillian (high) Spain-Spanish (even conversing with me by telephone when he spent time as a missionary in Paraguay). 

Paulina came into the station yesterday and asked how I was doing with the app, so I showed her my score. The best part was when she asked me if I have a person to regularly converse with in Spanish, I replied that I only converse with the customers, and there are a couple who are bilingual who like tutoring me when they're in the store. She said she'd be happy to stop in from time to time to have some conversation sessions. I immediately accepted her offer and look forward to her next visit.

I will say that when I learned Spanish over - ahem - five decades ago, I was fluent in conversation, writing and reading. I read college level textbooks in Spanish, watched movies without subtitles, and even dreamed in the language. Since I've been studying again, I'm again dreaming in Spanish, practicing writing and reading more. I even pulled out my old textbooks for more practice. The funny part is that, more than once, I've sat down to my computer to write a blog post and have to remind myself to write it in English. Funny, eh?

So, there was a silver lining in this week's clouds after all. I must remind myself to concentrate on such bright spots, and cast away the gloomy bits. I'll be much happier at the end of the day. A good lesson, wouldn't you agree? 

Finally, do you like that I managed to get two song titles into this post? hee hee I'm rather chuffed about that. Have a great weekend, friends. I'll see you again tomorrow. Right now, it's time for me to fly. (Squeeee. I got in one more!)

¡Hasta la próxima! (Until next time!)