Category: Mexico

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Today we went out for lunch. Wednesday evenings are hectic and dinner is not really an option. Plus, we rarely go out to eat at night. We have our big meal during the day and then a light meal usually around 5 or 6 in the evening.

Today we went to Boston’s. The place was packed. There were so many big parties there that we ended up at a folding table in the middle of the smoking section. Fortunately for us the groups that were there were mostly high school kids. So there was not smoking going on around us.

I had spaghetti and meat balls with a side salad. My wife had nachos. Our kids at pizza and macaroni & cheese.

To make it look romantic and like I was in charge, she passed me the money under the table so I could pay.

Cool trash

It is not often that I get to find good trash off the street. Normally I look out and see the neighbors digging through my trash looking for good stuff I have thrown out. But, today it was my turn. My wife came in the house and said the neighbors had thrown out a computer case with a power supply still in it. I snatched it up.

What was funny was that the trash truck had already come by, but left the computer case. They typically don’t take anything but basic trash that is in bags. Stuff just sitting out gets left behind.

It took a while to clean it up. I have not yet tested it to see if the power supply is working. It seems to be a fairly nice case. Most people just buy a computer and know nothing about their case. But there are better and worse cases out there. I bought a cheap case a few years back and am still suffering with it. I may swap this one out for my current case.

You don’t find good trash just every day. So it was worth blogging about.

Burger King counter help

Today I was reminded of a story that happened a few years back when my wife and I were in language school to learn Spanish.

Often you will find while living in a foreign country that some people just don’t try to understand you. I have seen it in the US as well. People who have an accent often get ignored, or the listener does not even try to make out what the person is saying.

One day while we were in Cuernavaca, Mexico learning Spanish we went to Burger King for lunch. I stepped up to the counter and wanted 2 Whopper Jr. combos for the wife and me. Our boy would just have a bag of our fries. Good healthy meal.

I ordered “Dos de combo número cuatro. Sin cebolla.” (Two number four combos. Without onion.) My Spanish is not perfect, but I do pride myself on having pretty good pronunciation. Based on many of the people I work with, having better pronunciation than them is not too hard.

The girl behind the counter responded with. “No hablo inglés.” To which I just repeated my order in the best Spanish I could. She said again that she did not speak English and asked me to please speak Spanish with her. I told her that I was speaking Spanish and I repeated my order. She said again that she did not speak English.

At this point we were causing a scene. The lady behind me stepped up and repeated my order using exactly the same words I had used. The girl behind the counter thanked her for helping me and took my order through the lady behind me. I was a little embarrassed thinking that my pronunciation must not be as good as I thought.

After I paid and stepped down to the end of the counter I heard the lady behind me giving the counter girl “what for” because she refused to open her ears and listen. All she saw was that there was someone who was not a native Spanish speaker standing in front of her and she did not speak English. She never even tried to listen to what I was actually saying.

The lady then came down to where I was and apologized for the closed mindedness of some people. I don’t think that lady spoke any English either, but she said my Spanish was just fine and understandable. Being the foreigner, I did not want to make an issue of it. But this lady did not mind standing up for me.

So, next time you have trouble understanding someone who does not speak English just like you do, give them a bit of a break and be thankful that they are at least trying to learn to speak your language.

Sad realization about the Super Bowl

I have not watched football much the last 7 or 8 years. I finally got excited about the game this year for a couple of reasons. First is the fact that Peyton Manning played for Tennessee when we lived there, so it is a familiar name. He has also always struck me as a nice man. Though, I really know nothing about him.

But the second, and more important, reason is that I am excited about the commercials for the first time in several years. Even though I have not watched much ball, I have taped the Super Bowl for several years just to watch the commercials. There has not been the buzz surrounding the commercials the last few years like there was in the late 90s. Particularly I am interested in tech commercials.

But, alas, the commercials are replaced by Mexican commercials. This makes sense, but robs me of why I was interested in watching the game.

I guess I will just have to catch them on YouTube later tonight or tomorrow.

What have you learned from Dora the Explorer?

This morning our son got on a plane to head back to Mexico after being with my brother and his family for the last 2 weeks. After the lady at the counter escorted my son into the plane and handed him off to his escort for the trip (unaccompanied minors have an adult escort assigned by the airline), she came back out to talk with my brother. She said that our son and his escort were getting to know one another and suddenly they were both speaking Spanish instead of English.

The counter lady said to my brother, “He did not learn that just from watching Dora the Explorer did he?”