Salmon in Spanish

There is a Foot in Mouth coming in this post, but first some very important news: Lars doesn't like fish all that much. I, however, do.

I remember one of my sisters teasing him for being Norwegian and NOT liking fish. That seemed to be a bit of an oxymoron in her mind. I don't hold it against him though, as there are many things that I don't like that he definitely does. There are, in fact, almost certainly more things that are common in everyday life that I don't like that he does enjoy--like black coffee. Or beer. Or wine. Yeah, I'm a pain in the ass...but that's what happens when you have your first drinking experiences in Spain, when the weather is still HOT, and you learn to drink a light, sweet, refreshing Spanish drink like tinto de verano (which is even weaker than sangria).

So I don't cook fish. Ever. Luckily, my good friend Linda is an exceptional cook and invites me for dinner from time to time. We always eat salmon since we both love it and it has been expressed that I am lacking a bit of fish in my diet.

So to get to the Foot in Mouth--the combination of Linda's recent dinner invitation and my speculation about how I developed my drinking tastes in Spain reminded me of a classic one that I just have to share . . . . . .

The year is 2007 and I am studying in Granada, Spain with a group of almost 30 American students. October is transitioning into November and we are awarded a week long and much needed break from our intense Spanish classes. Everyone is making travel plans. I join two roommates, Jessica and Justine, for a few days in London and then an unofficial tour across Ireland afterwards. We have a trip of a lifetime, getting rained on and taking mature touristy shots in London:

We meet a Spanish recommended, Italian friend named Alessandra and have a delicious salmon dinner at her home a bit outside the city:

We hop a flight to Ireland, wander around different crooks and crannies of Dublin, spend some hours recovering in a cozy coffee shop:

(Jessica, me, Justine)

We hit the pubs at night and get bought beer after beer by friendly Irishmen. I don't manage to drink any of them and get reprimanded by Justine for telling our new Irish friend Patty (yes that was really his name!) that Guinness tastes like ass.

We hop a bus across the country and a ferry out to the tiny Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland. We rent bikes and ride, regardless of the rain, out to the cliffs.

We head back to our hostel and down to the one and only pub on the island. We meet and dance with some spry young locals:

They try to teach us Gaelic, but our brains are too full of Spanish vocabulary to retain anything else. Exhausted, we head back to Spain, courtesy of Ryan Air. Lucky for us the same Spaniard that recommended us to meet with Alessandra picks us up from the airport. He of course is curious about our trip, and most of all wants to hear about our time with his Italian friend of many years.

All three of us are more or less fluent in Spanish, but that of course does not mean that we are exempt from making asses of ourselves in the foreign tongue. We begin obliging his questions and expressing our gratitude for her hospitality and his recommendation. He wants more details; What did you guys do? How is she doing? Did you see her house? I describe that she was wonderful. She gave us a tour of the city and made us a delicious dinner, I tell him. Justine details what she cooked for us, as it was so very delicious and definitely a highlight on our traveling menu. "Salmon" in Spanish is salmón, which is indeed very similar to the English word, but is also hysterically and unfortunately dangerously close to another Spanish word with a very different meaning.

So Justine wants to say that Alessandra is a very nice woman. And that she made us an incredibly delicious salmon dinner. It comes out a bit like this:

Alessandra es una mujer muy simpática.

Ok, so far so good--Alessandra is a very nice woman. She continues,

Ella nos preparó una cena de semen que fue increíblemente deliciosa.

Insert foot in mouth here!
Semen and salmon do sound similar in Spanish and after over a week of wandering in English speaking lands, I suppose simple Spanish mistakes could be expected. Plus we were exhausted. Which for me, just made it all the more hilarious. We exploded with laughter. While salmón means "salmon", as previously mentioned, semen on the other hand, well that means exactly what it spells in English: "semen". Or sperm. Or cum, or man seed, or however you call it.

She made us an incredibly delicious semen dinner. Wow, she really is a nice woman! And apparently a super cook as well! Num num!

Oh how I love language and the entertainment it provides. I am sure that my next post will be back to me and my mistakes in Norwegian. I do make them almost daily after all...

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ANOTHER new student!

I am pleased to say that it seems like this BuddySchool thing is really taking off. I just spent an hour talking with Gil from Korea and think it is not such a bad way to make a $7\hr wage. :D

Even more excitingly I got contacted by a man named Raimundo from Brazil! Another new student--heck yes! He is looking to take both English and potentially Spanish classes from me and seems like he has a good level of English already (much easier to teach via Skype if you can understand what the hell they are saying haha). He hasn't tried to raggle my price down either, which means I will be making a whopping $8\hr teaching him on Monday and Tuesday next week. Not too shabby...

Maybe I will quit school and tutor all day long!

Easter stories to come one day I PROMISE! Stay tuned!

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The Search Continues

First of all, Easter in Norway ROCKED. Waaay too many good stories to share now (stay tuned), but let's just say it was super cool and I surprisingly I didn't miss the egg hunting all that much.

But I thought I would write a little blurb about the job situation. No news on working in Norway yet (big surprise), so I have been focusing my efforts in WA. My darling friend Anne has secured me a mid-May position in Tacoma working at the Antique Sandwich Company. While a job is a job, I am really looking for something closer to home. I would much rather stay on my parents property for the lovely price of free than pay for rent somewhere in Stinky Town.

So I have started looking around in Poulsbo. I called Azteca today and heard that they were looking for a server, but that applying online wasn't really an option--one has to come down and apply in person. This is obviously out of the question, and even when I explained myself it wasn't going anywhere. It was good to know that people are hiring though. I tried JJ's via phone as well, but they were to busy to talk (as always). I am not so sure I want to return there anyway since the staff tends to be a bit dramatic and catty. I applied online and sent emails to all kinds of places, from Red Robin to Camp Indianola to nannying jobs to house sitting to translating to Olive Garden! It is really hard to apply for jobs in a small place like Poulsbo online...it is much easier when you can drive up, hand in a resume and shake someone's hand!

So my night was filled with job searching and applying... but there was only one of them has kept me up so late on a school night due to enthusiasm. I found a job offer to teach Spanish to kids at Martha and Mary Early Learning Center (also an eldery home and daycare) in Poulsbo! It is listed for about 20-25 hours a week, which I would hope would work well in combo with a restaurant job! I emailed the woman in charge, and now we will wait and see. I really hope something comes of this one!

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Jobs

As I haven't heard anything back from the NRC yet, I am assuming the worst. I really think the first position I applied for was over my head, and they say on the website that they have finished the recruiting process for the second one (the administration assistant). I feel like that means a bit more than they just aren't accepting more applications, and I am thinking I am out of luck on this one. Unfortunately.

So that means my search continues. I picked up this pamphlet from school that was advertising all different kinds of classes and I tuned in quickly to the language classes. They offered so many, and among them Spanish and English...hmmm...so later on I checked out their site and in small print at the bottom it just happened to say that they were looking for English and Spanish teachers! Allrighty then!

Needless to say, I was thrilled and I contacted them immediately. I sent them my CV (resume) and I have been in conversations with this woman named Anne. She says that while they don't currently have a need for Spanish or English teachers (who knows how long that has been on their website) she wants to have a chat with me anyway! So next week I will be going in to talk with her. I hope something comes of this...I am at my wits end!

*I realized that I haven't explained why I am looking for other jobs. I still have my job at Poesi waiting for me, HOWEVER I am thinking that if I get denied the work permit again (which I feel like I might) then maybe I will have to go back to the states and reapply from there. I don't feel that I will be granted the work permit for this barista job even if I go about the application process the right way (from the U.S.) because it is not a job that they need to import someone to do; anyone can do it, i.e., a Norwegian. So I am trying to find a job in Norway that really NEEDS me for my skills and talents. Then if I find something like that, and I reapply from the U.S. like a good girl, they shouldn't have any reason to reject me again!

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Lately

I have been going more regularly to soccer practice three days a week and really getting my sweat on. I am loving loving loving being part of a team again. The girls are really starting to feel like teammates\ friends and I have really missed that camaraderie lot. We have also had a couple practice games (season starts in April). I have started all of them at right back. I am used to playing center back, but I think I have found a new love on the wing. I have more of an opportunity to be involved in the offensive attack and I get to slide tackle unsuspecting forwards a lot more, and a lot more cleanly. I am loving it, and I feel like I am getting better with each game! Not to mention soccer is seriously the best way I know to stay in shape!

School is also keeping me busy four days a week. I am enjoying it a lot more than I was before and I feel like I am progressing well in the language. I have met a lot of really interesting people from all over the world and I have had more of an effort to get to know them. I invited Ahmed (from Iraq) and Jean Claude (from Burundi) to come to Poesi and have a coffee with me one Wednesday after class, and we had such a good time chatting that we decided to make it a regular Wednesday date. Above and beyond the good it does for our Norwegian skills, I think it is also great for all of us to feel like we have friends beyond those people who we live with. I really enjoy the both of them, and man we are quite the trio--we agree on next to nothing except that we enjoy each other's company.

I thought it would be a good idea to do the same thing with Spanish...so I have been recruiting people bit by bit that speak Spanish and we are meeting on Fridays after class. It has just been me and Tesfaye before (from Cuba) but now we are inviting anyone that can manage the language...I think tomorrow we should be chatting with a woman from Peru and a Lebanese woman that lived in Mexico for quite a few years. It will be interesting to see how all our different levels and styles of Spanish will mesh together.

This weekend Lars and I are headed up to Tynset to visit his parents. His sister and Milan are up from Germany for a visit so we are looking forward to seeing the Brazilian\German on skiis and to cashing in our spa gift certificate that we got for Christmas from Lars' uncles. Milan has also hinted to me that a snow fight might be in my future. I am also pretty excited to see how handsome Lars is going to look after he gets a haircut from his cousin Gjertrud. He always looks so good when he has a fresh cut!!

Oh yeah, I still haven't heard anything back from the NRC about the jobs I applied for. I am not sure if this is good or not, but I know that they said they would contact you if they wanted you to come for an interview or NOT. So I suppose I just need to be patient and wait some more. You would think I would be good at this waiting game by now...

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Language Woes

You would assume that any language woes of mine would be directly involved with the Norwegian language and my struggles therein, since I have recently moved to Norway and been thrown headfirst into the språk. Norwegian, however, is going quite well. I am not thriving by any means, but rather doing quite well with surviving. I am not fluent by any means, but I am holding my own with communicating. And surprisingly, it is actually Spanish that is the cause of my language woes! Come on, I have been studying Spanish since I was 15, I lived in Spain and spent the last year of my college education analyzing old, famous, dead Spanish poets. Who would have ever guessed that at this stage in my life, speaking Spanish would be more challenging than speaking Norwegian?

It is 100% crazy. I do not mean to say that I now have more knowledge of the Norwegian language than I do of Spanish. It is certain that I am more fluent in Spanish: I have a larger vocabulary and much more experience speaking the language...but for whatever reason, it is much more natural for me to speak Norwegian now.

There is a man named Tesfaye that I speak Spanish with once in awhile. He was born in Ethiopia, but lived in Cuba for 14 years so he is much more cubano than africano. We met on Friday for some coffee and in my mind it was an opportunity for me to intentionally practice Spanish. It was close to a disaster. I felt like I had regressed years in my Spanish development. Actually I can't remember a time when speaking Spanish was that difficult and took that much thinking! It used to be natural! It was impossible for me to say 'no', 'but', 'and', 'now', 'yes', 'I agree', 'thanks' and other small phrases in Spanish, I naturally responded in Norwegian and what resulted was a nasty mess and butchering of the two languages! (Not to mention a confused Tesfaye!)

Explanations? I have many, and I don't know if any of them are on target or not. It could be that it is just normal IN NORWAY for me to be speaking norsk...or maybe it was that I had met Tesfaye at Poesi and I am used to speaking Norwegian there (on the job). It could even just be due to the fact that I have submerged my brain so deeply in Norwegian in my desperate attempt to learn as fast as possible, that it is going to take me awhile to kick the cobwebs off my Spanish skill set. Whatever the reason, it is really frustrating when something that used to be second nature becomes rusted shut in the corners of your brain.

I must learn to be able to keep the two separate. But how to do that?? The plan now is to read Norwegian and Spanish out loud back to back to try and help my poor, confused mind differentiate. I want to continue meeting with Tesfaye once a week and work out some more kinks with my spoken Spanish. I need to engage the language more, read books, write more emails etc etc. I think it is true what they jokingly say--if you don't use it, you lose it!

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