Catalan class.

Today's topic will simply have to be the first day of Catalan class. Though it wasn't actually the first day for everyone else, but I couldn't go on Tuesday.

The bus was late. What else, and filled to the unairconditioned brim with women who had applied FAR too much perfume. My eyes were watering, along with the sweat forming a thin film over most of my body. URGH.

I made it in time despite the dreadful traffic...and the class was....difficult, but about right I think. I had moments of feeling mulishly reluctant and uninterested in some of the activities, but being me, I rapidly re-scripted the set dialogue we were supposed to use and asked questions of my own.

I am probably the most fluent Catalan speaker there, which is pretty sad overall, although it is because I am the only one who really has to use it. The rest of them speak at least some Spanish, many are native speakers, and they all live in Barcelona, so really very little Catalan is used at all. There were some Anglos there of various ilk...I tried to stick to Catalan, it is one of the places I can practice it, I speak English all the time at work. And home. And in my head. And on my blog, for which you can be profoundly grateful.

I learned some fun new words....and my grammar has improved. Which is all good. It is going to be brutally tough to keep up with the work load as I miss two out of the five classes every week, but what can I do.

Once again, my biggest challenge is understanding what she says to us...she put us in a circle and I, inevitably, had my back to her...necessitating a prolonged Yoga twist whenever she started to talk, most of me was fine, but I was starting to wonder how my neck would cope.

The real problem is going to be my brain.

Wish me luck.

No word from the mactac police yet...thank goodness.

Strange happenings I guess

One of the things I. Just. Don't. Understand. is why the schools here want us to plastic wrap all the kid's books. You know that adhesive clear plastic stuff librarians love so much? The stuff that will end in a landfill and which has a half life rivaling a radioactive atom? Mactac I think its called...

They want me to spend I know not how long finding this crap, then probably longer entombing my children's every text book in it, which I may add I OWN as I had to PURCHASE them for an OUTRAGEOUS amount of money.....(think around 600 dollars total)

I think the premise is that we can then reuse the books for younger children when they get there, but I am reliably informed that they change the textbooks slightly every year so you need a new one anyway.

I have not done it yet, and I am daring them to approach my anarchistic immigrant *ss and tell me too.....

*maniacal laughter Bwahahahahahaha*

On a similar note, Eldest's teacher wanted to have an urgent meeting with us. (MACTAC????) Now urgent meetings with your student's teacher fills any parent's heart, not to say lower digestive tract, with a certain wobbliness and wateriness...(coining new English words here every moment).

Turns out that all is well. He wanted to let us know that eldest will be getting two hours a week extra help with Catalan, plus two hours a week for sums, you know those boring math problems you have to do endlessly until you are fairly solid at it, and also for...hmmmm how do I translate this....social and natural studies I guess. Thought I think that is mostly Catalan vocab....Her teacher also said that she is very good at mental math. Will wonders never cease.

He said she was a delightful and lovely person and he is happy to teach her. No surprise to her doting parents. He also said that she is well motivated in some subjects but in others he needs to be (literal translation here) 'vigilant' as in on her back to get the work done. Again not a stunning surprise to her still doting parents. He mentioned, so that we wouldn't worry, that most kids need to be stood over from some subjects - I refrained from emitting a long drawn out 'duuuuuuuuhhhhhh, like, say...........after school extra English classes?' But he is a very nice man who I like a lot, so I smiled and nodded.

Ha! Third off topic ramble.

The other day I was in the bakers at a mere 8am when a man in there, a complete stranger turned to me and said, 'Es la segona (something I couldn't understand) que B*tch!'....And I think...'It is the second....I have no idea...that man just called me a b*tch!! at 8am!!!!! in my local bakers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No.....he could not have possibly called me a b*tch at this hour of the day....OK, smile and nod...

So I did.

There I am nodding and smiling "Si...si....si...." Meanwhile thinking to myself...."yes yes yes, your right I am a b*tch....Am I really agreeing with this in public at this hour on a Monday morning? What the h*ll did he say??????????"

I eventually figured it out when he went on....he was telling me that this was the second time today he had seen me. Earlier I was out walking the dog. All true.

The word for to see in whatever the heck tense he was using sounds just like b*tch...I had a good laugh later and told the story to lots of folks...all of us laughing except some of my fellow English teachers for whom it hit a little close to home.

Beach - b*tch.....

sh*t - sheet.....

Which is which.

I told them English swear words tend to be the deeper vowel sounds, if the vowel is sitting right up behind your teeth, that is probably OK to say.

One of the friends who was just visiting us told us that in high school, she had a math teacher who had a strong accent, and whenever there was a test, he would hand out a package of full-scap paper to the front student in every row telling them to, "take a sh*t and pass it back."

*snort*

OK, I'll try for something less base tomorrow....

Honesty in advertising

I was in the market this morning buying a little something for the girls for snack, and low and behold, there in the display case was pa de fetge.

Now for those of you who are not fluent Catalan speakers, that would be liver bread.

Yessirree Bob. Liver bread.

Gotta love honesty in advertising.

I still don't think it would sell well in North America.

Do you?

A busy creative day...

I woke up this morning burning with ambition.....

First I made this lampshade for the new light....



Then hung these cloth pieces that I sewed onto the canvases yesterday. The man got involved here, cause it just seemed like fun to roust him out of his peaceful perusal of a book and have him do this with me....



Then I found this abandoned drawing by youngest...she had sketched the bather but didn't like it, I added to it, and we both quite like it now....



This one...meh....not finished. Most of it I really like, but the chair....it so sucks. Sucks even worse without the collaged coloured section. Needs massive revision, but bits are, in my humble opinion pretty good....



This is what the table looked like for most of the day....



This one I like a lot...if you are an avid reader, you may recognise the blue section as a part of an older painting I had written off as hopeless....I like it quite a lot now...touched it up then collaged it onto this....



Now I am off with the man to the local policia to report a stray dog...the three who attacked Chuck the other day showed up, one I know, one has a collar and one, the female, is stray. The policia alert the protectora...or dog catcher, and then she will hopefully eventually find a home, and stop attacking my dog.

Movie night tonight...here comes popcorn and cocoa. mmmmmmmm

Ummmm.

Our friends left today.

So sad.

We went to BCN which was lovely, I may say more later, and I have finally gotten all the supplies for the painting class.

Now THAT was fun.

Tomorrow we plan to do little. I have managed to get a photo I took blown up and framed...about 60 cm X 60 cm. Plus I bought stretched canvas to mount two pieces of fabric my parents brought back from China...I just sewed it onto the canvas. I'm bagged, so I think I'll show you tomorrow.



That's the photo I got enlarged and framed up. Love it.

Time for bed for me.....and read a bit more.

Fun and productive day anyway.

Dogs and Schools

I didn't have time to post yesterday about my walk with the dog in the hills. We were contentedly trotting along with a nice strong cool headwind...Chuck was very interested in something he could smell further up ahead of us...on we went. My human and less astute senses finally found out what it was...three astoundingly enormous German shepherds. Loose. They came up to my waist with heads three times the size of mine easily.

Fun wow.

We went on, no problem, but then a bunch further down the road they appeared when Chuck was a bit behind me. I could hear him doing his whiney whiney let's make friends thing...the next thing I hear is the sounds of a raging dog fight.

Nasty words were spoken at this point, and it flashed through my mind that this would be a damn stupid way to die. Fortunately the dogs took off when I bellowed at them. I can sound pretty wildly aggressive when I want to, and I was fairly angry.

Chuck came running to me like I was the only thing between him and the devil, which isn't that far off....

He was basically OK, although there are a few spots on him he doesn't really want us to touch.

I am going to be getting myself a nice solid walking stick with an enormous spiky handle to it...a good underarm swing and that should rid me of most canine difficulties. I believe they were historically called a mace.

The other big news on this front is that I went into Barcelona to sign up for my Catalan lessons. I was slotted in level 2, which is great, and so I headed off extra early...waiting for the bus before the sun came up as it was a first come first serve situation....and there were only 20 spaces for my class. I arrived on sight 45 minutes early, figuring I was in for a good thing.

There were easily 350 people in line.

Easily.

I asked the guys in the front of the cue when they had gotten there. 9pm the night before. Holy cow...for Catalan lessons!

I nearly left right then, but the lovely ladies in the line around me said, "No, stay with us, we'll chat and have fun, and who knows...maybe you'll make it." I figured, what the heck, I can only not get in, so I waited and waited. An hour and a half later I was able to see the doorway in.

Guess what? Go on....

I GOT IN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

So now every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning I have to head off to study....I will try not to post too much grammar. I promise I'll try. The course is an intensive, every day of the week, but I have to teach Tuesdays and Thursdays so it is going to be a struggle to keep up, but if the teacher is willing and lets me know what she is going to cover the next day I can ask around here about it.

*huge sigh of relief*

*gasp or horror at the work*

It'll be good.

We're having a fancy dinner tonight, it is our friends' last night and they are cooking up a storm. How good is that? Plus we invited a friend from town over and she is making desert! I'm having a dinner party and I don't have to cook!!!!

I am not quite sure how that happened, but I cannot say I mind.

Plus our delightful guests found us a knife sharpener, which we desperately needed, and look what they made for us................




We had no light over the dinner table, so this is what he put together for us! He got the fixture and wires and hooked it up, and made a shade for us with the kids for the time being. It is made from an old olive oil bottle tastefully decorated by youngest. I have thoughts for another shade. Plans plans plans.....

BCN for the day

Went to BCN today and saw these masks in a store....







Aren't they amazing? I didn't take a picture of the condom store next door...

These shoes, worth about $200, I find sincerely U.G.L.Y.




Blech.

Feeling a bit better, but not all the way there....

Tired.

G'night.

Quick post

Very tired...woke up in the night with one almighty awful bladder infection. There aren't you charmed to know that? I was fine when I went to bed. Anywhooooo, since I had the big test today, I took myself off to our local medical center (2 blocks away) which is open 24 hours a day!

A burly kinda guy opened the door reluctantly after I rang the bell, which I may add sounded like a freaking fire alarm. Guess some of those folks sleep soundly. I talked to him for a while. Man, or HOMBRE, is my Catalan crap at 5am when I am not very well, especially since he only spoke Spanish....Finally he asked me the same thing three times...I eventually interpreted it as "Do I want to see a Doctor?" Well, what the hell do you think I am doing at 5am in the rain? Just thought I'd come over for a chat about my slightly gross internal problems with a complete stranger with whom I can only barely communicate?

I bit back the sour comment and stuck with 'si, si'us plau' Yes please.

He kindly ignored the fact that my temporary health card expired about 8 months ago and I went up to where I found a Dr, also only Spanish speaking and with what was frankly an adorably appalling case of bed head. Like little boys get.

Tests done, prescription given, and I am sent over to the farmacia which also will provide on demand all night long. (Don't go there, I know what your thinking)

I did however feel bad about wrenching someone out of their bed at 5:45 am when I was not in agony, so I stood around for about 20 minutes in case the Doctor had phoned for me. In the rain. One of the realities of not speaking the language well, miss one vowel and you aren't sure who is supposed to do the calling.

Bed.

The man called them around 7:30, pharmacist showed up by 7:50, home by 8am.



The language test:

Seems my oral language skills were in level two of five, which when I read the requirements seemed about right. Lets hope I didn't trash out on the written component. I was a bit of a mess heading out after the mornings to-do though. I managed to forget my passport, though it turns out I didn't need it. I also forgot any sort of writting utensil. I mean really how stupid is that, what was I thinking? I'd write it in spit? Clearly I wasn't thinking at all.

I have to enroll on Friday morning at 9am. First come first served. I anticipate getting there shortly after 8am if I can.

*Groan*

Gotta walk the dog now, and our friends come back sometimes tonight.

I nearly finished another piece of painting/multi-media. It is currently drying under weights...we'll have to see what I think when it is done.

Maybe I'll post a pic if I think it is OK.

Food and grammar. Sorry.

It may be hard to believe, but I got tired of absolutely fresh crusty white bread, so felt compelled to make up this mess of kasha, or buckwheat groats as some people call them with fried onions and shallots (does anything smell better?)plus a couple of fried eggs, some peppers cut up...I so like the ones here, they are long and thin and the not nearly as meaty as the N. American ones, but they have such a lovely punchy flavour and the cupboard smells glorious when I open it, plus tomatoes from a garden! They grew in the GROUND! I had to wash DIRT off them. Boy do they taste good.

That was lunch.

The other thing that I discovered today is that past simple in English isn't. That is it isn't simple.

I walked seems straight forward, but all those regular past participles? Some of them we pronounce 'ed', some like a 't' for instance walked, and some like just a 'd'. Then there is using them. I walked to the store. A positive statement, but what if that is not what happened? I didn't walk to the store. An entire auxiliary verb appears, in the past and the main verb goes back into it's basic present form.

A question...Did I walk to the store? Auxiliary verb in past, changed word order, then the verb in normal mode. Yes, I did..Where the heck did that verb go anyway?

Then you have 'to be' like we never use that...I was, you were, he was she was etc...and in the negative? I wasn't. Question...Was I? Where did that auxiliary verb go and WHY?

Then finally, you've got to love this...Did I do that? No I didn't, you did that. Would that the the auxiliary or the main verb. How can you have an auxiliary that is the same as the main verb anyway. It just isn't FAIR.

Poor things.

Poor you for having to read all that. Sorry. The test is tomorrow, maybe I will stop harping on about grammatical forms after that.

Wish me luck. (Not Basic 1....PLEASE)

I'm not sure what all....

It's sign up time for all the extracurricular activities here...today I got eldest enrolled in the local theater class for 11 - 14 year olds, and both of them are mostly enrolled in the painting class being offered in town, me too!!!! I've met the teacher, got the shopping list and I just have to hand in the form tomorrow.

The teacher didn't mind that I have to leave an hour early to get to work teaching English, which is very kind of her, and so I am off on Monday for my first painting class since I was 18!!!

*girlish gleeful squeals*

I am also studying hard (not hard enough but I am not sure that you ever can) for my big Catalan assessment test on Wednesday morning. Gack. I just don't want to end up in beginner one. I like to think that in the last ten months I have made some advances in my Catalan and I don't have to go right back to the days of the week -dillunes, dimarts, dimecres, dijous, divendres, dissabtes i diuminge - and the months of the year which I won't list, and I can hear the thanks.

Anywhooo, even if I am in basic one *sob* it will still be Catalan pouring into my rattling empty head, so that will still be good. I am currently understanding about 50% of what is said to me, not the words, but the general gist, and I am getting to the same level of marginal understanding/misunderstanding that I achieved last year but they don't have to repeat it so damn often now, so I think I am continuing to improve. The Catalan language painting course should be fun too. yahooooo!!! The teacher seems very nice and is very funny and enthusiastic and talks with her whole body, very animated which definitely helps me...a burnt sienna paint here is sienna tostada! Gotta love it, though I think that is Castillian, it would be sienna crema in Catalan. I think.

The English classes I am teaching are going somewhat more smoothly, partially because the students are more used to being in school and partially because I have successfully established my witch credentials giving myself more authority in the room; though the kids continue to teach me interesting vocabulary. *sigh* Not vocab I can use though.

I should go study, I have been looking at the declinations of adjectives in the masculine/feminine and singular and plural. Some have two declinations a singular and plural, not too bad, add an s, some have three and some vary in every seperate group giving them a full four different forms. *gentle weeping* Most are regular, but get this one...automatic, automatica, automatics, automatigues...this doesn't include the accent that appears and disappears over the second a for no apparent reason.

Enough, that one isn't too bad, I can figure out the meaning, some aren't in my dictionary even. Fun wow. Though on a good note, I also now have two women lined up with whom I am trading English and Catalan lessons, so there's a little more as well. With any luck that will get me to approximately 7 hours of Catalan instruction/practice a week, aside from trying to enroll in painting classes, etc.

'nuff said.

Hope you all had a decent day, better yet, hope it was great.

Happy Birthday Mom, Love ya tons.