The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Friday, March 09, 2007
We needed groceries.... Moving into an apartment is great but there are a few things that usually you need to stock up on to make it a comfortable stay.
We went around the corner of Av. Sarmiento to our local grocer which is owned by Chinese people to buy a few necesities.... Bread, Milk, Cheese (hmmm lots of that in meals here already), Ham (same again), Crackers, Coffee, Tea, Toilet Paper... you know the usual.
THE GOOD:
I was very happy with myself by learning the Spanish to purchase things from the deli counter so that I could order 200g of Cheese and 300g of Ham.... not too hard but for someone whose been learning for only 4-5 days I was very happy. Anyway it all went well for me except forgetting to add the word ¨of¨to my requests, but that was no disaster.
THE BAD:
We received a phone call (¨we¨meaning ¨me¨since I have charge of the apartment's phone, which happens to be a mobile affair) received a call from the land lord to let us know that she was coming around to drop off a new key. About 15minutes later and me passing the phone to Kellie in frustration I still had no idea that was what she was requesting. We ended up giving the number of another Australian who is staying her to the landlord as a translater however I don't think she used it.......
THE UGLY:
Our landlord did a surprise visit (well at least it was for us as we didn´t understand her original Spanish request) with her daughter in tow. They had come to change the locks to a more functional mechanism and (I think) check us out. A lot of gesturing and phone calls to our Spanish speaking Australian friend and we finally worked out that we had to exchange keys for the new lock.
Did I mention that Kellie was in bed having a rest? =) It was very hard.
* It was very frustrating not being able to understand basic Spanish.... I can request things reasonably well, but when I am trying to determine what someone is saying to me, is where it gets interesting. I think that while we are immersing ourselves in the culture, when we get back home, we'll start Spanish classes properly.
Posted byAndrew at 8:00 pm