Viva Espana

This morning was the 4th of 5 mornings I woke at stupid o'clock for a sport-related activity.  Thursday and Friday were for practice runs, waking around 5am.  Saturday I had a delightful sleep-in (thankfully I'd cancelled my morning students - the first is usually scheduled for 8am, arriving 7:55 or so, but I woke up at 7:59 - it was bliss).  Sunday was the lovely 4:20am wake up for the Gold Coast Half Marathon.  Today I woke at 4:30 in preparation for the Euro Cup Final.  Admittedly, my plan of making a cup of coffee to help things along didn't pan out, and I fell asleep again until about 5:45...

It's not often that I alter my sleep habits for sport.  And it's not that I'm a massive soccer fan.  But I did feel that this would be one of those games, and I didn't want to hear about it merely second hand.  Plus, my brother and his flatmate are big soccer fans.  So, once I woke and made myself less scary-looking, I hobbled down to their place.  And got to see the sky lightening beautifully.  There are definite benefits for waking stupidly early.

When I arrived at their place, I thought maybe they'd fallen asleep.  Then, when I saw them sitting attentively on the sofa with a doona each, I had the impression they were watching a movie.  But no, they were being considerate neighbours.  Of course, it is soccer, not known for goal-scoring.  And as I arrived early in the second half with a score of 2-0, I didn't expect to see any goals.  Surprisingly, I was wrong, and I got to see the next 2 goals as well.  I'm not sure I've seen so many soccer goals in total before, let alone in the one game.  As it turned out, this was a record for a Euro Cup final.  Next bonus - seeing the sun peeking over the city as I hobbled up the hill.

In honour of Spain's win, I decided to make a Spanish dish for dinner tonight.  Originally I intended to make empanadas (yum!) but there was just too much effort involved.  I should mention here that my day involved breakfast...a load of washing...coffee...phone call with Dad...made bed...extensive nap...lunch...walked to the shops to buy ingredients for tonight's dinner...made dinner... you get the idea.  It felt like mostly sleeping.

Tonight's dinner, then, was Spanish Prawns with Spicy Lentils.  Unlike last time I tried to follow a recipe, this time I was much more diligent.  You can find it here if you want to try it.  My brother came over as well - even though he isn't a fan of lentils and I warned him what dinner would be.  Moreover, he said a couple of times how tasty it was.  I consider that a win.  Both of us were still hungry by the end though, so maybe it needed more imaginary crusty bread.  Oh yeah, I'm not good at remembering things like crusty bread, so you have to use your imagination here.  We did.

Today's photo:

My mega achievement for today was walking to the shops.  Slowly.  And I got to see the layered sky with the moon rising.

Mariachi and French Twist

Yesterday, Viola Man asked if I'd be interested in being one of two violins for a mariachi gig coming up soon.  Well, why not?  Rehearsal this morning (thankfully!) was a great start to my holidays. 

Obviously, this was my first time.  It turned out to be the singer's first time also, and things weren't going superbly well until the bass and lead guitarists turned up.  Then, all these charts started to work properly.  Some of the music I found familiar(ish), some was totally new - but after playing the few songs we rehearsed several times, they are now on repeat in my head.  It was also like a Spanish immersion experience, about half the language spoken was Spanish and then it would switch suddenly to English.  I was surprised how much I could understand, although by the end my brain was a little slow.  Note: in a music rehearsal, numbers are important.

Having a morning rehearsal (what self-respecting muso does that, really?!) meant I was desperately in need of a coffee by about halfway through, and amazingly hungry by the end.  We went to the sushi place at the Barracks for lunch, then French Twist for a (much-needed!) coffee.  I've often walked past French Twist heading towards Libertini's, or back to the Palace Cinemas or fab, but never walked in.  I really like the French vibe - dark wood floors, display cases (with many yummy goodies), shelves with bottles and tea sets and things.  We had to go to 2 registers before we got to the one that would take our order, but once we'd ordered there wasn't a huge wait.  Having coffee in a gold-rimmed cup is lovely!  Coffee itself was average but (as you might have realised) the chocolate topping is important, and as that was good, it passes the test.

Hola

In hindsight, I had quite a linguistically rich upbringing.  My mum's an English teacher and has a Masters in English Literature.  My dad is a theologian and has lectured in ancient Hebrew and ancient Greek.  Both did high school French, and Latin was a normal part of conversation (as in, "what does this word mean?" "well, it comes from the Latin root ... ").  When I was a toddler I know dad was speaking German.  In primary school we did a semester each of French, German, and Japanese, and a term each of Italian and Indonesian.  I did German and Japanese all through high school.  Not to mention, music and all the language skills that provides.  After high school I went on a trip that included a visit to Montreal and Quebec, as well as France and Germany, so I have a bit of French (although I really don't feel comfortable with that language). 

The end result of all this is that I'm reasonable when it comes to working out translations of French, German, and Italian, and I feel I would not drown if I landed somewhere that spoke one of those languages.  Spanish, however, is another matter.  When faced with Spanish text, I'm mostly lost.  I can get a very little bit, but it's only a few words here and there. 

Last year, I decided I wanted to go Italy.  I've mentioned before that I started learning Italian, and I thought that I would continue that this year.  But, realistically, a trip to Italy is not going to happen any time soon.  Now, a lot of the time, my motivation for doing something is a feeling that I can't do it yet.  Having written that, I admit that looks a little odd, but I don't like having things on my "I can't" list.  So becoming more familiar with Spanish seems like a good idea.  Also, it is the 3rd most spoken language in the world.  Do I even need to mention, tangos...?  But the deciding factor really is, I don't know any Italian speakers - but Viola Man is a native Spanish speaker.  Every so often he'll include a Spanish phrase in a text, and while I can understand it, I'm sick of checking my response in iTranslate.  I want to be able to respond without thinking so much.

Having just spent more than my budget on clothes, I didn't want to spend lots of money on a language course.  My brother started a free online German course, and sent me the link.  Welcome to the language learning community.  Really, whoa!  As soon as I'd registered, chat requests kept popping up (in Spanish), and immediately after submitting a sentence for correction, I had oodles of responses.  The site I'm using is here and I'm not totally in love with it just yet.  The responses, and the total immersion, and the communication with native speakers (as well as being a native speaker) - these are all good things.  The use of pictures is also appreciated (especially the one for 'please' - they say a picture speaks a thousand words, this one had a bloke pleading with an obviously-annoyed, turned away woman).  However, I'm still having to use translation apps to work out what I want to say.  So, we'll see.