Spanglish

There are few things more surreal, from a language standpoint, than sitting in a classroom while a native teacher instructs the students in pronunciation. The singsong-like repetition along with morphed vowel shapes and sounds means "English" practice loses all semblance of language and it all washes over me like a Gregorian chant. Or something like that.

After this chanting effectively wipes away all firmly fixed ideas about English as a language, I become frighteningly receptive to a new sort of language...Spanglish.I'm not talking about Spanglish as in adding in a Spanish word here or there, for the most part, but instead a more insidious version. A Spanglish that roots deep into structures and thinking patterns, until everything's pure "disorder."

Here are some of my favorite Spanglish words and phrases that I hear even my most fluent of English counterparts using on a regular basis:

• "I don't listen." This actually is probably true. But what they're trying to say is, "I can't hear," or, "I didn't hear you."
• "Remember me." This is not a corny plea nor that terrible movie by one of the Twilight actors, but means, instead, "remind me"
• "Explain me." No, this does not mean to sit down and have a Freudian-like consult, but instead indicates that someone requires an explanation
• An "ubication," or, "I have to ubicate myself." The speaker is referring to a location, or the action "to locate." The Spanish verb is "ubicar" and somehow the fact that it's not an English word hasn't quite caught on.
• "Say me." Rather than asking for a repetition of "me," this usually indicates someone is interested in being told something. Often told to the students as an instruction.
• "Pass in front of the class." This means to come up and take a turn, and although it is actually okay to say this in English (I think?), whenever it's said--which is very often--I can't help thinking two students are going to be throwing footballs around up in the front of the room.
• to "Make a test." When said, this almost never refers to actually creating a test, but rather giving it. "Hacer," means to do or to make, which is how the phrase is said in Spanish. Apparently they only give gifts around here, not so much tests.
• "Alone," referring to locations: "That street is very alone." Meaning, it  isn't very inhabited, and is not safe to walk down at any time of day or night. Sola is the Spanish word, used for alone and uninhabited/empty.
• to "Molest." This is not something children should worry about, but instead the speaker means it in its most tepid definition, as in, "to bother." Which happens to translate into Spanish as "molestar."
• "Delicious" used to describe things like nice days, or a pleasant time with friends. "Que rico!" is the Spanish saying...which means my English speakers talk about delicious, say, people, far more than I'm comfortable with.
• "Thanks God." They're not saying, "Hey, Thanks, God!" Instead this is almost exclusively said in exclamation form, like, "Thanks God it didn't rain today!" I like the informal connotations, however. 

There are lots more. Some of this comes from the fact that Spanish has a pretty awesome concept of reflexive verbs (verbs inherently indicate whether or not they include internal action...as in, instead of saying "I sit" it's more like, "I sit myself." That's a really unscientific explanation. What can I say, Peace Corps refuses to teach grammar when they do their language instruction...)  Some of it...I have no idea. The scary part is when find myself adding Spanish structures to my English, too. And not as a joke.

Either way, inherent Spanglish is rapidly becoming a part of my daily reality. Along the lines of watching a small boy tote a parrot around a hostel on a giant stick and no one finding that odd, including me (uper adorable, though). Or hearing what sounds like gunshots outside the house, passing them off as a car backfiring, and realizing they actually were gunshots. (That happened just two days ago. No one was hurt...just some idiot trying to steal a car in plain daylight. From the garage of a house that's being given away by lottery. Speaking of almost-but-not-quite normal...)

I guess one thing I never expected, in all of this, was to become legitimately unsure of my own language, and to inherit the same speech patterns that stuck out so glaringly as incorrect when I first arrived. It's not that I don't care anymore, or that I don't think that perhaps I should be correcting, at the least, my English teachers who use these constructs...but after a while, the repetition and obvious inability to correct the entire English-speaking world, here, just starts to rub off. Who knows, anyway, what correct English is? I sure don't!

 Not sure what the long term effects are, but, with no other options, will just be continuing onward with the "I have no idea what's going on in life or in my head" that's become my general MO! Oh..and I guess I'll keep on teaching English, while I'm at it...

Minca Honey + Maiz Pira = ....KETTLE CORN

So, I mentioned in my last post I'd bought some of raw honey from the mountain village Minca near Santa Marta. I've used it in a few divine combinations so far, including with cinnamon and apples, and with mustard, ginger, and carrots.

Tonight we made...Kettle Corn.

In case you don't know, I am...more than slightly obsessed with Kettle Corn. The proverbial fat kid at the state fair when it's around. At the Madison Farmer's Market, two corners of the square hold booths that offer kettle corn, which meant that I could, and routinely did, buy one bag of kettle corn for immediate consumption and then refill without even a backtrack.

After a fun day of cooking other things with Jessica (blackbeans with bell pepper, carrot and zucchini salad, apples and oatmeal), and then digesting, Tyler and I decided to make popcorn. "Let's make kettle corn," he said. Amateurs that we were, for our first batch we cooked up the popcorn and added a halfcup of sugar. Let me tell you, that does approximately nothing.

Barely tasting the sugar, we devoured batch number one accompanied by the jalapeno sauce Tyler brought back from his medically-necessitated trip to Panama (read: intracountry food run!)

But there had to be a way to make it actually taste delicious, right? So, not a quarter way through our first giant bowl, I googled Kettle Corn recipes. Soooo easy. Add sugar to the oil and THEN pop the corn, sprinkle on salt immediately thereafter. Of course we decided to make batch number TWO.

Except, the family sugar supply was running dangerously low. Don't you know, it takes at least a cup of sugar to make a pitcher of fresh juice...

So in came the Minca Honey. Same deal, different sweetener. Tons of shaking required, because it makes the kernels sticky...but that just justifies eating that second batch, right...??

Anyway, yeah. At-Home, Colombia-enabled, KETTLE CORN. It's a good night.

Recipe:

1/4 cup  oil
1/2 cup honey
6 tablespoons maiz pira (popcorn kernels)
sprinkle of salt

Heat honey til warm and homogenous. Add oil and a few kernels, listen for pop. Add the rest of the popcorn and do the shake 3 sec, wait 3 sec (on the burner) until the kernels stop popping. Sprinkle with salt, let cool slightly, enjoy TREMENDOUSLY

:D

So, it's been a while

I've been...busy? Not much has happened in and of itself that's all that new or exciting (minus a visit from a friend from the US (!) but we mostly retread old stomping grounds) . As substitute, here's an aggregate of the last few weeks

1. Started school. I'm teaching with 4 new teachers, most of whom don't speak English past an A2 level. And yet, it's been great planning and teaching with them so far...not because our classes are amazing, but because it feels like we're actually getting a bit done. Slow change is definitely the new motto.

2. Had another US visitor (!). We checked out Santa Marta and Minca, this amazing little mountain town outside of Santa Marta. Visited waterfalls and wells, bought fresh coffee from a local family (which naturally turned into a spontaneous revivalist prayer meeting), and saw more hummingbirds in fifteen minutes than I've seen total in my life. Turns out there are a few varieties in the Sierra Nevadas in that area that don't exist anywhere else...but you'd have to ask the real birdwatchers what they were. I just saw incredibly gorgeous, tiny, iridescent birds of different shades and sizes...

3. Bought and ate raw honey, from Minca. Complete with little insects, that's how real it is. Used it in stovetop apple crisp (chopped apples plus cinnamon plus a pinch of salt and juice of a lime, boiled down in water with honey, topped with granola and yogurt. Amazing.)

4. I am turning orange. Slightly. Nothing to match another PCV who is incredibly, noticeably orange. You know that whole eat-too-many-carrots-you-turn-orange myth? Not such a myth. Have to say, I'm pretty proud of my slightly orange-shaded palms. Turns out subsidizing one's diet with carrots, tomatoes, papaya, and squash has a henna-ish effect...

5. I've consumed ridiculous amounts of guanabana, which has recently come into season. It's bigger and much heavier than a football, and resembles something like a headless, tail-less, wingless dragon. Its flesh is white, sort of like a fish but more fibrous, and has these giant black seeds you have to work out with your teeth. It's flavored something like a mixed-fruit smoothie, all on its own. ...In short, it's terrifying and delicious. Check it out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soursop

6. I am also becoming cat-like. Sadly, only in the virtue of hating to get my feet wet. We're entering the second rainy season. Today the streets had turned into a grid of arroyos between my house and school, but from rain from the north that never actually reached us, in the coming-from-the-sky version Which meant that in order to not wet my feet/splash through nasty arroyo water, I walked about 30 minutes out of my way in weather that had not cooled post-rain...because all the rain had stayed on the northern (read: heavens-favored in all ways) part of the city.

7. Going on a month, now, I have listened exclusively to Modest Mouse. Colombia, you are changing my musical tastes.

8. I haven't progressed further in learning to play guitar, but I do own one now. And can play a few songs. I'll keep you posted on progress once I get back into practicing. Nothing like strumming kumbayah, however, to make one feel like a genuine PCV, that's for sure.

9. Turns out, soy milk is great for cooking veggies in, for curry-like mixtures. Also turns out, cooking tomatoes in real milk causes it to curdle. (Science, you win yet again!) Fortunately, that just makes everything taste sort of cheesey...but soy milk is a great substitute. Albeit a bit expensive.

10. I found out my favorite (northern-located) panaderia has free wireless. This is going to wreak massive havoc on my (already carb-high) daily diet! They have FOCACCIA. With rosemary, garlic, tomatoes and onions. Focaccia, I say! Don't even get me started on the chocolate cake...