my obsession with Spanish, revisted

So, today at church I was asked by a member of our ward how my Spanish was. I laughed and said I had been studying it recently and had he known that.

He said no, but he was in charge of finding Sacrament meeting speakers for our local Spanish branch and they had given him a list of names (and mine was on it...it's been a few years since I've talked there, but I have done it a few times). So sometime soon I will be giving a talk to our Spanish branch.

The funny thing is, I felt something like this was going to happen. I don't consider myself to be good at understanding what the Spirit tells me, but I have noticed that sometimes what I am "obsessed" with winds up being useful.

For example, sometimes I go months and barely touch the piano, but then I'll get this desire to practice a lot. Then all of a sudden, I have to fill in for someone at church, and because I had been recently practicing, I do an OK job.

So when I got this big desire to work on my Spanish I wondered if I was being prompted to get ready for some situation where it would be helpful. Hmmm.

current obsession

I usually have a one (or two) track mind. I obsess on one thing for a few days to a few weeks, and sometimes even longer...and usually the housework suffers while I am obsessing.

I have some main interests: scrapbooking (which I haven't done in forever and am way behind), stamping, reading, doing genealogy, playing the piano, and, there are times that, even cleaning is on the list (I know, it's a shocker...most of you probably would never have guessed that having never caught my house right after one of those times).

Coming off of a reading jag, my latest obsession seems to be Spanish. I took Spanish in high school and college, then in 84-85 I served my mission in Uruguay. Since then, however, I haven't had too much practice, though I occasionally do focus on it for a while. Well, this is one of those "whiles."

I think the main instigator this time was being frustrated by not being able to understand what the hispanic kids at school were saying. So much of what they say goes right over my head. I can make them understand me, but I have a very hard time catching what they are saying.

So, now that I've read "Twilight" in Spanish, I'm studying the words I was unfamiliar with. I hope this jag lasts long enough for me to really improve my Spanish so that my house isn't going to pot without anything to show for it.

Now, for a funny. Glen laughed, too, so hopefully you'll like it as well (Heidi, I'm assuming you will for sure):

"Twilight" page 99:
"...but the door opened just then, and Ms. Cope stuck her head in."

"Crepúsculo" page 106:
"...en ese preciso momento la puerta se abrió y la señora Cope se golpeó la cabeza contra la misma." (in that precise moment the door opened and Mrs. Cope bumped her head against it)

Do you see what the translator did? I'm assuming she saw the work "stuck" and read it as "struck." (unless golpearse la cabeza is an idiom for stuck your head in, which I doubt very seriously!)

Sorry, it just cracked me up.

So, my house is barely getting any attention (though I'm still managing to cook real food for dinner), and I am reading a bit and playing the piano a bit.

Have a great day.