Spanish 101: How to Catch a Chicken

I am in Piedras Blancas and getting here was interesting. On the bus up I met a guy named Naccio and over a bocadillo he told me  "People in Piedras Blancas like to gossip. You do something and 10 minutes later everyone in the town knows." I laughed and told him I live in a place like that.

I get to the bus station in Aviles and Tio isn't there. No one is. I try to call him but the phone is saying something I don't understand. I'm in a city where no one speaks English. Good stuff! So I grab the security guard and start speaking to him in Spanish. I say "I'm trying to call my Tio but the phone isn't working." I dial the number and give him the phone so he can tell me what it's saying. He says in Spanish, "The phone says no one is at the house".  Crap!

So I decide to call Jose and I reach him. I tell him I'm at the bus station but I don't see Tio. He laughs.  He says he'll come to pick me up but I have no idea what he looks like. A bit later, an older gentleman starts to grab my suitcases. I say "Who are you?" He starts speaking fast and all I hear is Estados Unidos. Another guy who is Jose comes over and says "Penelope!". So I get in the car and we all drive off. 

I guess Consuela thought I said I will arrive at 2:00pm but what I said was my bus leaves at 2:00pm. I get to the house and enter it. Seven Spaniards start talking to me really fast and all at once. They don't teach this kind of situation in Rosetta Stone classes.

At that moment, two things pop in my head. "What were you thinking?" and a scene from Rocky. You remember the scene where Mickey tries to teach Rocky how to move fast on his feet by making him catch a chicken? That's what this was like. I had choruses of "Gonna Fly Now" singing in my head while all this is going on. Let's put it this way, I'm Rocky, Tio is Mickey and Spanish is my chicken.

Anyway, after the family realizes I don't know what they're saying, they say goodbye and Tio speaks to me in a little English. "When you leave Spain, you will know Spanish." He hands me the biggest dictionary I have ever seen. 

The "What were you thinking?" feeling is a familar one I have crafted over the years. I call like to call it the Sink or Swim Learning Technique.  Here's how it works:

Want to learn how to do something? Pick the scariest, most difficult situation and put yourself in it. 

Some examples...  Want to learn advertising? Get a job in NYC though you've never even visited. Move there and get dropped off in Washington Square Park - and begin...

Scared of the water? Get a job on a boat in the wintertime when the sea is the roughest and your job is to calm and save people in distress. and begin...

Want to learn Spanish? Go to an area where no one around you speaks English not even your family. and begin!

I talked to Tio and Consuela for two hours that night in Spanish and learned more in one day than in my 6 months of studying in Key West or as I like to call it LLave Oeste.

I walked to the beach in Salinas the next day, which to my pleasant surprise is a little surf town. Body surfers, Kite surfers and your traditional kind all over the place. The pictures above are from there. The statue of the head is a museum dedicated to Philip Cousteau. Really cool. 

I woke up at noon the day following my arrival and started speaking with the family in Spanish. Tio said surprised "Your Spanish is progressing!" I said "Yes, and only in one day!"

Gonna Fly Now....