13 November 2007

Ahhh... Real Life.

On Friday one of my tires was nearly flat due to a nail. I had that patched and also had them all rotated.

On Saturday the car had an epileptic fit in lieu of starting. I met a taxi driver who wants to someday go into the music industry, perhaps as a producer, but starting out as a DJ. Mr. Squirrel paid the fare with food. After work I drove home in his car (and a coworker drove it back to the store).

On Sunday I discovered that it only takes half an hour to walk between the far side of the mall and my apartment. Also, that flowers still bloom in Savannah in November.

On Sunday evening I discovered what it means to gladly be the omega of a good pack rather than the alpha of a bad one. Also, I desperately need to learn more Spanish than "goh-mah-loh" (shrimp fried rice).

On Monday I met a tow truck driver whose mother died three days ago, he can't afford to go to her funeral, his father is messed up on drugs, his little sister ran off with some guy when she was eighteen and hasn't been seen since, his firstborn son died in infancy, and his wife is five months pregnant. Meanwhile, the garage decided my main problem was a dead battery, when in fact the dead battery was caused by the car's epileptic fits.

Tuesday morning the car goes back to the garage. Maybe I'll manage to get some words written in edgewise.

4 comments:

Megadeus said...

If you need to learn some Spanish, I can offer some limited vocabulary.

Let me think... what words would get thrown around in a Chinese restaurant?

Pollo (poy-yo) - Chicken
Pavo - Duck
Carne (car-neh) - Meat/beef
Helado (eh-lah-do) - Ice or ice cream
Arroz - Rice (but it might only refer to Spanish rice, I'm not sure)
Galleta de la Fortuna (guy-yet-ah) - Fortune Cookie
Muchas Gracias - Thank you very much
Que tengas buen dia - Have a nice day (literally, I hope you have a good day)

MWT said...

How about:
chicken wing?
broccoli?
spaghetti? (it's what they call lo mein)
pork?
beef? (which I've heard them say and it didn't sound like carne)
$4.82?

Megadeus said...

Ala de pollo - Chicken wing
Alas (ah lahs) - wings
Brócoli - Broccoli, accent on the first 'o,' so it sounds like "BROCK - oh - lee"
Cerdo (ser-dough) - pork
Carne de cerdo - also pork (literally, meat of pig)
Carne de vacuno - beef (literally, meat of a cow, if memory serves)
Quatro dólares y ochenta y dos centavos (kwat-roh DOUGH-lor-es ee oh-chen-tah ee dose sent-ah-vos) - $4.82

Spaghetti? I don't know. I figured since the word is originally Italian, it would be the same. Google Translate gives the translation as "Espaguetis" which is pronounced "esp-a-gueh-ees." The third syllable is easier to learn by hearing, unfortunately.

Anne C. said...

"Tallarines" (Ta-sha-ree-nes) is used (in Argentina, at least) for linguini.
Ooooh. I just checked on wikipedia for "tallarines" (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tallarines)and it looks like a synonym, "fideos" (fee-dae-ohs) is your best bet -- http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fideo
(note picture of "Sopa de fideos de Taiwan"). Also, on the "tallarines" page, they talk about "'tallarines' chinos" (chinese) being made of arroz (rice) or soja/soya (soy) so it looks like an ok substitution for the flat noodles.