American in Spain » Uncategorized

Use Your Words

erik — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 17:21:25 +0000

Nora has understood the “first I talk, then you talk, then I talk again” format of human conversation for several months now. But it wasn’t until just recently that she’s begun forming clear sentences with what are clearly words. Unfortunately none of the words she speaks are in either of the two languages I understand. As you might imagine, it can be very frustrating for both sides of the conversation. It is clear, however, that she is trying to express some concept through speech. And, because the words seem so much like words, only in a foreign language, sometimes I get asked on the street by people that know my origins if she’s speaking English. Perhaps the set of sounds she’s making is what spoken English sounds like to a non-English-speaker?

We spend a lot of time playing the speaking game just like we are in the video you are about to see. One of the most fun parts of the game for me is my introspection as my brain does its very, very darnedest to make some sense out of the words it’s hearing. Be aware of the work your brain is doing as you watch the video. I’m afraid that anything you hear is likely just pareidolia, and she’s not really commenting on Kirstie Alley.

The pajama she’s wearing is from Marga’s cousins, the youngest of whom is about to turn 19 years old.

Related Photos

Taking A Stand

erik — Sat, 22 May 2010 20:57:35 +0000

Today, Nora and her mother were playing the cutest game, with Nora, who already understands about telephones, “dialing” the phone and handing it to her mother, who would pretend to talk for a bit and then hand it back. I said, “Keep doing that, I’m going to get the camera!” And when I got back, they were still at it. Adorable footage captured. Yay.

But what no one was expecting was what came next!

Nora put the phone up on the coffee table and proceeded to pull herself up to a standing position. She had done this in the crib, and has been getting quite good at it, but never before on a piece of furniture. She has now ushered in a new era of super extra cautiousness in that we can no longer leave her alone in a room without the possibility of her standing up and taking a nose dive into a table or the floor.

Watch her mother’s eyes as Nora rises to her bipedal glory. We are both amazingly proud and terrified. Something tells me this won’t be the last time our parenthood combines those two emotions.

Yes, I know the Wii Balance Board doesn’t go on the table. We had picked it up off the floor to let our new robot vacuum servant do its work.

Related Photos

No related photos.

Stuff I Seen – June 2009

erik — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:51:53 +0000

Like the “Stuff I Thunk” series, the “Stuff I Seen” series relays information from my brain into my blog, only the SIS series is narrowed down to thoughts provoked by stimulus from my visual cortex. Let us begin, shall we?

I was walking with my father-in-law and we decided to cut through a playground. There were a group of about eight ten-year-olds standing together looking at something on the ground. One of them said, “I have no idea what that is, but it’s disgusting!” As we approached, my brain began guessing what it was that they were looking at. I figured it was probably a dead bird, or maybe an unusual insect of some kind. When we walked by them, neither my father-in-law nor I could resist the urge to see what it was. There, on the ground, was: a condom. I remarked, “Heh, they don’t know what that is.” My companion replied wisely, “They will. They will.”

On my morning walk one day I saw a slightly overweight Latina immigrant with a small child. Her shirt had a phrase in English which she, nor her boyfriend or husband, most likely couldn’t read. It said: “My other boyfriend is MUCH HOTTER.” Classy!

Related Photos

Storm Beaten Poppies

erik — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:19:06 +0000

We had some pretty huge storms last week. The day after one of them, I took a walk and found some poor raindrop-bruised poppies and some bees buzzing around them. Poppy petals are pretty paper-thin normally, but these look particularly fragile.

This is the big monster that came through.

Bee coming in for a landing.

Fuzzy poppy stalks. Good defense against ants, I presume. Not snails, though.

Water droplets on a poppy petal.

I think I first typed “poopy” just about every time I tried to type “poppy” in this post.

Related Photos

Inky, The Baby Squid

erik — Mon, 05 May 2008 21:41:54 +0000

Without a doubt, one of the strangest dishes in Spanish cuisine has got to be chiperones en su tinta (squid in its ink). That’s the dish they’re referring to when they say that Spaniards are the only people that will eat completely pitch black food. The sauce is actually tomato sauce, but with just a little bit of ink, it turns jet black. Last weekend, my mother-in-law made some chiperones en su tinta for us to bring back with us, and today we had it for lunch. It’s really very delicious if you can get past the superficial psychological color barrier. Normally the squid are about fist-sized and filled with ground beef, but occasionally a little baby one will get into the mix and remind you just what you’re eating. Today, as I was soaking up the excess sauce with my bread, I noticed a little straggler was left behind and I took his picture. I’ve decided to name him Inky.

Besides being long since dead and cooked, it sure looked like he was trying to escape.

A profile shot. What an adorable little cephalopod.

From above. He’s still got all eight baby tentacles.

Finally, I set down the camera and popped Inky into my mouth. He was almost as chewy as he was cute.

Related Photos

No related photos.

Rust Colored Things

erik — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 23:53:08 +0000

For a brief window in the afternoon last Sunday, the sky opened up and revealed a lovely blue color between the towering cumulonimbi before quickly going back to the London mist we were smothered in for all of March.

That reminds me, I had a great conversation with a neighbor on the ride up in the elevator yesterday.

Neighbor: ¡Cómo llueve, eh! ¡No para!
Me: Sí, todo el marzo.
Neighbor: Sí, todo muerto.
Me: No, marzo. Ha hecho…
Neighbor [shaking head]: Ni un alma por la calle…
[door opens at her floor]
Me: Hasta luego.

Translation:

Neighbor: Man, it’s raining hard! It doesn’t stop!
Me: Yeah, for all of March.
Neighbor: Yep, everything’s dead.
Me: No, March. It’s been…
Neighbor [shaking head]: Not a soul on the street…
[door opens at her floor]
Me: See you later.

Surreal. I’m reasonably sure that my pronunciation wasn’t entirely at fault.

An old rusty anchor down by the docks.

Magicians aren’t supposed to reveal tricks, but this is how I escaped from The Claw the other day.

This horse normally lives in this corner lot, but I hadn’t seen him in a year. But this Sunday, he was grazing peacefully when I went up to the fence to take his picture in the low afternoon sun. He immediately came over to investigate.

Is the title of the post starting to make sense now?

Finally he realized that I didn’t have any treats and his interest waned. It was time for us to continue walking anyway.

This is as far as I could carry the “rust” theme, I’m afraid.

This faded BMW logo caught my eye so I had to go photograph it. I’m very pleased with this photo. See the lamp post reflected in the chrome bumper? Well here it is…

Marga took this photo. As I was taking the previous masterpiece, she said, “Whoa! Why don’t you take a picture of that lamp post with the blue sky!” There was a definite subtext in her statement of “Stop photographing everything and let’s walk!”, but I think she partially meant it literally, too, so I gave her the camera and suggested she take it.

Then, out of nowhere, this german shepherd ran up and started barking at us from the other side of a wall he could have easily of leapt over. I’d always noticed the “Beware of the dog!” sign at that house, but never seen the canine. He was really ferocious and terrifying, but I mustered the courage to put the camera in his face, and he turned all cute and adorable for a split second while the shutter was open. Jerk.

That’s all for now.

Related Photos

No related photos.