It’s almost time

Five and a half months have just flown by. Looking back, we did a lot of stuff while we were down here: from horseback riding, trips to PV, eating out and chasing the music, to learning Spanish. It’s been a lot of fun. And then we also had friends and family stay with us or a week or two.

Last weekend being a holiday, there were hundreds of Mexicans from the interior here. The beaches were covered with people having fun. But now they are all gone. We had a drink on the beach yesterday and the whole place seems deserted. There are more stores closed than usual so I think the locals are powering down for the end of the tourist season.

It’s a little strange walking around town. There are very few Nordenoes any more as most have gone home over the past few weeks. Also, we are used to people dropping in as they head uptown, but now, nobody! Gerry and Elaine are still next door and a few other people but that’s about it. We’re starting to feel a bit isolated.

Vic and Suzanne went home on Thursday so the night before we went with them to dinner with friends, Ray and Tere. He is from Ontario and she is Mexican but now has her Canadian citizenship. They also brought her sister Imelda along. They speak English very well and gave us some pointers to help with our Spanish.

We ended up at their home sitting around their pool drinking wine and tequila. We had visited them a few weeks ago and received the grand tour. It’s large and bright because Tere made sure when they built it, that glass blocks were inserted in the concrete ceilings. There is a central courtyard with a large dipping pool and at night it’s lit with fairy lights. It was a good night all around with great company.

Learning a new language has been fun. We have probably doubled our Spanish words and phrases. I can now ask for a beer in four different ways instead of two. I’m very proud of Rosalie though, she doesn’t get stuck very often and when she does we use Google Translate. But it turns out, we can’t totally rely on it.

I came up with my favourite saying “Mi esposa no dice mas” (my wife says no more.) We didn’t think it was quite right but Google Translate said it was, so, good. I used this phrase several times. I did get a few funny looks but mostly I was understood.  It turns out we were right. I was saying, “my wife no says more” After trying a couple of other translator apps I now use the correct way to say it.

There have been a lot of setbacks when learning new words and phrases but we plod on. We have heard things people say, that we thought were wrong, only to find out we were the ones off base. If we do get stuck we ask friendly, English speaking Mexicans for help, who have helped us out many times and seem to love doing it.

This year I was determined to try and use Spanish more, no matter the ensuing embarrassment. The more I use it the more confident I get. I sometimes come up with a Spanish word that has been buried way back in my noggin but then can’t remember what it means.

The problem I have is with understanding when people speak to me in Spanish. They speak very quickly, but I’m noticing that I can pick out more and more words in a conversation now. Numbers still mess with me though. I recently gave a shopkeeper thirty pesos instead of thirteen, he was good enough to give me change, so all was well. Now I have enough money to order two more cervezas in four different ways.