princess genevieve

jeudi, mars 30, 2006

Things that made me laugh this morning


1. I saw a guy riding his Rascal (you know, electric powered "wheelchair" like from the commercials - "Next year, I'm going to the GRAND CANYON!") in the street. Like, next to a car. And then he turned at the light onto another street.

2. This sign on the bus. I don't know if you can read the sentence under atencion! but it says something like "miren antes de cruzar la calle." Which I KNOW must mean look before crossing the street, but in my head, it seems more like look before cruising the street. I know you are impressed with my Spanish reading abilities. My Spanish reading has greatly improved from living in my neighborhood, which is primarily Spanish speaking. My Spanish speaking, on the other hand, still consists of me being able to order food, count to 29, and the ability to tell people that I don't speak Spanish.

3. The number of people lined up for an "Estate Sale" that I passed on the walk to the bus stop. I suppose it's possible someone in my neighborhood has really nice stuff they want to sell off at an estate sale - heck, someone has to own the super expensive row houses that normal people can't afford. But it still made me laugh. They were blocking the sidewalk! And it reminded me that if I were to die, and someone had an estate sale of my house, I hope the buyers like paperback books and yarn, 'cause that's about all I've got. And it reminded me of the time my friend Adri and I went to an estate sale in San Antonio, and they were selling half used bottles of shampoo and boxes of Kleenex! We didn't buy anything.

4. OK, this isn't funny, but the rest of my vacation pictures are up! Click here

7 Comments:

At 3/30/2006 2:09 PM, Blogger Amie said...

A rascal in traffic?! I'm no expert, but i'm pretty sure there not intended to be used like that LOL

I remember in Spanish, learning the verb asistar (to attend). I had the hardest time not thinking "assist"

 
At 3/30/2006 2:21 PM, Blogger Genevieve said...

I think you're right, Amie! They aren't meant to be used like that. Also, I think the name rascal is funny. That may partly be why I find the whole incident funny.

There are lots of words in French that don't mean what you think they would, as an English speaker. We call them "false friends." I guess as I read more Spanish I will find more false friends!

 
At 3/30/2006 2:41 PM, Blogger Molly said...

That is quite bizarre to see a guy cruising in traffic in his wheelchair, yikes!

Let me just say it is a lot easier to read Spanish than to comprehend it when spoken...at least in my experience. Especially the Venezuelan dialect they like to drop letters (and I don't mean "ll" being a y sound, etc...) and slur words together.

That estate sale sounds like it was really rocking, half-used bottles of shampoo???

 
At 3/30/2006 10:46 PM, Blogger Paisley said...

I'm impressed by any level of Spanish speaking/comprehension. We rocked into Barcelona thinking "we can speak French, Spanish is another Romance language, how hard can it be?". Cue the error message beeps... However our theory did work a lot better in Italy where guesswork got us a lot further.
We've got an old guy that lives locally who cruises up my street sometimes on his scooter (never heard the term "Rascal" for them before). He even has an orange flag sticking up like you put on kids' bicycles.

 
At 3/30/2006 11:31 PM, Blogger Genevieve said...

Molly, I agree, I have an easier time reading Spanish than understanding it spoken.

Paisley, I think Rascal might be a brand name for the wheelchair/scooter thingies here. I like the idea of an orange flag... safety first!

 
At 3/31/2006 3:37 PM, Blogger Amie said...

I meant to ask about the Templar church in your photos...wasn't that in the DaVinci code?

 
At 3/31/2006 3:40 PM, Blogger Genevieve said...

yes, it was! I didn't remember that, but my sister did and she told me when we were in the church.

 

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