ALEX
Alex and my mom are talking right now. My mom is helping Alex with English. He doesn't always pronounce things quite right. He does really well, but for example, he said "choose" instead of "shoes." So she was saying, "He didn't like my pink choose," and we were laughing at her imitation.
Mom: "They're probably not laughing at you, but something else..."
Hannah and I started laughing again, and Hannah told them that, yeah, we actually were laughing at Alex. Poor fellow. Oh well, he seems to think we're worth it to learn English. I'm really amazed by how well he speaks. He hasn't been learning it much longer than I have been learning Spanish--he's only been trying for six months. That's inner motivation, let me tell you!
One of the last times Alex came over he kept sniffing our bug repellent thing. My dad: "You know that's for bugs don't you Alex?"
Alex: "I know." He says that a lot. I wish you could hear it, it's kindof funny because he says it like, "of course I know that," but really... how are we supposed to know what he knows?
And he kept sniffing it over and over again even while we were making fun of it and saying, "What the heck are you doing?" He said it reminded him of when he was a kid, don't know why. My dad said he could keep it.
LILIES
I took some pictures of my mother's birthday lilies and I put the one above on my online shop. Obviously, family and friends can have a discount if you want to buy something, and I'll be putting more pictures up soon. http://www.etsy.com/shop/waterose
THE TEMPLE... IN SPANISH
So... I went to San Jose (the capital of Costa Rica) and I went to the temple with Alexandra (my mother's visiting teaching companion) and Gabby (her daughter, 16). It was awful sitting in the car, trying to think of something to say to her. It would be easy in English, but I know so little Spanish that communication is awful.
I was able to struggle through and learn a couple words for necklace that I can't remember anymore. She wants to be a vet. She's going to a High School. Pesces are big fishes, and pescados are little fish. She likes manzanas de agua--these strange red fruits that kind of remind me of nectarines and radishes--none of us really like them. I really don't pick up any words just from listening, I have to look them up and study and it's so discouraging I don't even want to try.
Alexandra (it was her first time going in the temple) told me that the suits were like those people wear in insane asylums. (I only understood her because she acted it out and spoke slowly, "Loco...")
Alex told me that Costa Ricans are called "Tikos" because they end "ito" to the end of words a lot. "Ito" or "ita" makes it small, like "bola" is a ball, and "bolita" is a little ball. Apparently Costa Ricans use "ito" and "ita" more than other Central Americans and that's why they call them "Tikos." I asked him why we're called "Gringos." His guess was that it was from the Mexican American war when the Americans were dressed in green and they would say, "Green go!" I was like... uh... we usually wear blue in wars... before camouflage.
Online it says that "gringo" is a word for foreigners, people who speak Spanish badly, and in Madrid Spain it was used for the Irish.
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