Talking about the weather
AndalucÃa, 20th of March
When we left England I really thought that it would be the end of endless conversations about the
weather, but I was wrong! After two weeks of sunshine it's cloudy and cold again. Although the temperatures in the UK
are probably lower than they are here, you really do feel the cold more when there is no central heating and no carpets
or curtains. On top of this the work on the kitchen means that everywhere is covered in dust and debris and there isn't
much we can do in the house or the garden until they have finished. So we are in limbo for a few weeks but then we'll be
able to start making the place look like home.
Un coche nuevo, a new car
When we
arrived we had booked a hire car for three weeks to give us time to go and buy one. Initially we had intended to buy a
second-hand one, the only proviso being that it had to be big enough to pick up friends and family and their luggage
from the airport. We soon realised that cars take a real hammering here as the roads are full of potholes and there are
often tracks to be negotiated. On our first night here we almost got stuck and managed to scrape the hire car on rocks.
Our friends who live down the road have bought a new saloon car but with four of us in it the bottom of the car kept
hitting the ground! We also realised that second hand cars are relatively expensive here and that with no car expertise
and little Spanish it felt like a risky enterprise. So in the end we bought a brand new four-wheel drive that should get
us out of any sticky situations we might encounter.
Essential Spanish
I don't think we would have achieved what we have in these first few weeks without my very basic grasp of the language. I found that I could understand enough to find out about cars, arrange test drives and so on, even when the dealer did not speak any English at all. Needless to say my comprehension is well ahead of my ability to speak, although it is possible to make yourself understood with just a few words and a bit of mime. The danger is that I think it would be possible to survive on my current level of expertise but I'm determined to move on from single words and phrases and to get back to learning the grammar. I want to be able to hold proper conversations so that I can integrate more fully into el vecindario, the local community, - after all, this is our home and we are not tourists now! So it's back to the books and tapes and we might enrol in la academia de idiomas, the language school, this summer.
Sent by: Sue
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