Isn’t that how Alice described the situation after falling down the rabbit hole?
The other night, it appeared that the sun was setting in the east, and this morning the sunrise was most visible over “el Centro” (downtown) to the west.
Have I somehow fallen down my own rabbit hole and awakened on another planet?
Sure is a pretty site though.
I admit it, I am guilty!
After being so careful about my water usage for months, when the pump was installed to send water to the roof, I was giddy with excitement. Water, was mine, whenever I needed it!
With the prospect of water at the turn of the handle, each and every day, I got a little extravagant. Not a lot, but I treated myself to a long, hot shower or two, or three — okay, a couple of weeks worth. It just feels so good to ease into the day under a stream of hot water.
Well, I paid for my extravagance (don’t we all eventually?) because I woke up this morning to a pitiful dribble which signaled the end to my showering, at least for now.
In investigating the situation, it seems that “la bomba esta defectivo y no esta trabajador.” (The pump is defective and it’s not working.) So it is back to carrying a pot of hot water up three flights of stairs. That will teach me.
Showering essentials: hot water, cold water, and a calibrator….
Did you know that water weighs 8.34 pounds per gallon (at 62 degrees)?
Now that raises the question, does it weigh more at 200 degrees or less when it is frozen solid? After all ice floats.
Hmmmm, inquiring minds want to know.
Last week I wrote about Spanish words that are confusing. I seemed to have struck a chord (Huh? Hope you didn’t hurt yourself.)
The responses are rolling in — with examples of words and funny expressions that we use to liven up our language but actually make no sense to someone from another county.
One friend wrote, ” Getting your head around a language is understanding the culture.” I agree. Only by understanding the background of the speaker can you truly understand what they are saying. For example, the adage attributed to Native Americans about walking a mile in another’s moccasins. To understand that, you first have to know what moccasins are.
My friend shared her frustration with learning Kayah, a tonal language native to Southeast Asia, spoken by a group of refugees where she lives in Texas. She wrote, “TOE is both yes and no. Yes is said high and no is said low. NGO is both tears or word. PREH can be person or again. If you use the wrong tones you can be telling them, “no again word,” which gets very confused looks, when you are trying to say, “Yes the person cried.”
Spanish has its share of tonal variations. Si‘, with an accent, means yes, but without means if. El with an accent on the e means he and el without the accent means the. Vino can mean come or wine.
Esta means this; accent the first syllable though (ESta) and it means this one (not that one), but place the accent on the “ta” and it is a form of the verb to be — esTA mal (it is bad.)
English has a fair share of tonal, or just plain confusing, words also. Read, for example — I read (reed) a book today, but I read (red) it yesterday. You, can mean one person or a group of people; with the exception of the deep South, we have no word for you all. And then there is here and hear.
And if you really want to have some fun, analyze the meaning of common idioms. What in one language is part of our cultural heritage and perfectly understood, makes another wonder “Que?”
Here are just a few:
Right now — How is now right? Can it be left (or wrong) too?
I’m under the weather — Do you need an umbrella?
He’s over the hill — Which hill?
See you — Well, of course, I am standing right here.
Time will tell — Time talks? Do you have a talking watch?
Hit the books — Why? What did they do wrong?
Feel free — At no cost? Great! But feel what?
Knock it off — What do you want me to knock off?
Go figure! — Figure what?
Get on the ball — It keeps rolling out from under me.
Go fly a kite — But it’s storming!
Day in, day out — How is that?
Look up (something) — If the book is on the lower shelf do I look it down?
To each his own —Own what?
Polished off — Your plate needs polishing?
Stand corrected — And if not corrected do I sit?
Run over — Won’t that hurt?
Cut him off at the knees — That must really hurt!
Noodle on those for a while.
Played this classic Abbott and Costello skit for my English students this week. It is the perfect example of how confusing the English language can be.
Don’t die laughing!
I saw my first sunset in Taxco today. Since the sun drops behind the mountains long before it sets, seeing any color at night is most unusual.
But wait, the sunset (r) was in the exact same place as the sunrise (l) this morning!
“How is that?” I asked my friend. And she responded with “January is crazy; February more” which may explain the ups and downs of the weather but not why the sun is setting in the east.
Having no logical explanation of this phenomenon, I will merely share the photos of this morning’s sunrise with you. Enjoy!
It is the middle of winter and we humans have to have a reason to mark that fact. Though back home, Super Bowl commercials and the predictions of Puxatawney Phil or Jimmy (the Wisconsin ground hog) for a long cold winter or an early spring are the topic of the day (though if you figure it out, both seem to be about 6 weeks away).
Here in Mexico, the holiday season is finally coming to an end with Dia de la Candelaria (Day of the Candles.) I cannot really add anything new so I am reposting this article from last year. If you have not seen it, the information is all new to you; if you have, I hope you enjoy the review. Or, just rent the movie and have a good laugh or two.
Dia de la Candelaria
The brass bands are playing again and the airworks (those fireworks with only the boom) are going off again, and the combis are filled with people carrying around a doll wrapped up and cradled like it’s a real baby. What’s going on?
All this is in preparation for the last hurrah of the holiday season — Día de la Candelaria.
Officially known as the Feast of Our Lady of Candelaria or Candlemas, February 2nd marks 40 days after Christmas and thus Catholics celebrate in memory of the presentation of Jesus at the temple in Jerusalem (Luke 2; 22-39 ) and purification of his mother, Mary, after childbirth (a requirement of the Law of the Old Testament – Lev 12; 1-8).
Like many Mexican celebrations though, this feast day represents a fusion of pre-Hispanic traditions and Catholic beliefs. It appears to have originated in Tenerife (Canary Islands), southwest of Spain, in the early 15th century and spread from there.
The celebration may actually be a vestige of an old Pagan tradition, since this date coincides with the eleventh day of the first month of the ancient Aztec calendar and the beginning of the agricultural cycle when offerings to the gods of rain and clouds (tlaloques) would have been made to assure a plentiful harvest. In many rural villages the inhabitants wear corn cobs to church to be blessed.
In Mexico, Dia de la Candelaria is an extension of the Christmas holiday season. (And I wondered why the Christmas decorations were still up in all their bedraggled splendor…) On Christmas Eve a statue of the niño Dios (baby Jesus) is placed in the nativity scene; on January 6th, Three King’s Day, the child is brought presents from the magi or kings; and on February 2nd, the statue is dressed in fine clothes and presented and blessed in the church after which it is placed in a niche where it remains the rest of the year.
Rosca de Reyes
Mexican children receive gifts on Christmas Eve (the babe’s birth day) and on January 6th (the big day), when it is thought that the kings or wise men would have visited the Christ child. Then on February 2, the doll is taken to church and whomever found a toy baby in their Rosca de Reyes (wreath of the kings) bread on January 6th, hosts a Candlemas feast consisting of tamales and atole (a thick gruel drink).
Both are predominantly made with corn; another link to Aztec ceremonies.
I find it interesting that February 2 also marks the mid-way point between the winter solstice and spring equinox which has long been thought to be a marker or predictor of the weather to come. In the US we call it Groundhog Day and according to tradition, if the ground hog sees his shadow, he goes back in his hole, representing 6 more weeks of winter; if not, spring is supposedly on its way. Often Punxsutawney Phil (Pennsylvania) and our own Wisconsin groundhog, Jimmy, will compare predictions and hopefully agree that the long, cold winter will soon end.
Here are a couple of poems that show the connection between Candlemas and Groundhog Day.
From Scotland:
If Candle-mas Day is bright and clear,
There’ll be two winters in the year.
From England::
If Candle mas be fair and bright,
Winter has another flight.
If Candlemas brings clouds and rain,
Winter will not come again.
For a few laughs, watch your local channel (library or Netflix) for the Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day.
What is your favorite scene?
The word of the day is “la gripa,” cold or flu.
Even though it is sunny and warm, it is cold season in Mexico, just as it is in the States. And just like everywhere, when one person brings home a cold or the flu, they generously share it with other family members.
When Irma was under the weather recently (now there is one of those “what does that mean?” expressions), I thought I would make chicken soup to help her feel better faster.
I was busily chopping onion and garlic while the chicken was starting to simmer in the pot when she appeared to fulfill her duty to make lunch. When she insisted on handing me the alphabet macaroni (something I was never fond of except for spelling practice), I had to explain that I was making “sopa Americana por la enferma” (American soup for the sick) or she would have nothing of it. Later when the hot, fragrant broth was set before her, she gingerly tasted it and declared it “muy bueno” very good.
Here, the treatment for what ails you — whether la gripa, a broken bone, anxiety, depression, or anything in between — is sopa made with alphabets in a tomato broth. Apparently, they believe in the healing capacity of alphabet soup as we do in chicken broth. Science just might disagree though, as this article from Web MD points out.
It is not like Mexicans do not make chicken soup, as this photo of a recent lunch will attest to.
“Look mom, there’s a foot in my soup!”
I always wondered what they did with these.
As an amusing anecdote. An American friend of mine once told me about when he and his wife first moved to a small town in Mexico. Chicken feet were highly valued, and chicken breasts were almost given away. They said they never ate better.
To each his own.
My grandmother always preferred what she called the “Shteets,” those two tiny specks of meat “that jump over the fence last” (the tail bone). I was never really sure if she liked that part best or she was making sure that everyone else ate high off the bird while she was satisfied with a bite or two.
By the way, they do not eat the chicken feet, they just flavor the broth with them. (I stand corrected, many do eat them. Eeeeew!)
What is your favorite remedy for a cold?
So the kids are stuck at home due to a blizzard that has brought everything to a halt out East.
Ever try to explain snow to a Mexican, or anyone else for that matter, who has never seen it? Doesn’t work, believe me.
Nieve y mucho viento (snow and much wind) just does not describe a blizzard even when I raise my hand to the 3, 4, or 5 foot level to indicate how high. They will whistle or cluck their tongues but they really cannot grasp the concept.
Pictures of snow on the volcano are about as close as most people come to the real thing.
Stay safe and warm everyone.
I love it when my readers can shed some light on the meaning of some of the things I see and hear in a foreign place.
My mystery word has been demystified! It is ahorita.
Now that I see the root word ahora (now) it makes perfect sense. Since “ita” means little, ahorita actually means in a little while.
As my lovely and very gifted daughter, who lived in Peru for a time, explained, it could mean, now, in a moment, etc. or in the case of an impatient patient at the doctor’s office, in a little while, which may stretch to 10 or 20 minutes or more. It is used in a similar manner as our saying right now (which also makes no sense taken literally.)
I have gathered from friends here that it could also be used as a blow off statement, with a meaning similar to “I’ll get around to it,” which is where the “perhaps, sometime” comes in.
English words and expressions can also create confusion in non-native speakers. She told me about a Peruvian friend who was a hostess in a restaurant and couldn’t figure out why people reacted strangely when she greeted incoming patrons with “Good night.” Afterall, night and evening mean the same thing, no?
Sometimes I think it would be nice to go back to the time before the Tower of Babel, when everyone spoke just one language. But then again, I’m not too fond of sackcloth and I would really miss my computer. Better to look forward to the whole world having one language in the future. In the meantime, I will keep studying my Spanish.
Do you think the builders of the ancient temples of the Aztecs and Mayans, like this Temple of the Sun at Teotihuacan, outside Mexico City, are related to those in Mesopotamia who built the Tower of Babel and other ziggurats?
99 pairs of socks…
A perfect example of laundry day in Mexico. Bless those socks.
Do I detect a theme developing here?
The word of the day is escalera — stairs, in English.
As you might remember, I live on the 4th floor. To get from my room to the main level, I must descend one spiral staircase and two long sets of regular stone or tile steps. And, of course, for every trip down, I must also climb back up.
For some reason today was an especially rigorous stair climbing day. I went down for breakfast, up to get dressed, down to meet someone, who was late, so back up again, and down to meet them later…
And on and on it went — 22 trips altogether. And that does not count the set of stairs outside the house to reach the calle (street.)
Here is a sampling of some of my “favorite” Mexican escaleras. Some old, some new, some fancy, some not, and some when you come to them you just say, “Whoa!”
Who needs a Stairmaster when you have the real thing?!!!
The Adventures of Blue Bear 