Thursday, September 18, 2008

Permiso y el tiempo

I'm now giving you a Spanish lesson. "Permiso"means "Permission" and "tiempo" means "weather." These two words relate very much so to my life these days.
Last night, after an AMAZING Skype date with Greg and Clarissa, I went home and had dinner. During dinner, I discovered that yesterday Daniela had her first "deberes" or homework of her life and she wrote her first five words! I'm so proud of her. Her first written word ever was "uva," which means grape. And Gabi is still convinced that "you have to go to bed soon" means "let's do gymnastics on the couch." But they are darlings and someday I will get pictures of them.
Also during dinner, Antonia and I had a discussion about the differences in "tiempo" or weather between Spain and Michigan. Here, they freak out over a dusting of snow and get worried when the temperature gets close to zero degrees Celcius. I was describing Michigan winters to her and she was stunned. They just aren't used to that kind of stuff over here.

And then there's "permiso." I hear this about ten or twenty times every day. Sometimes it's Gabi or Dani asking for permission to come into my room, which they almost always get. Other times it's someone needing to come get the laundry off the drying rack outside. And then there is Carol, la ninera. Now, let me make something clear here. I LOVE Carol; I think she's amazing. But she's so proper and formal around me. And I'm seven years younger than her. But because she works for my "parents" she has to be very respectful of me. She asks me for permission to enter the dining room/play room while I'm eating. Yesterday I had to give her permission to start eating the main course of "La Comida," or the main meal of the day, before me because I was still eating bread. It's so weird. I'm not really comfortable at all with the idea of servants. She asked me yesterday if my family in the U.S. had a housekeeper and I said no. She asked me who cooked all our meals and was slightly shocked when I told her my mom did.

But I really do like living here.

2 comments:

Rina the Cat said...

I'm glad you like living there and having a maid. Maybe you can be the maid and cook when you come home since your mother has had to do all the cooking for all of your life :)
I think I still owe you some recipes.
Mom

DaWheeze said...

Hi Cecilia! I just caught up on your life in Spain, it's lovely that you post so regularly, now that I've added your blog to google reader, I'll keep up with you. The maid thing sounds weird, I'm praying for you!