my pet jayhawk

On our second day of Spanish classes, Jon and I had our first session with Ruth. Ruth is young and spunky--one of my favorites. The sort of person I would like to hang out with, maybe have a cerveza or two. But the thing is she speaks no English at all, which means we are forced to rely on our feeble Spanish skills. We were doing a get-to-know-you session of sorts, with basic questions. After all the basic information was outof the way, she asked us, "¿Tienen mascotas?" Jon and I responded in excited (and very broken...) Spanish that KU has a mascot that is an imaginary bird that is red and blue, and the name is derived from the Civil War era term for a free-stater. Also, that there is a Big Jay and a Baby Jay. She seemed confused, but we figured out that it was just our poor Spanish and the fact that we were attempting to communicate abstract concepts.

The next day Ruth informed us that she was no longer going to be our teacher. She felt that she was not capable of communicating with us and instructing us properly. Jon and I tried to talk her down, but she was pretty adamant. A few days later, I was riding the bus to school when I noticed a sign with the word "mascota". The sign was above a veterinarian office. The term has two meanings in Spanish, and in Paraguay it is used to refer to pets. So Jon and I had descibed our pet imaginary bird. Two birds actually, a big one and a baby. Red and blue. From the Civil War. No wonder she didn´t want to be our teacher.

Our error pales in comparison, however, to a slip up made by one of my fellow travelers (who shall remain unnamed...). A group of youngish guys from our church here plays soccer every week. (S)he was trying to ask some of them where the field is. Turns out that the word for field in Spanish is only one letter away from and ugly word for female anatomy. Not the sort of thing a person usualy asks about in church.