major

Musica de los ochenta

Secret to speaking passable Spanish: if you don´t know a word, use the french word but pronounce all the silent letters. If the french word sounds too cheese-eating-surrender-monkeyish, then use the English word instead.

So last night I had a 3-way.....conversation.....(sickos) with a woman from rural Quebec and this dude from Guayquil, Ecuador. I could hardly keep up with what language we were speaking, or in my case fumbling to understand. Turns out the guy, Jorge, who spoke decent English, taught himself the language by writing down and translating the lyrics to la musica de los ochenta - 80´s music! too funny.

From Cuenca, I hopped a bus to Riobamba, 6 hours but not a lot of distance north. On the bus they played that Ecuadorian classic movie, "XXX", starring local hero Vin Diesel. It was overdubbed in Spanish, and my phrasebook doesn´t seem to have a "useful words for the secret agent" section, so it was all Greek to me.

Ecuador is cheap! I splurged and got their finest $8 hotel room. It was nice, even by north american standards - awesome queen size bed, hot water (which is never a given) and TV.....ah yes, TV....so of course I had to turn it on. Suddenly I hear the all-too familiar (and annoying) banter of a Friends episode...what the f@#~?!? Quickly I reach for the channel-down button, and American Idol pops up on the screen. Sounds just like my living room back home....damn you Hummerston!!