Out of the frying pan and into the fire

David and I talked about coming to Mexico and taking it easy, enjoying it like a vacation. And while it is a vacation from Berea, it's not exactly what we imagined, thus out of the frying pan and into the fire, as David's been prone to saying lately.

The Mexicans have a saying, "Árbol que crece torcido, jamás su tronco endereza", it means something along the lines of, a tree that grew crooked will never straighten out . Under the Spanish onslaught my mind feels like a crooked tree, all warped and twisted yet settled in its place, being suddenly contorted by forces outside of its control, made to stand up straight, to conform to foreign ideas of what a tree should be.

I feel like this guy sometimes. Prehispanic artiifact From the Rufino Tamayo Museum in Oaxaca.

Operating in another language is definitely reshaping parts of my mind. It's very eye-opening to see how I use my own language, how I use language to express myself. I had no idea how much I use the word seem until I kept hearing the Spanish word parece come out of my mouth over and over again. It made me ask myself "Is anything concrete for you? Does everything have the possibility of seeming like one thing while being something else?" Maybe I'm looking into it too much, but you get the idea.  

Today during our meeting with our language exchange partners we had a double whammy of malapropisms, with Enrique asking me in English if I'd had a snake today (he meant snack) and when I finally understood and answered in Spanish I said Si, tomé unos botones - Yes, I had some buttons. The word for snack in spanish is botana, not botones. Ay Ay Ay.... What the heck am I saying that I don't ever realize or that others aren't telling me? It's terrifying.