Moments graciosos

Since the Germans have been here, we have had so many moments where we laugh so hard our stomachs hurt, our eyes tear up, we lose all sense of time. Here are a few:

1. We were talking about cockroaches at the dinner table. Before you say gross, it has to do with language, I promise. In German (and by the way there's a great card game that includes the cockroach), it's Kakerlaken, pronounced ka-ka-lah-ken. In Spanish, cucaracha. Ariane thought of a story to go along with this language discussion, and she turned to me--

"YOU KNOW WHAT?! Not only did I KILL a cockroach, but I drank it!!!!"

Everyone responded with wide eyes. "YOU WHAT?!?"

"Yeah! I drank it!" she declared again. "I poured water all over it..."

Ahh... she DROWNED it... or is it drown it... or drowndeded...??

2. Donny took us around the city to see more of the famous sites of Córdoba. Near the end of the day, we passed by what appeared to be merely apartment buildings, however, Donny made sure to note a particular one.

He pointed to it, but it was hard to tell which. "This one is the best." he said. "This one is the best building in all of Córdoba because it is MY university."

Everyone gave a nice, "Ahh!" and clapped. But then Donny stopped us.

Apparently the building we were looking at was the wrong one. "No no no, that one!" he pointed to the one adjacent.

Everyone paused and said yet again, "Ahh!" and clapped. It felt like we were in a skit for a comedy.

3. Okay, okay, this story doesn't come from this weekend, but it must be remembered! In the other team, there was an instance where all three Germans had to squeeze onto an undersized couch. The hosts of the home asked if it was okay, if maybe someone wanted to move to another chair or something, but they replied that all was well.

Apparently, one of them got a funny look on his face.

The young German man was asked if everything was okay. He smiled and lightly tapped Ariane on the knee. In the little Spanish that he knew, he replied that he was just so happy to be there, that, "Me excitan mucho sentar con mi amiga Ariane!"

Unfortunately, he did not know his linguistic faux pas until the night was over, but he wondered (or maybe he didn't realize) why everyone laughed very hard.

4. Perhaps one of my favorite, as it involves more language issues. Ariane and I, you must know, have a little phrase we like to say to remind ourselves of who we are in Christ. It is German, and it is simply, "Ich bin königstochter." Or, "I am a princess."

While we were practicing my pronunciation (especially since I have learned the importance of stressing certain sounds--the word for "night" and for "nude" are VERY similar!), our Argentinian friend Coco asked what we were saying. As I explained, he ended up saying, "¿Qué significa? ¿Soy un princesa?"

I was about to explain, but Ariane quickly interrupted. "Coco, did you just say that YOU are a princess?!"

Needless to say, Coco now has a nice little addendum to his name.