This morning I was chatting with Jose, whose English might even be worse than my Spanish, so we had to use pantomining quite a bit. Then he starts laughing and he says we are like those guys with the white faces and moved his hands around like he was in a box. I laughed and said "mimes"! Naturally he wanted to know what the word was in Spanish and as I looked it up, he asked Fernando who said "payaso", which is a clown. I said, No, the friends of clowns. And by then I had looked it up and mimes are mimos. I said that's perfect because Luis is a clown and we're his friends. :)
Walking back to my room, I saw Luis in a different room, asking Juilio something. When I was out of sight, I meowed. I've been waiting to do that for a long time, but I never wanted to do it where any guests might notice. He didn't say anything; but just now, Luis walked the whole way down the driveway meowing like a sick cat or perhaps abandoned baby. They are such a great group of people.
I've been kind of stalled on two projects: Reprinting the spa "menu" and creating an online store. I need the owner, Belisa, to make sure the spa menu conveys the message she wants when it is in Spanish, and also to see how she would like it put in the books. I have everything I need to create an online store for the boutique, but I don't know if she would just like everything listed online to browse, or if she would actually like to set it up to purchase items, which obviously I would need to hand-over to them as I am not involved in the money here. So, the point of all that was that she is coming tomorrow :) Her husband is coming, as well, and he is very interested in Jim's projects; so a few things that we have been working on will be able to be wrapped-up and I, for one, will feel a sense of accomplishment.
Speaking of accomplishment... I had a brainstorm to download Oldies rock songs that contain clear pronunciation of words that the workers need or have trouble with. Then I am creating lists of all the phrases they can say once they learn the pronunciation in the songs. That way, they can basically teach themselves and check on their own pronunciation while messing around. They are always playing music and singins in the bar. Even some stuff in English. There are only about 5 CDs, and one is a Broadway Hits, and another is Michael Jackson.
Well, it's a great morning. I couldn't go to sleep until 4 AM because my neighbors kept moving the porch furniture around and slamming their door. Celso even heard their door slam at 2:30, when he was in the Hacienda. Of course they were Americans... But they left. In retrospect, I think they were going outside to smoke. But when I was awoken from a light slumber by people shuffling around a few feet from my door in the utter darkness of the jungle, I had quite an adrenaline rush. Then when they went outside the 2nd time, they slammed the door, and an hour later, they went out again when I was still not asleep from the first time... Of course Celso woke me up at 5 and we had a lesson until 6:30, when I went back to bed. The neighbors left (noisily) at 7, and then I slept properly until 10. Well, everyone noticed and even the gardeners are saying "Oh, buenas tardes" ha ha... But that's cool. I've had 4 hours asleep and anytime from now (1:00) on out, I can take a proper siesta and not get picked on :)
Walking back to my room, I saw Luis in a different room, asking Juilio something. When I was out of sight, I meowed. I've been waiting to do that for a long time, but I never wanted to do it where any guests might notice. He didn't say anything; but just now, Luis walked the whole way down the driveway meowing like a sick cat or perhaps abandoned baby. They are such a great group of people.
I've been kind of stalled on two projects: Reprinting the spa "menu" and creating an online store. I need the owner, Belisa, to make sure the spa menu conveys the message she wants when it is in Spanish, and also to see how she would like it put in the books. I have everything I need to create an online store for the boutique, but I don't know if she would just like everything listed online to browse, or if she would actually like to set it up to purchase items, which obviously I would need to hand-over to them as I am not involved in the money here. So, the point of all that was that she is coming tomorrow :) Her husband is coming, as well, and he is very interested in Jim's projects; so a few things that we have been working on will be able to be wrapped-up and I, for one, will feel a sense of accomplishment.
Speaking of accomplishment... I had a brainstorm to download Oldies rock songs that contain clear pronunciation of words that the workers need or have trouble with. Then I am creating lists of all the phrases they can say once they learn the pronunciation in the songs. That way, they can basically teach themselves and check on their own pronunciation while messing around. They are always playing music and singins in the bar. Even some stuff in English. There are only about 5 CDs, and one is a Broadway Hits, and another is Michael Jackson.
Well, it's a great morning. I couldn't go to sleep until 4 AM because my neighbors kept moving the porch furniture around and slamming their door. Celso even heard their door slam at 2:30, when he was in the Hacienda. Of course they were Americans... But they left. In retrospect, I think they were going outside to smoke. But when I was awoken from a light slumber by people shuffling around a few feet from my door in the utter darkness of the jungle, I had quite an adrenaline rush. Then when they went outside the 2nd time, they slammed the door, and an hour later, they went out again when I was still not asleep from the first time... Of course Celso woke me up at 5 and we had a lesson until 6:30, when I went back to bed. The neighbors left (noisily) at 7, and then I slept properly until 10. Well, everyone noticed and even the gardeners are saying "Oh, buenas tardes" ha ha... But that's cool. I've had 4 hours asleep and anytime from now (1:00) on out, I can take a proper siesta and not get picked on :)