I'm back in Buenos Aires for the second straight day. My laptop has a virus and the plan was to see if the computer shop could do anything about it. Unfortunately, after the two hour bus ride down, and waiting another hour for the place to open up, I found out that on Sundays only the internet cafe is open, not the shop. Oh well.
With time to spare, I figure I'd do another quick blog update. Seeing how part of my update yesterday was highlighting some funny 'English-is-a-long-process' moments from my class, it's only fair that I share one of my weaker moments in Spanish:
Since the English Laptop has been up and running, there's usually a mob of students racing to my room as recreo starts to ask if they can use it. The usual drill is to pretend I have no idea what they're talking about until they ask me in English, at which point it's all theres. My classroom only has one working wall outlet, and since my personal laptop (the cheapest computer I could find after my old one died in September 2007, and I needed one for school the next day)has the battery life of early-90's Sony Discman, the English Laptop usually runs just on battery. Last week, I had forgotten to give the English Laptop a charge during lunch, and the battery gave out right as recreo was starting. As the kids came rushing in, I wanted to let them know that they had to wait a few minutes, since the computer was charging... or, "el computadora esta cargando" in Spanish.
That's what I meant to say.
What I actually said was "El computadora esta cagando," which, despite the absence of just one little 'r,' means a very different thing. Since I strive to keep this blog family-friendly, you can have some fun with Google Translator finding out the difference between:
"El computadora esta cargando."
and
"El computadora esta cagando."
Needless to say, the group of fourth graders thought this was the best thing in the world. I now know not to let that 'r' drop, despite my Boston roots.
Time will tell if my computer makes it through the week with this virus, but send along some e-mail or whatever anyways!
