Thursday, July 09, 2009

The Summer of Learning

I took my second spanish lesson tonight. I hope I'm doing this right...seems like it's way too easy for learning a second language. I did have three years of spanish in high school (a long, long time ago) but I only seem to remember bolsa, pescado, escucheme, digame and Pepita (my Spanish class name - which I believe translates to "seed" - that our teach picked out for me). While the escucheme (listen to me) and digame (tell me) seem pretty usable now, bolsa (purse) remains burned in my memory only because my dear friend had her purse stolen in spanish class and kept screaming it to the teacher..."Mi Bolsa! Mi Bolsa!" And pescado...well, you see, "perch" was our little group's word for "chill," or "cool it." If someone was rambling on about something (say, someone who was screaming about her bolsa in spanish class) we would tell them to "perch" (as in a bird perched in a tree - there was a super sweet hand gesture that went along with it simulating a branch, or how one might hold a parakeet on their finger). But everything had to be in spanish for that hour. When we asked our teacher what the word for perch was, she assumed we were talking about the fish. So she told us pescado. It took us three years to figure out that we were telling each other to fish rather than to perch. Needless to say, what remains with me from those three years of spanish is rather limited. Hence...Rosetta Stone.

I also finally learned how to use picnik. My sisters in luv have been using it forever, hence their uber cool photos with fuzzy edges and rounded corners and vintage stirrings. My first project is what you see above...and I'm SOOOO PROUD! To think, I've been struggling through photoshop, etc for a while now - and BLAM. Picnik came along. I have visions of Christmas cards, invitations...PHUN with PHOTOS!

And finally on the learning front - I did NOT take the spinning class as promised, but I did wii Active last night for the first time - and I'm soooooore. Wrongfully sore. I thought I was in better shape than to let some electronic robotron thingymajig whoop up on me - but I was wrong. Biceps - sore. Quads - sore. Abs - sore. Like...I had gone to the gym. Only without the drive across town and on my own schedule. I'm not saying it's a replacement work out, but it will be my new "on call."

Well, the sun is down here so that means it's only about 98 outside - prime time for an evening stroll to get the mail. Sweet dreams, friends.


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Robin,
I laughed all through this one. The spanish class memories were too funny.
I am way behind in my Rosetta Stone!
Love you,
Joyce