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Sunday, November 22, 2015

Let's Test Your Spanish

A few posts ago, if you regular subscribers remember, I discussed the topic of cognates. Cognates are very helpful to Gringos with no language experience. I personally know a couple of people like that and can verify how helpful they find cognates. Let me first give you an official cognate definition.

kog-neyt
adjective:
1. related by birth; of the same parentage, decent etc.

2. Linguistics. Descended from the same language or form. Such cognate languages as French and Spanish.

3. Allied or similar in nature or quality.

Armed with that little bit of information, if you will grab a pencil and paper, we will begin the test. I will give you a hint once in awhile if you need help. Number your paper from 1 to 17.
Your job is to look at the picture and answer the question in the caption. Don't panic, but we are going to start with some medical topics. (We have spent a little time with the medical community lately)
Here is your first one.

No. 1 What main activity takes place in this part of the clinic?















No. 2 What can I learn about if I turn right?

No 3. Name one service I can receive if I go downstairs.
















No. 4 Why would I come to this location in the clinic?
















No. 5  What am I politely asked to do? (sorry ladies)

No. 6  Why might I need to remember this direction?

How did you do with all that technical medical terminology? Let's cruise around town and find a few more signs to test your knowledge.

No. 7 What might my wife be looking for at this store? (Again)

No. 8 (Ignore the sign material) What car service is performed here?


No. 9  Which direction would I go if I had a question and could speak the language?
This is a clue to help you with the next question. No side by side, single file only.

No. 10 On this two lane road with lots of slow traffic, what can I now do?

No. 11 With a curve ahead what advice does this sign give?















How are you doing? If you need to, stand up and take a little break. Difficult tests can be very stressful. We will continue when you get back.

Let's finish this up. (You can probably tell I am struggling to find something interesting to post on our blog. Thanks for you patience.)

No. 12  I want a closer look. Can I go see what all those little white things are? 
















No. 13  The road ahead is surprisingly clear. Is this a good time to go zoom, zoom? 

No. 14  Should I have brought my camera?
















One question you need to answer that is not part of the test. Have you ever been real hungry and needed something to tie you over till you can get to some good food. Or maybe you went to the cafeteria at the new St. George airport. What was the name of the machine that you got your snack from?

This one may be a little tough to see so I'll give you two of the same sign.

No. 15  Why would this guy put that sign in his truck window?
















No. 16  A different focus than the last one, but the same interest. What does this sign tell you?



Well you have made it to the last one. As the sun sets in the west, we will close with this picture. A little story once you've answered the question.

No. 17  Why might I pull my car off the road and enter this business?

This location gave me great hope just after we arrived in Chile. We drive past this spot each time we go to town. I had originally thought I had found some survival food. How lucky can I be? Chile has Twizzlers or Red Vines! But this Mormon was very disappointed when he discovered that the center item advertised needed a 'q' instead of a 'c.'

I will be interested to hear your test scores.




Sunday, November 1, 2015

Not Much Exciting, Just Variety

I mention not much exciting. We haven't traveled very far as of late, or since we got here really. The car we have to drive has been nicknamed "The Christmas Tree." That is because is has various electrical problems and most every warning light on the dashboard makes an appearance at least daily. Some are on all the time. From what I was told, the alternator went out awhile back and instead of replacing it, the mechanic decided to fix it and save money. Since that time the electrical system has major Gremlins. Sometimes the doors will lock with the remote, usually not. Opening is much the same. But, you can always count on manually locking the doors and when you close the last one the alarm will sound, so have the remote handy so you can shut it off.

The Christmas Tree
The tachometer will sometimes dance back and forth for you. The headlights will occationally flicker and get the oncoming drivers a little perturbed. The mileage is just under 200,000 kms. But is has not left us stranded yet. So we take it where we need to, but hold off on where we would like to. 

Santiago has been the destination most visited lately. 

Barb and Yoyo




















If you saw the Blog a few weeks ago you will probably recognize this building. We came here to see a doctor for Barb's cough. We received medicine and directions to return to the lab for tests if not better in 7-10 days. So we are headed to the lab.
Yoyo acting as interpreter for blood work and X-Rays
One one of the trips to Santiago we took the opportunity to stop at the BioBio. That is the nickname for a flea market set up on a street named BioBio. You can find about any kind of old stuff here you would like. Oh look, there is an old van.



















I think my sister in law, Diana, would love this place and need a semi to haul away the old "treasures."

All kinds of old stuff and an occasional treasure





















Dave, I need your address for shipping.
Some of these may clean up nicely




















Back home to Longovilo again for another week and some great Spring additions to the yard.

Slide these two together for our side yard

The roses are making their appearance for Spring




















Willy sang a song years ago name, "On the Road Again." So back to Santiago, but on the way, check out this sunrise over the Andes.

A cloud bank above the sun, but the bottom of
the sun is still behind the mountain peaks above
Santiago.


We had to stop and watch.





















By now you know this place as well as we do. The doctor wanted to discuss the results of last week's tests and give us some more medicine.
Six weeks of coughing makes one weary. Wait,
makes two weary.

So on the way home a bit of comfort food. A good ole American hamburger our way. Complete with crispy papas fritas. That is french fries for the gringos, and down here they are very popular, but under cooked. Crispy is nice at an American chain.
AMERICA ROCKS
Lets finish with this. We were at our friends the other day and they gave us some nuts. They said they came from a Palma tree that grows wild in the hills around this area. I was surprised when they cracked one open and let us sample the nut inside. Wait till you see this.






















Kind of like an old slideshow, right?






















Check out the world's smallest coconut. You pop that in your mouth and it definitely tastes just like the big boys.

Hasta Luego