Back from Spain

from overnight lows of 7 in Malaga to -2 in Essex. brr. i did get a few days of sunshine however, to get me through this last ditch Essex cold snap.

my plants survived me being away. in addition to my usual ones, i currently have seedlings started for basil, tomatoes, eggplant, hot peppers, and cat nip.

i had a week of speaking spanish, which is always good for the soul. the amusing part was that occasionally some germans would be nearby, and if it would be for an extended period, such as the evening next to them at dinner, then the sounds of german would suddenly infitrate my brain, and an entire sentence would pop out in german, something like this:

Si, yo vivo en inglaterra pero yo soy americana. bla bla in spanish--where did you learn spanish? Estudie la literatura en la universidad; parece que ich habe nicht vergessen. Pero hace muchos anos que no hablaba mucho la lengua, bla bla.

I find as a foreigner, you become quite good at reading people, to make sure that they are understanding you. I'd get a quizzical look, then I'd ponder back and realise what I just slapped together and instantly re-calculate. It would only be when we were near Germans or Dutch, somehow the cadence crept in and attempted to take over part of the conversation. Odd.