Linguistic progress

---

There is a rather significant football match for our Spanish hosts tomorrow evening. Currently a warm up game going on over our tent. Excitment is high and expectation even higher. We are staying put in the moderately sized town of Sahagun for the big game as it feels the best place to watch the Spanish emotions in full flow.

During our year in the Spanish speaking world achieving decent fluency in their language is one of the primary objectives. Today showed signs of a solid start to this endeavour. Building on our smooth conversational exchange about the finer points of our camping kit with a four year old two days ago we raised the bar even higher today. Having a late breakfast (toasted bread and olive oil must be tried) a Dutch couple had to reply upon our linguistic prowess to translate the bar owners proud comments about his nesting swallows who had cleverly positioned their nest of three chicks above an outside light to provide some central heating. Indeed a momentus moment to provide translation to the Dutch who are renowned for their foreign language capabilities. Probably best not to get too carried away with these early signs of progress but there is certainly clear improvement.

---