"Tengo un perro como Pichincha...Sammy"

South America » Argentina
July 22nd 2010

Published: July 2nd 2017

Geo: -34.5886, -58.4299

I just finished my initial four-day Spanish course with an organisation called Español Andando (www.espanol-andando.com) in Buenos Aires. I loved the course and would strongly recommend it.

An excellent, and very patient, teacher met us each day in a coffee shop or bar in a different part of town, and we learnt some very basic aspects of Spanish each time. After the Spanish lesson, we would then wander around that part of town and find out a bit about it ("Here's a lovely shop", “That is a lovely bar”, “The apartment up there with the balcony is always reserved for the person who makes the walking stick for the President”...that kind of thing).

Overall, the course was well worth the U$D120/£80 for the four days, and it was a great way to feel a bit more in control of the city. I have to say, though, my head felt pretty bloody full by the end of today's session. It still does, in fact (not sure that this bodes well for my more intensive Spanish course, which starts next week).

Perhaps I can chalk today's “brain full” feeling up to the fact that, linguistically, today was never going to be a good one after what happened at breakfast.

Obviously, after having had only 8 or 9 hours of Spanish lessons, everything I'm able to say in Spanish has to be in the present tense. Until this morning, this wasn't a problem. Over breakfast, someone would ask me in Spanish, “Levi, how was your Spanish lesson yesterday?” and I would reply “It is good” (they knew I was crap at Spanish, I knew I was crap at Spanish, but at least some meaning had been conveyed, leaving me free to go back to fiddling with my iPhone and the questioner free to have a proper conversation with somebody else).

This morning, I thought I would impress my breakfast-mates with my Spanish. So, whilst playing with Pichincha, the lovely border collie who lives here, I decided to tell everyone that, in England, I used to have a dog like Pichincha. Of course, all I could muster in Spanish was “In England, I have a dog like this”.

Well, for some reason, this sparked off the most enthusiastic conversation I have yet had in Argentina (I guess they really like dogs here). Suddenly everyone was saying things in Spanish to me such as, “What is your dog like?” and “Tell us about your dog”.

In replying, I did my best to recall as many relevant adjectives as possible. “Mi perro? Es simpático...es grande...es un poco huraño...es blanco y negro, como Pichincha...” but, all the while, all I kept thinking was, “My dog? He is dead.”

I kept telling myself, “Levi, don't say your dog is dead, you can't say the dog is dead...we're living in the present right now, just go with it.”

The low point was when one (very sexy) man who works here and always joins us for breakfast said, “Do you love your dog?” (It was like they just kept pushing!) All I could squeeze out was a rather aggressive and snarly “Si”, almost as though the sexy man himself had killed my dog.

By this point, the breakfast club knew something was up. People were looking at me as if I was a little odd; after all, I'd brought up the subject of my dog and now I was becoming mildly aggressive about it.

Then, to make myself seem even odder, I started to get the giggles. I kept imagining what the reaction around the table would have been if I had said, “My dog? He is friendly, he is big, he is a little timid, he is black and white, just like Pichincha.....and he is dead.”

Of course, the giggles did nothing to endear me to the group; these people now (if they didn't already) think I have some problems in my brain.

I guess, in a few days' time, I'll be leaving this bed and breakfast place and the very sexy man behind. I hope it won't be too long after that that I find that Sammy and I are both able to have a past and not be forever stuck in the present.

"Tengo un perro como Pichincha...Sammy"

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