Ordinary Gente

Four weeks and counting down. We are four weeks away from our trip to Europe. Luis, my husband, and I are going to visit our son Miguel who works in Stuttgart. As Miguel said when he announced a year assignment in Stuttgart, “You HAVE to visit.”

Picture this, it’s New Year’s Day 2018 and I tell the family hanging out at our house, “I found great price on tickets.” When I gave them the details, Miguel’s face is impassive and he simply stands up, gets his dad’s laptop and quietly starts a search for better deals only stopping occasionally to ask about dates, possible cities to fly into and out of and the random, “Hmmmm.” After 20 minutes he swivels the laptop around, shows us the screen and says, “Here you go. In to Barcelona. Out of Paris. You can visit me from there. Time to pack your bags.” And it was literally half the cost of my search.

But let’s be fair to my time on the computer. He searched on the day that Air New Zealand opened up a new route LAX to London and their promotion was incredible. Yes, that’s me being a defensive middle-aged mom whose son has outdone her hours of computer time. Sometimes, I struggle with the brilliance of my sons. Mostly I just enjoy watching them in their element.

So Luis and I will go see Miguel in his element. He works for Mercedes Benz and is on a temporary assignment in Germany. I don’t know what adventures or misadventures the trip will bring, but that’s the point. Right?

We will learn about places we’ve never gone to and about peoples we’ve yet to meet. This is the inspiration to this blog. Tricky thing is that neither of us speak French or German.

Spanish? Yes.

Italian…. well, I bumble around in it and communicate. I even guess pretty close when reading Italian.

But French? Not so much.

German? Even less.

A friend and great language teacher’s advice was to download the app Duolingo. (Thanks, Terri!)  I’ve been learning some vocabulary and basic phrases.

I’m praying that at least once a day when we are in Paris the occasion will arise so that I can use the phrase, “La fille a une pomme” (The girl has an apple). I really better go put in more time and practice learning a new language. That, or I will have to spend the whole vacation at grocery stores, outdoor markets or in the apple orchards of Spain, France and Germany. Oh man, I’m in trouble.

Yours, Rosana