Sylvia's Scenario

Yes, they take selfies in Spain, too.  These are Nick's next door neighbors in El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain.  We met them while we were visiting last month when Imma and Luis invited us over for coffee. Our little coffee hour turned into about a three hour BFF event.  And we don't speak Spanish and they don't speak English so go figure that one out...Nick was the middle man.   Nick had been practicing his Spanish for about three months and visits a tutor twice a week since he moved to Spain so he is getting pretty good.  "What did he say, Nick?"  "What did she say, Nick?"  Nick, tell her that.....".  Nick, Nick, Nick....Poor Nick but it was really good practice for him and we all actually seemed to understand each other.  We all had translators on our smart phones so we would try that but honestly, it was just easier to communicate via Nick and that's what we mainly did.   Imma served us some pudding cake that was quite yummy with our...

Nick did it again.  During our first trip to Japan in 2014, he arranged a dinner party with his co-workers so they could meet his parents and we could get a feel for the people he works with.  He said, "Don't worry, they all speak English."  Well, I couldn't understand a word any of them spoke. The Japanese accent is so strong that it's hard to understand when they try to speak English.  Not the case in Spain.  For one thing, Nick only works with Americans here in Rota, Spain.  In Japan, his whole team were local Japanese engineers.  Half of the Naval Base Rota, Spain are Americans and half are Spanish.  It's a Spanish base and Nick says the Americans are guests here.  We toured the base yesterday and even though it is geographically larger than the base in Japan, it is a lot smaller in population, so it definitely has a more spread out feel to it.    The Americans live on one end of the base and the Spanish live in a totally separa...