Secretaries

September 10th 2009 8:50am

Yesterday I moved in with the secretaries. It was pretty much great. I had been using Alfreddy´s desk, but he had returned from vacation and wanted it back, so I had to move. I was switched over to the only available computer in the office, which happened to be in the same room as our two lovely secretaries Heidy and Cristian.

The morning was more or less lost on trying to make the new computer accept wireless internet and brief untimely power outages. It felt just like Bethany. Throughout the technological difficulties, Heidy and Cristian talked with me about popular songs, popular bands, and why Shakira sucks. By lunch time, we were able to get the computer up and running.

The office as a whole has really taken a liking to my Word of the Day Exercise, and when I sat down to lunch and hadn´t done the word of the day yet, Nancy made me go and grab my notebook so that we could all go ahead and share. Nancy is very into the word of the day, and sometimes gives me two or three words of the day. She was very funny yesterday when Cristian gave me the word for photocopier and Heidy gave me the word for corner, Nancy started criticize them.

"Thats not a word of the day! He can look that up in a dictionary! Give him something good like..."

I laughed out loud, and still wrote down the words for photocopier and corner. Everyone gives me different kinds of words, and I consider it to be revealing about them. Heidy and Cristian give me useful office vocabulary. Betzabe gives me words about dancing and music. Patty gives me words about parties. Edgardo gives me words with double meanings. Elmer flat out gives me swear words. Marisela gives me more complicated words for things like "understanding" and "cooperation". Freddy my boss gives me funny words. Nancy gives me Honduran slang.

After lunch I spent most of the day clearing out the old computer and preparing for the class this Saturday. I finished up what I wanted to say in English, so today I will probably work mostly on the translation.

There was another big futbol game yesterday where Honduras played Mexico. Everyone at the office was talking about it. Honduras was very much the underdog. They are good, but Mexico is a different kind of good. Cristian asked me where I was going to watch the game, and I told her that I was probably going to go see it at the Marriott again with Freddy. She didn´t understand what I was saying, and it took a while for her to understand that I was saying "Marriott" which was apparently not how the Hondurans pronounce the word. She tried to correct my pronunciation, which is usually welcomed, but Marriott is an English word! We laughed as the other one tried our pronunciations out.

Heidy then insisted that we all do tounge twisters for while to practice our foreign language skills. Tres triste tigres...and after that I was done. They did much better with the "I slit the sheet, the sheet I slit" one.

After work, Freddy dropped me off at the Plaza MiraFlores and I picked up some stuff for clothes washing, and then headed back to my apartment. Around 6:00, Freddy picked me up, we went and got Jasmine, then went to a different hotel to watch the game. The hotel was georgous. It was along one side of the city, and the walls in the lobby where we watched the game were completly made out of glass, so you could watch the lightning illuminate the city in the background of the game.

The game did not go well. Honduras played good enough defense, but couldn´t seem to get it together on offense. Mexico ended up winning 1-0, but it should have been worse. When we went back into the car, Freddy told me that he was too depressed to go to work tomorrow. I laughed, but he said that for bigger games, that is not uncommon.

"Hey man, I can´t come into work today, Honduras lost." - to which the boss replies -

"I understand, I´m not going in either."

Nothing would ever get done on Monday mornings in Cincinnati.

On our way back we talked for a while about fireworks and such because the Honduran independence day is coming up. Apparently, fireworks here are less about the visual spectacle, and more about the noise. Also, there aren´t really fireworks for their independence day. Fireworks here are for Christmas.

We went on to talk about finances briefly, and Freddy and Jasmine told me that out of college, a good student with a good job will make $6,000 a year. After a few more years, maybe $12,000. If you are really good and move up, $18,000. Anything above $20,000 is a lot. In the US, $22,000 a year for family of 4 is the poverty line.

For Freddy and Jasmine, the conversation was rather light and matter-of-fact. It was a little bit heavier for me. By the time I got back to the apartment it was late, and I was exhausted. I slipped out of my jersey and into bed.