Accent

What is the difference between an accent and a speech impediment? People in Argentina definitely pronounce their words differntly than I am used to. Okay, I'm not really at the point that I am used to any of it yet, but they speak differently than I was taught in school ages ago. I learned that "ll" makes the "y" sound. Sounds good, right? Well, here I suppose they go by the same rule... but then they also change both of those letters to sound like the "j" or "jch" sound. Then it seems like most people (though not all, thank goodness) speak with a lisp as well. These may just seem like minor changes that you can easily deal with. I second guess myself with the words to begin with so adding on these complications makes understanding someone speaking really fast almost impossible. I have to literally picture the words in my head how they are spelled, how I would pronounce it, and then make all the changes necessary to adapt the words to how I hear and have to say them here. Oye! Give me time and I'll have it down... I hope!

Yesterday I was working with Laura in the field. We work really well together. In fact everyone is great to work with. (The OCD is a little difficult to tolerate at times because he gets frustrated over little things... but he's loads better than Alaska!) Anyhow, I was explaining that we'll put more nest boxes on one side of the site instead of the other because there's more room over there. For the life of me I couldn't remember how to say "instead" in Spanish. I was having a major brain fart. Then I couldn't figure out how to explain it in English (translating it back into Spanish) so she could tell me what the word was. I did my best to explain, and she kept throwing out words for me: "but not," "later," "and," etc. Finally we made it back to the trees where my Spanish-English dictionary was waiting. "En vez de" of course I remembered it as soon as I saw it. And all the other ways to explain the word "instead" rolled through my mind. Oh well. My vocabulary is slowly coming back.

I just got back from getting some groceries. Even if I know what I need and how do say it, it doesn't always work. Because I get reimbursed for food, I had to ask the guy at the little produce market for a reciept. In Argentina, there is a word for a detailed reciept "boleta". So he writes down "manzanas" which is what I bought. Yes! But then he goes on to write "apples" below it. He tries telling me that manzanas means apples. Okay, yes, I know that. But I need a reciept for my job. The other guy behind the counter was laughing and told the other guy that I knew what apples were and just needed the reciept. Then the guy wrote down the price. Yes, getting further... So I asked him for his signature as well, which he provided. Yay! After all that I had a little scrap of paper ripped out of a notebook with "manzanas, $4,50" and his firma. Sucess!!! (By the way, instead of using a period between whole numbers and the decimal, a comma is used. Ben and I figured this out as we were reading off measurements for Laura and Rodrigo to copy down. Minor hurdle.)

Today we finished putting up all the nest boxes we made, about 38 in all I think. Added to the 50 or so nests that were at the site already, we have about another 20 to build and put up. We don't have wood yet, so I don't know when we'll be making more. I've had fun with all the power tools though. :) I'd say we have about 10 nests with eggs in them already and another 10-15 that are complete. The swallows build their nests with grasses and a TON of feathers here. Once the nest cup is deep and fully lined with feathers, we know that the momma will be laying eggs any day.

Tomorrow we'll be starting later (at 8:30am instead of 6:30am) which is a welcome change. I'm not opposed to early field work, but typically the entire schedule is shifted earlier. Foe example in South Carolina, we started before sunrise, but then we ate dinner around 3pm and were to bed by 7. Here, you can't get dinner until around 8:30pm as everyone eats at 9 or 10. It sure makes for some long days, as we haven't been taking the siestas that everyone else is accustomed to. Today we got back at around 1pm. I definitely rested my eyes as I tried catching some sun outside. Speaking of which, I better get some more shut eye!