to walk or to go…that is the question

I have begun my independent studying of the beautiful language of Spanish.  It’s rather fun, and very similar to Italian, but I find myself getting caught by false friends… for example: The verb “andare” in Italian, simply means “to go.”  In my Spanish dictionary I see that the word “andar” in Spanish, means “to walk.”  So I have to be careful and make sure I don’t use the word “andar” to describe how I’m getting to Buenos Aires from here, for example.  That would be an awfully long walk.

I called mi amor’s parents house (where he is staying) the other day, and his mother answered.  I decided I wanted to come across as friendly and interested in her (even though I do not speak Spanish yet) so instead of just asking for him like I usually do, I said “hola, (her name). Soy Tina… como estas?”  She said, “Aaaaaaaahhhh TINA!!!  HOLA!  Estoy bien, y vos?”  “bien, bien, gracias…”  Then I asked in a mixture of Italian and Spanish if mi amor was there and could I speak with him, and she luckily understood me and said yes, she’d go get him, and before letting me talk to him she said, “besito Tina, chau chau”.   I said “besito” back and she handed the phone to him.  Now, someone who speaks Spanish might read this and think “Tina, you’re lame. There is nothing to get excited about here because everybody already knows how to say ‘how are you’ and stupid stuff like that.  Gawwwd.”  But for me it was a big accomplishment because I’m very shy about calling people on the phone even in my own language, let alone somebody else’s language.  I once spent two hours trying to get up the courage to call there, and sighed with relief when he answered instead of his mom.

The parent factor seems to be working out in my favor, as far as I’m seeing.  His mother is of Italian descent but has never been to Italy.   I think she’s always had an interest in the bel paese where her parents were born.  It’s just that it’s not that easy to get up the money to get out of Argentina, and I think she’d miss her children and grandchildren too much.  This is my guess anyway.  When he told her that he wants to live here for a few months and learn Italian, she was extremely pleased.  She seems to be fascinated with Italy, and therefore very curious about me.  She knows that I, too, am of Italian descent, and seems curious to know my history and my experience here in Umbria.  So that scores a few points for me, I’d like to think.

His father, the other day, asked him why I didn’t just come to Buenos Aires right now so we could all go to the beach together for a couple of weeks.  His whole family is talking about me, and apparently everybody is waiting to meet the mysterious Tina girl who lives in Italy.  I’ve been warned that I will be fed a lot.  To that I respond, “okay. :)”

This puts the pressure on to study my Spanish.  I’m writing e-mails in Spanish now to mi amor, and he writes back with his corrections.  I do pretty well actually, since gramatically it’s a lot like Italian, and a lot of the verbs have the same stems.  My trouble is more in the spelling, and basic nouns or adjectives that are certainly different.  Pronouns are tough too.  My Spanish grammar book is from Spain, so is useless in Argentina when it comes to pronouns.  So I had to ask mi amor teach me how to conjugate verbs using the Rioplatense pronouns, yo, vos, el/ella, nosotros, ustedes, ellos…

This is going to be one interesting ride… but very fun indeed.