Tenis (that`s Spanish for Tennis)

This entry is dedicated to Grandpa Ulrich. Last Saturday Papa Oscar took me and my two roommates to the house of a friend to play tennis. While I wasn`t the best player (one of the other girls used to be on a tennis team and the other took lessons) and kept score on their board most of the time, it was a very educational experience in the way of learning practical spanish.

Here is some tennis lingo I learned:

¡15 iguales! or ¡Iguales 15!- insert any score to indicate a tied score.
¡Tramposo!- Cheater!
¡Que Barbaro!- How awful!
¡Que tonta!- How silly of me! Usually said when a ball was missed.
¡Juego!- Game! Said when the final point was scored.
¡Falta!- Yelled when out of bounds or when the serve wasn`t in the front box thing.
¡Linda!- Beautiful!
¡Bravo!- Explanation needed?
¡Ándale!- Either used to mean “Good job, keep it up” if someone just made a really great shot or “Move it, go faster!” if you just missed a shot.
¡Ay!
¡Ay, Ay, Ay!
¡Oye, oye, oye!
...and every variation in tone and length of the last three exclamations...


La red- the net on the court
Los cuerdos-the tennis raquet net
La cancha de tenis- tennis court
Raqueta de nalga- Literally means “raquet of the butt.” It is a type of raquet with a larger netting. I`m not sure if this was the real name, or if this was just something Papa Oscar made up.
Golpe fuerte- Strong swing, hit
Golpe profundo- Deep shot
Piernas Duras- Strong legs

All in all it was a fun time. Not only did we play with Papa Oscar, we also played with Don Pedro (who is 88 years old, Papa Oscar told us repeatedly) and Ingeniero, which means engineer and is the title Papa Oscar used for him. They were both friends of his father`s, so they were both twenty-ish years older than him. It was funny to watch them bicker about who would get my one roommate on their team and then to hear them talk afterwards about all our abilities. They labeled me as being verde, green with potential I guess.

I wasn`t really looking forward to being at the house, becuase Papa Oscar had told us it was one of the nicest houses in Guadalajara and I already feel bad about living in a nice area and going to a nice school, etc. It was a good time though, mostly just because we got to spend time with our quirky host dad. We had a nice hour walk to the house (which Papa Oscar told Mama Celina was only a 20 minute walk so she wouldn´t worry) during which we passed under an old acqueduct and joked about being able to afford the houses we were passing. When we got to his friend`s property, we actually never went into the house...just the grounds around it...it was kind of like a jungle...lots of ovrgrown trees and grass and such. There were banana and guava trees, a gulley with a picteresque bridge over it, swings, and a corner with tons of junk kind of resembling a junk yard. He also had a llama, some roosters, some doves, a collection of some animal inbetween a duck and a goose, and a dog whose name I at first thought was Reuben, but turned out to be Rommel (the WWII German Army guy).

Another highlight of the day was Papa Oscar wanting to take pictures of us, formal portrait style, amongst the various scenery on the grounds...but we all hadn´t showered for a day and had our exercise clothes on....I have some funny ones of me with bamboo....