Todavia la leyenda vive!

Hola Senoras y Senoros,

I think I need to explain....From now on I will try to do my blog posts in my stilted spanish and give a translation into English with extra things I'm not able to write in Spanish afterwards. One other thing - I will be doing this without Google Translate as that would make it too easy! Also, GT sometimes makes mistakes! However, I will be using my spanish/English dictionary because this will help me increase my vocabulary and I still need to do all the grammar etc etc.

The title of this blog post is my crude attempt at "The Legend Lives On" which was a common phrase on the Lands End to JohnO'Groats cycle trip I did with Gavin Waterston last year. Ok, here goes in Spanish.

Hola Senoras y Senoros!

Me gusta mucho el comentaristos de football en Argentina. No se el nombre de mi favorito pero el dijo "Senoras y senoros" con frequencia. Yo pienso el es "Archie McPherson" de Argentina!!! El habla con mucho excitación y puede gitar "GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL" constantemente!

Después de miércoles y jueves con no escuela, yo ayude la Itaembe miniEnglish School viernes 3:30 hasta 7:30. Me gusta mucho y estaba muy feliz ayudar. Mas tarde Viernes yo encontré Marcelo y Tom para pool y bowls. Marcelo hablaba me "profesional"!

Ayer, yo encontré Simon (un otro voluntario) y fuimos a Paraguay! Fuimos a la Trinidad del Parana ruina. No me gusta mucho Encarnacion, el cuidad de Paraguay muy cerca de Posadas pero la ruina estaba muy interesante. Estaba lloviendo, entonces llevaba el "Pocket Rocket"!

Unas fotos del ruina y vista...

Volveré a escuela mañana. Otra vez es "ocupado martes".

Chau!

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Ok, I'm sure that is pretty poor but I think if you speak spanish a little you might get the drift or maybe you can drop it into a translater. Let me know how close I got to what I meant to say - here it comes in English. I'll put the extra bits that are too hard for me in spanish into brackets.

Hello, ladies and gentlemen,

I love the footy commentators in Argentina. I don't know his name but my favourite one often says "senoras y senoros". I think he is the Argentinian Archie Mcpherson! He speaks very excitedly and can shout "GOOOOOOOOOOOOL" forever! (in the same way that Archie gets excited mid-word - you know what I mean? - if a ball goes into the box or something, he doesn't stop what he is saying he seems to add a big stress to the word - if the situation ends up being not that exciting he modulates back to normal with great skill! - separated at birth these two I think!)

(from what I've seen on telly so far the footy is pretty exciting here. In two Copa Bridgestone Sudamerica matches (their version of the champions league - Aggregate scores of Vasco 5 - Universitario 4 & Velez 4 - Santa Fe 3) that tactics have been somewhere between all-out-attack and c'mon-lads-lets-have-a-real-go. However, I don't think that is always the case)

After Wednesday and Thursday with no school I helped out at Itaembe mini English school on Friday from 3:30pm to 7:30 pm. I really enjoyed this and it was great to help. (A lot of this was helping with listening and practicing what they'd learned this year to be ready for upcoming exams - they had to ask me lots of questions e.g. do you like chicken, do you like etc football. However, I did get to turn the tables a couple of times)

After the teaching on Friday I went out for Bowls and pool with Marcelo and Tom. (I've mentioned Marcelo before but Tom is from England and over here as part of his Spanish degree - he also did a stint volunteering a couple of years ago - he is working here as a sports journalist so gets to see the Argentinian commentators in action first hand! - I am very jealous). Marcelo called me a "professional" (because my pool was pretty good and I must've scored my best ever 10 pin bowling score of 136 - Marcelo will be after revenge next week - I'm confident I can live up to my pool of Friday but the bowls could be a different story! )

Yesterday I met Simon (another volunteer) and we went to Paraguay! We went to the ruins at Trinidad (these are from about the same era as the San Ignacio ones we went to last weekend but are from slightly later and a little better preserved). I didn't like Encarnacion the city in Paraguay that is very close to Posadas (it's a lot poorer than Argentina from what we could see) but the ruins were very interesting. It was raining so I wore the Pocket Rocket (for those who don't know yet, the Pocket Rocket is my high viz cycling rain jacket - it has served me well on my LEJOG and USA tours and it's special power is being super waterproof but being able to roll up small enough to get into your pocket.)

I return to school tomorrow. Once again it's manic monday!

Hasta La Vista!!!