Recovery Always Trumps Food

I'm glad that I speak a little Spanish.  I think the locals appreciate the effort.  I usually start by saying: "My Spanish is bad," as if they couldn't tell.  They usually assure me that it isn't and the bilingual or trilingual or multilingual  often say: "You can speak in English - it's OK," but I soldier on.  It's a little sign of respect from me, for them, for their culture.  I don't think it's very considerate to say, in essence: "I'm here - accommodate me."  It's their country, for god's sake - I'm the visitor.

That being said one of the pitfalls of stumbling through a few Spanish phrases is that some people overestimate my ability and launch into a staccato, rapid-fire stream of venomous trash-talking.  I can see that my mind tries to keep up for a minute and then says : "Ah, fuck it," and throws in the towel.  I'm getting better but I'll be a long way from competent before I leave.  I've become a master of the blank look and the pleasant nod.  I've probably bought an apartment or committed to a life of male modeling, for the geriatric set.

Last night we went to a speaker meeting.  I'm from Vacation City and the guy who led was a Swede, speaking English, in a Spanish city, where Spanish is a secondary language, subsumed by Catalan.

Is this a great program or what?

We had plans for the meeting and then dinner with my friend at a local restaurant.  He posed a question: skip the meeting and go the restaurant early as it was completely booked later in the evening, or make the meeting and go somewhere else.

Recovery always trumps food.

We found a restaurant after the meeting and had an excellent meal.