Noticias de la cicádea / cigale en voyage: March 2008

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Olivia Ruiz, J'traîne les pieds

Proverbs or dichos

Last week on the rancho my friend Tia began to share a few refranes, dichos or popular sayings after she realized the tortillas she was making were too watery (aguadas).... she realized how thrilled I was to learn then told me more... and of course I wrote them down. Forgive me if I'm not the best "interpreter":

1. Hice la masa aguada. (I ruined something – i.e. by watering down the masa or tortilla dough).

2. Con buén árbol se arrima buen sombra la cobija (lit: the good tree brings good shade? fig: refers to the benefits of good interpersonal relations. By googling this, I also found it appears in Chapter 32 of El Quijote)

3. Hay que tantearle la zanca al pollo (lit: It's necessary to size up the chicken's joints or extremities; zanca = its legs but Tia also used the word to refer to joints and extremities).

4. Hijo del tigre pintito (lit: the son is painted just like the tiger. Fig: like father, like son).

5. La cáscara guarda el palo (I'm having trouble with this one... la cascara has to do with a peel or shell but doesn't easily correlate with palo. Any ideas? I have an instinct that it means, "if you change your look / appearance, it doesn’t change your essence"

6. No por mucho que madrugues (levantarse), no amenece mas temprano (lit: no seas demasiado ansioso por hacer las cosas; don't rush too much to do things).

7. Al que madruga dios le ayuda (early bird gets the worm)

8. Al mal paso darle prisa (mejor encuentra resolution con prisa; it's best to find the solution as soon as you can.)

9. La rama que crece torcido nunca su rama enderece (lit: the branch that grows crooks never straightens out)

10. Al mal tiempo Buena cara.(lit: in bad weather, nice face. fig: keep your chin up!?)

Recent Discoveries (over the last few weeks)

A gorditas del comal stand near the CUCSH
The sauna at the YMCA (thanks for Brigitte & Gael, two Breton teachers at the lycee francais who swim on Friday afternoons)
Los Gigantes (amazing French marionette show in streets of Guadalajara)
The book Rancheros in Chicago by Patrcia Zamudio Grave
Casona Rosa in Morelia (where mom and I will be staying when she visits)
CUCSH library divisions (most the books I read are not in the main library but in the Dept of Social Development Studies)
Korean writers Eun Hee-kyung and Park Min-gyu at the FIL
Drag Queen Show downtown Guadalajara at the Boy's
Laura Restrepo talking about memory and language at the FIL (book fair)
Feria Internacional del Libro - biggest book fair in Latin America

Nuevo vocabulario (words learned through my language partner, Jaime)

muy amigos, amigos cercanos, amigos íntimos - close friends

hiriente - offensive

danino – hurtful

una fechoría - misdeed; ya está haciendo otra de sus ~s he's up to mischief again

calar- to pierce, penétrate, soak in, catch on (¿calaste?); estos cambios calan lentamente en la sociedad- these changes permeate society slowly

calarse - (empaparse) to get soaked, get drenched; me calé hasta los huesos I got soaked to the skin

pastar / pacer – graze (as in pasture)

un cumplido – a compliment (synonym: un halago)

un hallazgo – find or discovery

resguardar- ~ algo/a algn DE algo ‹de peligro/frío› to protect sth/sb from st; ‹derechos/privilegios› to safeguard; resguardarse verbo pronominal (de peligro) to protect oneself; (de la lluvia, el frío) to shelter, take shelter; se ~on de la lluvia they sheltered o took shelter from the rain;

una petición – request, application

un malvavisco – marshmallow

un bonbón – chocolate with white vanilla filling

el ajetreo - hustle and bustle, activity, hard work

el asueto - time off; tomarse un día de ~ to take a day off

desbordante - ‹entusiasmo/júbilo› boundless; bursting with enthusiasm; estaba ~ de júbilo she was brimming over with happiness

piar vi (pájaro) to chirp, cheep, tweet

pitar - [guardia/árbitro] to blow one's whistle

Noticias de la cicádea / cigale en voyage

Saturday, March 29, 2008

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