Learn Spanish and Enjoy Some Serendipity (part II)

Tuna or Atún

One strange day I felt the need for a tuna sandwich. My dictionary failed to provide a translation for this most versatile fish so I decided to wing it. I thought that instead of wasting time on the internet trying to learn Spanish for tuna I would see whether it was maybe called the same in Spanish as in English. I asked in the market for tuna and was pleasantly surprised when the first lady sent me on to another one. Things turned weird when she handed me a small, rather ugly looking fruit. I discovered later than tuna in English is actually atún in Spanish and that tuna is the name of the object presented to me that day. Never one to look a gift fruit in the mouth I bought it anyway and was delighted to find a yummy, sweet fruit which quickly turned into one of my favourite snacks.

The Giant Party

After I had spent a couple of days in Tarija I had met some new friends and they invited me out to a party in someone’s house. I wasn’t really all that keen on going so nipped out for a walk before they came round to get me. After walking for a while I was getting hungry so went in to buy some chicken wings in a restaurant in a part of town I didn’t really know. Who should I find sitting there but a couple of the guys I had met in La Paz (which is about a 20 hour bus journey away). They had come home for the holidays and they dragged me off to their house to meet some more people. Of course, who else could have been in their house but the very same group of friends I had avoided earlier? The look on everyone’s faces was absolutely priceless, as I quickly reached for my dictionary to learn Spanish translations of “serendipity” and “cor blimey”.