Martes 2x1

Un caballo entra en un bar y el mesero le dice: "Por que la cara larga?"

We're learning how to retell chistes (jokes) in Spanish class. Always horrible at recalling jokes, I told the one above about the horse with the long face, expecting it to get no reaction in Spanish - jokes rarely translate, especially when they involve figures of speech like this one. Except that mine actually got the loudest laugh! It was the only one that did translate, because apparently una cara larga (a long face) is also a phrase en español meaning the same thing it does in English. Que suerte!

I also formed a theory today that my "Mexican accent" was in fact not an accent from the country of Mexico but an accent from the city of Mexico. People living in Mexico City and close to it (like in Cuernavaca) tend to call it "D.F." but here it's nearly always referred to simply as "México" - the ciudad being assumed, like sometimes we refer to New York City as simply New York.

Anyway, apparently tapatíos (people who live in Jalisco) make fun of chilangos (people who live in Mexico City) for their acento mexicano, which our teacher described as kind of sing-songy, which is how I was unwittingly reading the spanish dialogue out of the book last week. So I think it actually sounded like I was impersonating a resident of Mexico City. Thus, in the last week I've reclaimed my Pumas fandom and my chilango accent. Makes me wish I had bought that t-shirt I saw in Coyoacan months ago: "I (heart) D.F."

(Above: VW bug and a flower-seller on a Guadalajara street. Tortas Mr. Paco is in the background.)

After class today Chris and I went to "Tortas Mr. Paco" to get some tortas ahogadas. "Tortas ahogadas" literally translates as "tortas that are drowning," and the term refers to pork sandwiches on crusty bread that are submerged in a tomatoey sauce and served in that sauce, as if you just put your sandwich inside a bowl of soup. They are a muy, muy tapatío food. To me they taste kind of like Italian beef, if you submerged an Italian beef sandwich in a soupy tomato sauce and then drizzled super-hot sauce over it. (But maybe that reference doesn't help many of you, because my Michigander esposa says she'd never heard of Italian beef before my mom served it once at my family's home in the Chicago suburbs.)


Anyway, on Tuesdays "Tortas Mr. Paco" has tortas ahogadas for half price, with two-for-one cervezas - an unbeatable deal in which we have two sandwiches, a Coke and a beer for less than $5. The only catch is that the hot sauce is really hot - our lips are still burning...