Day 32 - A picture story for my Spanish lesson

My Spanish teacher is amazing. I absolutely love my classes and always look forward to them, because I know that I will hear yet another cool story about Mexican traditions or an episode from his own pretty crazy life. This is a great way of learning a language - real stories, that you want to participate in discussing. And the way he talks is great - slowly, but not exaggerating the slow pace as if he's talking to a dumb or deaf person, but rather making it seem like this is his natural conversation speed (although I know it cannot possibly be true - all Mexicans talk as if they are shooting a machine gun). A friend of mine who I Skype regularly with told me once that every time I talk about my Spanish teacher, I touch my hair - a body language that signifies attraction. But I know for a fact that I am definitely not attracted to him. On the other hand, I feel totally in love with the Spanish language. I cannot get enough of exercises, translations, talking to people (yes, now I do it!!!), even conjugating verbs, for God's sake! So I'm thinking that the "touching hair" body language in this case signifies my attraction to the language, rather than to the person. How cool is that!

My homework is always something unexpected and interesting. Today, Othon (that's his name) tops himself by giving me the following task - Create a story based on the pictures that are glued to a piece of paper. The story has to be a narrative in the past, as we are working on the agreement of tenses. For hours and hours I stare at the sheet in my mind, trying to figure out how to connect those random images. I think about it while diving. Nothing. The one thing I learnt pretty well in the course of my managerial career is that teamwork and delegation are the cornerstones of every solid project. And so I email the task to my creative friends in the hope that they come up with a plausible story that I can simply translate into Spanish. In my wildest dreams I didn't expect such prolific results within 10 minutes of this email going out! Well, I translated all of them, and my teacher and I had a really good laugh. Thank you, guys!!!

The images:
1. a fire in the woods (or maybe it's a fence on fire - not very clear)
2. a leopard walking near a waterfall
3. little kids playing go-carts in the school backyard
4. ginie and alladin (i assume by the clothes) on the flying carpet
5. a soldier with a gun
6. a five-dollar coin (have you ever seen a 5-dollar coin btw?)
7. a portrait of 3 women smiling - looks like grandmother, mother, daughter

STORIES

From Tom
Deep in the forest, there is a mystical magical waterfall, guarded by mystical magical leopards. In a cave covered by the waterfall is a genie's lamp. The soldier gets separated from his unit and lost in the burning forest. After a few close encounters with enemy soldiers, in the dead of night, with a full moon, he is sure that the death is coming for him soon, and recalls his happy childhood racing go-carts in his school yard. But suddenly, he comes across the waterfall and discovers the lamp. He rubs it, and the genie comes out, promising to grant him only one wish. Later, he is telling the story to his mother, wife, and daughter. So they ask what he wished for. To get home safely on the flying carpet, perhaps? No, he says, I asked for a five-dollar coin. Then they all slap him and call him a stupid moron, “What is wrong with you? Five-dollar coins aren’t even real!” The end.

Discussing Tom's Version:

Maria: wait, maybe genie tells him that she would transport him home on the magic flying carpet IF he gets her a 5-dollar coin. Because genies have wishes too! And nobody could ever fulfill her desire to see the fricking coin that doesn't exist.
Tom: haha the genie turns the tables
Maria: so he writes a letter to his family (whose picture he is carrying with him at all times) to get this stupid coin made somehow. Otherwise his children (unborn) will never play the go-carts in the schoolyard.
Tom: so the genie wants the mint to make him a $5 coin. I'm sure the technology behind that flying carpet has a lot of military applications - he could probably become a defense contractor and demand payment in $5 coins.
Maria: yeah - or it could be spun this way - she wants to have a prototype of this coin because somehow through the magic waterfall channels, she heard that this will become the most liquid currency of the future, and she anticipates a lot of demand on it from future wishers.
Tom: haha. She had to go into the genie business from a previous career as an institutional trader because of heavy losses on stupid bets involving $5 coins.

From Dima:
While there's a fire in the woods the leopard ran to the waterfalls to get water to put the fire out. Oh no! the fire can spread fast and there are kids playing right outside the forest. What to do? Well, Aladdin has everything under control, he is flying in to save the day and "fight" like a soldier with the forest fire.

From Jen:
There is a fire! The leopard sucks in water from the water fall and races to the fire. The children jump in their go carts to help put it out. The guys on the flying carpet come racing to the aid of the children. Next, a soldier smells smoke and heads over to join the effort. These unlikely “firemen” don’t put the fire out for money (the coin), but to bring peace and harmony to everyone around them (mom, daughter, grandmother).

From Shaun:
Three generations of Ivanchuk women hung on the wall. Their expressions belied the terrible fate that fell on the three Ivanchuk men. Late in the fall of 1940, grandfather Ivanchuk, his son and grandson set out to hunt a leopard that had escaped the Pottsylvanian National Circus. It was rumored that the leopard had made a den by the waterfall just outside of town. As the Ivanchuks reached the gate at the edge of town, they were stopped by a soldier carrying a gun. You cannot go any farther. “The forest is on fire….at least the fence around the forest is on fire.” At that time, the boys in the nearby schoolyard made a terrible crash, colliding their toy carts. The soldier turned to see what caused the noise and the Ivanchuks used the opportunity to fly away like Alladin and his genie on a flying carpet. Finding themselves in the deep, dark woods, the youngest Ivanchuk nervously rubbed his $5 coin for good luck. Where was the leopard? They lurk in trees, don’t they? The three generations of hunters stalked slowly toward the waterfalls. Slowly, quietly looking for the leopard. A tree had fallen across the pass and the men set down their guns to crawl under. A roar came from behind the fallen tree and then…. No trace of them was ever found.

My grandmother had a $5 US gold piece. She sent it back to France from the US during WWI so that her family could buy food. During the Depression, her family sent it back to her so that SHE could buy food. She never spent it. It was always kept, “just in case.”