so the other day i was making brownies in the kitchen (as opposed to the bathroom? man, i suck sometimes) and josè and blanca (my host parents) were in there making lunch/dinner. so we're just one happy family, cooking away, and we turn on the kitchen tv and there on spanish cnn is the coverage of the pope's death. we're watching it and talking about it, and i think i accidentally said "popa" instead of "papa" for pope, so josè corrected me. i wanted to clarify, so i asked if it is pronounced "papà" like padre or "papa" like potato. he told me it was the later and i said ok. and just to check one more time i said "so, the word "papa" is used for pope and potato?" he said yes, and i moved on with life.

now, let me explain josè to you: he is this quiet little man that will definitely talk, but he's just softspoken en general.

so we sit down to eat a little later, me, my host brothers, santiago (one of my brother's friends) and blanca y josè. josè prays for the meal, and then while we're all passing food and whatnot and there was a lull in conversation, josè looks up with this very serious, straight face, and in english says very matter-of-factly, "the potato is dead." and he knew exactly what he was saying.

i started laughing so hard, and at first everyone else was confused, until we explained the pope/potato thing, and one of my brothers just got this shocked look on his face and told josè what a bad joke it was. and i guess it was bad, considering the man had just died a few hours before, but.... well, i laughed. a lot.

but the brownies turned out excellent!!

ah, mi vida en ecuador... good times, good times.

siempre.....

pope y potato

curlingiron

Tuesday 05 April 2005 at 3:56 pm

Two comments

pretty strange, I just watched the funeral of il papa in class, but it actually doesn't seem like that big of a deal here in the Tuscan, Italy region. I imagine Ecuador is nuts, with actual real catholics.

Jeryl

all the flags are at half-mast for the pope's death, but there is so much political disruption right now with the president and former president and all the other stuff that his death is sort of being overshadowed.

actually, the biggest uproar i've heard in regards to his funeral was surrounding our very own first lady. don't know if anyone saw it or not, but her and Georgie showed up and she was wearing a black veil (the actual name of it can't remember), which is a catholic tradition, and many people here got very upset about it (since the bush's aren't catholic and laura had no right to wear it). other than that...

pope y potato

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