Archive for April, 2007

Practicing Spanish -or- No quiero tus vitaminas

Monday, April 16th, 2007

Having a cellphone has been intersting in various ways.  One of the things that I find entertaining is getting phone calls for a wrong number.  I guess I like it because it usually means I get to practice speaking Spanish (I have an 831 area code, look up the demographics for Salinas).  Even if I just say “Creo que tienes el numero equivocado,” and they hang up, I still get a kick out of it.   I think I’ve gotten about 5 or 6 mistaken callers, and all but one was speaking Spanish when I said, “Hello.”

I’ve also gotten a few calls from some company in Florida.  The first two times, I just told them that they had the wrong number, and just hung up.  This time, the lady on the other line apparently wanted to talk to me even though I couldn’t understand her well.  She asked if I could understand her if she spoke slower.  I thought, why not practice my spanish a little today?  So, she asked what my name was, and I told her, “Topher.”  She needed me to spell that one out for her.  Then she asked about my age, height, weight, whether I worked indoors or outdoors, and about my general state of health.  It eventually got to the point where I was asked if I was interested in sexually appealling pheremones, muscle enhancing supplements, or vitamins to help my poor, over-worked brain.  It was then when I said that I wasn’t interested in anything like that, and that all my health problems could be solved with more sleep, more food, and more exercise.  I thanked her for helping me to practice my Spanish, and said goodbye.