be careful what you wish for.

today i learned first hand that you need to be careful what you wish for. as you know, they speak english here in belize, but they also speak some spanish and some creole. creole is not the louisiana creole that some americans would associate the word with but rather a jamaican-like "hey mon" type of creole. lately i have been wishing that i was using my spanish more and becoming conversationally fluent in both spanish and creole.

well people, today i got a new student in my class... he most definitely only speaks spanish. so i guess i will be using my spanish more!

i would also like to take this moment to share a story with you about my continuing relationship with ethan...

ethan is kind of a punk. he's always pushing buttons and getting into mischief. so when i came home from school for lunch and he refused to let me in the door, pressing his face against the glass and making kissing faces, i found it entirely appropriate to greet him with a "what's up punk?" as i walked in.

what happened next took me off guard. that little voice that bellowed from my 5 year old friend responded quickly with a "what's up bitch!"

i stood there somewhat in shock and with no hesitation said, "what did you call me??"

ethan looked confused. "uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. oh. nothing"

i told him not to ever talk to me like that again.

alyssa had overheard him say it to me and told her mom that ethan had cussed at me. he immediately apologized and we moved forward.

halfway through lunch he tells yvette, "but mom (which he calls his aunt when his mom's not around), she called my a punk". yvette then asks me what happened and i told her that i simply said "what's up punk" to him and he called me a bitch.

everyone at lunch started laughing. they told me if i was going to talk like that, i shouldn't get offended when he calls me a bitch.

ok. what? how are the words punk and bitch even in the same category? well. they aren't. i didn't know what was going on. i did nothing wrong. why was everybody making such a big deal about this?

later that night yvette was telling those who has missed out on our lovely lunching about what ethan and i had said to each other. so i pressed the issue....

"what's wrong with what i said? he is a punk!!"

yvette looked at me a little confused as to what i was talking about. so she explained.

here in belize the word punk is a derogative term used to describe a person who is homosexual. and when someone says the phrase "what's up punk?" the other person usually responds with "what's up bitch".

oh. ok. i get it now.

so...

ethan knew that i wasn't being serious, clearly, and he then thought that if i was joking it was ok to say the common response.

lesson learned.

here's my belizean phrase of the day:

bleached out- staying up all night

love,

me

xoxo