Travel Tutelage

I’ve mentioned that we have had to catch up on a lot of deferred maintenance issues, especially in the garden.  Over the past six weeks while Cindy has been cultivating the garden, I’ve been trimming lots and lots of bushes and trees. The result has been an eyesore of stacked branches under our evergreens and it was suggested by Cindy that I get rid of them, and fast. (Note from Cindy:  I contributed to the trimming and I never ever tell Wm to do anything, especially not fast!!)

Our neighbors have been doing a lot of work on their yard and they were going to install some underground irrigation.  I came across a whole box of irrigation related tools, spray heads, piping and connectors while cleaning out the garage last weekend so I thought they might be able to use my treasures.  I knew they had a line on lots of contractors and day jobbers so I thought I’d get some advice from them when I brought over the box of goodies.  About an hour after dropping things off, two people were at my door offering their services.  One of them I recognized as their son, a lad of about 18, recently graduated from high school and brilliant in math. The other was one of their laborers and they both were eager to help me get the job done.

As we were working I got the young man, Carlos, to open up about himself and discovered that he was heading to Europe for the first time this Friday as part of a guided trip for high school grads.  He was so excited to learn that Cindy and I had lived in Europe for a dozen years and he started asking lots of questions.  His itinerary is Madrid, Barcelona, “somewhere in the south of France,” Paris, Florence, Venice and Rome; and yes, all in twelve days! As we clipped and chopped, we also talked and talked about his trip and I had tons of suggestions.  At some point I mentioned eating biscotti with espresso and neither one of them had heard of this cookie so rather they try to explain, I went into the house and brought out two of them for their edification.  They were enthralled with the treat and that got us talking more and more about food and drink available in Europe. 

Carlos is bilingual in Spanish and English and he thought he would have no trouble while in Spain and Italy.  It did give me an opportunity to teach him a few local words, like asking for a caña instead of a cerveza as they call beer in many Spanish-speaking countries, or a copa de blanco instead of un vaso de vino blanco. Well we had a ball talking and working and soon it was all done and the place looked like a million bucks.  I paid the other worker in dollars but paid Carlos in Euros and gave him a quick primer on the paper currency and coins.  I also gave unsolicited grandfatherly advice about how to avoid getting ripped off by Romas (gypsies) and others.  He was just thrilled with the information and money.  Today we brought over a note along with a First Class toilet kit I had from United so that he would at least have a few amenities on the long flight to Madrid. 

Another note from Cindy: I heard much of this conversation and nearly went over and told them to get back to work, and fast!  Just kidding - it was really cool to hear that Carlos was so enthusiastic and that he knew to ask so many questions.