[Worley Family Blog] Barcelona Day 7
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Donna Worley
Sep 20, 2011, 3:42:12 PM9/20/11
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I guess I've missed a few days of posting - it's been a whirlwind of conference since Sunday. It finished up tonight and was a fantastic three days! I am feeling refreshed and energized for the next year.
One of the things I love the most about the conference each year is getting to see our whole team. There are 17 of us and we all work from our homes which are spread throughout 8 countries - U.S., Canada, U.K., the Netherlands, Benin (West Africa), India, Peru, and Spain. I am so blessed to work with such a fabulous group of people!
Tomorrow I am leaving Barcelona to go to Paris. My sweet mom is in route right now and will get there well before me. In the early part of planning for this trip I began practicing my French along with my Spanish, but I found myself rolling my r's in both languages so I finally decided to just stick to Spanish and let mom handle the French. My Spanish has been pretty bad too though, but the Spaniards are very hospitable and as long as I try, they have been very gracious and understanding. My best Spanish is "Lo siento, mi Espanole es no muy bueno" - translated: "I'm sorry, my Spanish isn't very good." This usually results in a sympathetic smile and they start talking in their best English or it results in a very dramatized conversation in Spanish with a lot of props and hand gestures for the stupid American. Either way - I'm able to communicate fairly well. I fear I won't be so lucky in France, but I do have an app on my Nook which shows the word or phrase in English and in French and has an audio pronunciation feature - I plan to review on the plane tomorrow. I would have to say though, my absolute favorite of all Spanish speakers from the last few days were my sweet Japanese friends. Everytime they stepped off the elevator, they said "Hola" or "Buenos Dias" although it was quite hard to detect through their very rich Japanese accents. They are truly sweet people, each time I walk through the exhibit area, Mr. Taishobosecki would come over to me with one of his items (an organic washcloth usually) and would say "for you" while bowing as is their custom. I decided in New York, last year, to believe that he is giving me one of his beautiful washcloths (gorgeous colors and soft) because it is delicate and pretty, like me - rather than because he thinks I need to use it. My next challenge is to learn the language for next years conference (drum roll please) - it will be in Hong Kong so I have one year to learn enough Mandarin to get by - I somehow don't think it will be enough time.
Back to my one afternoon excursion, I promised a few photos from Park Guell and so I've included them below. Last night we went to a restaurant across town, there is clearly much more of Barcelona that I haven't seen, so I guess I have a reason to come back! Talk to you tomorrow from Paris!
Love to all!
Donna
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Posted By Donna Worley to Worley Family Blog at 9/20/2011 02:42:00 PM
One of the things I love the most about the conference each year is getting to see our whole team. There are 17 of us and we all work from our homes which are spread throughout 8 countries - U.S., Canada, U.K., the Netherlands, Benin (West Africa), India, Peru, and Spain. I am so blessed to work with such a fabulous group of people!
Tomorrow I am leaving Barcelona to go to Paris. My sweet mom is in route right now and will get there well before me. In the early part of planning for this trip I began practicing my French along with my Spanish, but I found myself rolling my r's in both languages so I finally decided to just stick to Spanish and let mom handle the French. My Spanish has been pretty bad too though, but the Spaniards are very hospitable and as long as I try, they have been very gracious and understanding. My best Spanish is "Lo siento, mi Espanole es no muy bueno" - translated: "I'm sorry, my Spanish isn't very good." This usually results in a sympathetic smile and they start talking in their best English or it results in a very dramatized conversation in Spanish with a lot of props and hand gestures for the stupid American. Either way - I'm able to communicate fairly well. I fear I won't be so lucky in France, but I do have an app on my Nook which shows the word or phrase in English and in French and has an audio pronunciation feature - I plan to review on the plane tomorrow. I would have to say though, my absolute favorite of all Spanish speakers from the last few days were my sweet Japanese friends. Everytime they stepped off the elevator, they said "Hola" or "Buenos Dias" although it was quite hard to detect through their very rich Japanese accents. They are truly sweet people, each time I walk through the exhibit area, Mr. Taishobosecki would come over to me with one of his items (an organic washcloth usually) and would say "for you" while bowing as is their custom. I decided in New York, last year, to believe that he is giving me one of his beautiful washcloths (gorgeous colors and soft) because it is delicate and pretty, like me - rather than because he thinks I need to use it. My next challenge is to learn the language for next years conference (drum roll please) - it will be in Hong Kong so I have one year to learn enough Mandarin to get by - I somehow don't think it will be enough time.
Back to my one afternoon excursion, I promised a few photos from Park Guell and so I've included them below. Last night we went to a restaurant across town, there is clearly much more of Barcelona that I haven't seen, so I guess I have a reason to come back! Talk to you tomorrow from Paris!
Love to all!
Donna
--
Posted By Donna Worley to Worley Family Blog at 9/20/2011 02:42:00 PM
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