the mighty mississippi

yesterday jose and i went out for coffee and like usual we were speaking in our spanglish - one sentence/paragraph in spanish and one in english. its kind of like a call and response. i want to speak in spanish and he wants to speak in english so i speak in spanish and he speaks in english both of us trying to trick the other person to switch languages.

we do this involuntarily and usually without noticing. obviously, though, everyone else around us notices because we sound like language schizos.

yesterday at the coffee shop the poor bartender had no idea where we were from. at first he though we were english. from mexico? ah, from the u.s. ah... new york right? no. oh, well then from where?
as if new york were the only state in the whole country! the united states of new york.

i tried to explain that i live in missouri.

him: oh yes the river, the mississippi river.

me: well, yes but there is a missorui river too.

him: both states have rivers?!

it was almost too much for him. firtst, ney york isnt the only state and now there are two rivers! omigod!

then he tried to impress me by telling me he saw a movie about tom sawyer... i told him the author was from missouri.
the author? he said.
yes...it was based on a book.

at least its not as bad as it could be... i have a friend from argentina and people have actually asked her if she has electricity in her house.