Carrer Joan Blanques, Barcelona, Festa Major de Gracia 2012
So I’m speaking Franspagnole.
That’s a mix of French and Spanish.
My brain can’t handle this transitional period. I actually forgot the verb “to be” in French. To be, y’all!
Who am I?
This may be an eternal question, but in this case, I just wanted to remember how to say it. No answer required. The verbs ser and estar kept getting in the way and usurped je suis for nearly 3 days!
Other examples:
When trying to make an appointment for Wednesday, I could not conjure the word mercredi. (Miercoles, miercoles!)
The check came for a couple drinks and I gave the server a billet of diez, not dix.
I went to Castorama to pick up a new bookshelf (more room for books!) and didn’t even realize half my sentence was in Spanish and the other in French. (Hay une etagere en blanc?) I wondered why everyone was giving me strange smiles.
Last night I finally managed to string a few whole sentences together (and was told I sounded Brazilian!).
So, I think I’m getting back on the right track.
Before my Barcelona bliss and buzz fades completely, however, I wanted to document the week-long party that happened right before I left. (It was all for me, right, Barca? I love you, too!)
I’m very excited to have a new post over on the hip web magazine, Untapped Cities, about the Festa Major de Gracia. It’s pronounced differently in Catalan, but it is a major good time.
Hop on over to read the post…plus see a TON of photos.
Fiesta, fiesta! (I mean, fete, fete!)
paris (im)perfect 
Haha I get languages mixed up too! I live in Barcelona and am trying to learn Catalan, so I end up mixing Spanish and Catalan verrry frequently.
Also, yay for the Festas de Gràcia! Loved your pics of it.
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You live in Barcelona, you lucky duck! Good on you. I had such a wonderful time there. That *is* something confusing about Barca, though – Spanish and Catalan. Wowza, good luck with that!
Also, glad you liked the Festas de Gracia photos. It was so fun to be there. I had an apartment in the neighborhood for most of August!
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Lol. Sometimes D and I have Franglais conversations without setting out to do so. The brain does what it does and “red” “rouge” and “roja” are the same thing.
This always reminds me of my first year in uni. I had 4 different language classes back to back: Spanish, French, Russian, then English. To say I was confused by my English lit class is an understatement. I remember taking notes one day and while re-reading what I had written I couldn’t understand why I was confused. It was, indeed, what my prof had said…except I had written everything using the Cyrillic alphabet. Take that Sir Gawain!
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Oh my GOSH! I can’t believe you took 4 language classes your first year. That is hilarious! Thanks so much for sharing.
Also, I have plenty of Franglais conversations, but it’s usually with people who also speak Franglais (a lot of us here in France ; )
The problem with Franspagnole is that it’s usually just one-sided. Thus, I just sound silly (or crazy) 😉
Thanks for making me smile today!
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The pics are riotously fiesta-ish! Off to read about it 🙂
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Riotously fiesta-ish. Perfect description! It was the biggest party I’d ever seen! 😉
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Can imagine 🙂
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