No Habla Espanol, but I WANT to!

Seeing as how I don't speak Spanish fluently, (and by that I mean, my Spanish vocabulary is the equivalent of 1 year old) life in Laredo has had it's interesting moments.  For example, I was in Wal-Mart waiting to check out the other day when this lady approached me.  In her hands she had two packages of hot dogs.  She held these up for me to see as if they were a great prize and proceeded to ask me something in Spanish.  I looked at her rather blankly and said sheepishly, "Uh, I don't speak Spanish."  This lady then looked at me with great distress, looked around frantically, and then walked away in sort of a huff.

Those hot dogs must've been pretty darn important.  I just don't know why.  Because I don't speak Spanish.

I have a goal to get back to where I was in college.  I could sort of carry on a conversation with people.  I gave speeches in Spanish.  Now, I can't even understand Plaza Sesamo.  Yeah, I really did watch that to try to learn Spanish.  My kids didn't even care about it.  I'm the one that turned it on.

Seriously, though, I want to be able to communicate with people.  There is this lady I keep running into in my neighborhood that is so sweet, and I can tell she wants to be friends, but she doesn't speak a lick of English.  And since I've already mentioned that my Spanish sucks, you can guess how that relationship is going.  (Psst... It's going poorly.)

My husband speaks Spanish and does every day for his job.  Actually, he spoke Portuguese first, and it kinda turned into him being able to speak Spanish.  He helps me.  He also laughs at me in the process.  A lot.  

I know I'm probably not alone in this.  I guess I better dust off my old school books and hop to it.  I have a feeling I'm going to need it.

Let's Be Friends!

Hello, there!  My name's Johanna, and it looks like we're going to be friends for awhile, so here are some things you may need to know about me in a fun bulleted form.

• I am originally from the great state of Alabama.  Don't laugh.  It is pretty great.  :)
• I've moved 4 times in my lifetime - Green Hill, Alabama, to Birmingham, Alabama, to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, then back to Green Hill, Alabama, and now here in Laredo.
• My biggest move before college was when my parents moved from the bottom of a hill on our land to the top of the hill.
• I'm a small town gal at heart.
• I'm a stay at home mom of two beautiful children, Evan and Lauren.
• I graduated from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2005 with a degree in English concentrating in Linguistics with a minor in Psychology.  (Say that 5 times fast!)
• I was only one class away from having a minor in Spanish, but I didn't do it because I didn't want people to think I actually spoke it well.
• My husband just finished college in August with a degree as an Electrical Technician and is now a Plant Manager for a retread tire plant at Southern Tire Mart.  Yeah, I don't really get how those go together, either.
• We're not the only Browns that have moved here. The reason we moved here is my husband, Andrew's brother moved here and offered him a job.  Shortly thereafter, his sister and her husband moved here to work for the same company.  Watch out, Laredo.  The Browns are taking over!  :)
• This isn't the only blog I keep.  If you just can't get enough of me here, be sure to check out my Livejournal.

I think that's all the key points.  Be sure to check back often as my next posts will be all about my adventures in Laredo.  :D