Embarrassing Moments

I usually am not one to be embarrassed by anything, but Guatemala is really challenging this notion....so many words in Spanish are like so many words in English...change one vowel or forget to pronounce one sound and you have probably sounded like an idiot.

Recent faux pauxs of ours include:

"Buenos Dias!" We just proudly hailed someone a "Good morning!" 5:00 in the evening.

"Quiero pan con jueves calientes" I just asked for bread with hot Thursday on it (instead of eggs).

But this morning was most definitely the winner....every morning I stand on a busy corner and wait for MY school bus, which said "autobus escolar" on it ("school bus" formally written). Since EVERY school bus here is an old yellow bus from the U.S.A., the only way to know what bus YOU get on is by looking at the top where ours says "autobus escolar." During my 10-15 wait every day, I get faked out by other yellow school buses and I have to carefully look at the writing..."Bus" "Special" "Centro" etc. Not only that, but I have also been forgotten about and have had to flag the driver down at the light to let me on.

Today the bus was running late, so I was anxiously waiting for it long after it should have arrived. I see a yellow school bus carreen around the corner and go right pass me! I check, and it says "Bus escolar" on it, which in my panicked mind is close enough to "autobus escolar." So I go running up to it at the stoplight and have to bang on the door for it to let me in. Once I step on the bus, everyone is looking at me with mixed expressions of confusion, fear, and slight amusement.

The gringa has gone crazy. Once I return a similar look to them, I apologize and step off the bus. James was still on the sidewalk long enough to see the students laughing at me as the bus drove away. Guess I'll have to be more careful next time when reading my bus! The bad thing is that this bus drives by me every single day while I wait for MY bus. So I'm sure that schoolbus will have something white and embarrassed to point and laugh at for a good while now....