It’s Saturday, the work week is over and the weather is nice here in Puerto Rico. Time for me to head out into the wild blue yonder. I plan to spend most of the day practicing my fundamentals and most of the night visiting local pool halls in the area to see if I can find a good game. To say that my Spanish language skills are limited would be a huge understatement. As such, I’ve invested a little time this morning to learn some key phrases that may be useful to me, such as:
Yo no hablo español. (I don’t speak Spanish.)
Quiere jugar? (Want to play?)
Cuánto dinero? (How much money?)
I don’t anticipate running into any trouble, but if things get a little unfriendly, I may find the following phrase useful:
Puedo comprar le yo una cerveza mi amigo? (Can I buy you a beer my friend?)
If that doesn’t diffuse the tension, maybe this will:
Puedo comprar le yo dos cervezas mi amigo? (Can I buy you two beers my friend?)
If things get REALLY nasty, I may need to use the following phrase as a last resort:
Spanish: No tan es trastornado, yo le pagaré! Necesito para ir al cuarto de baño, pero seré inmediatamente. Aquí, usted puede tener mi palo de indicación como colateral.
English translation: Don’t get so upset, I will pay you! I need to go to the bathroom, but I’ll be right back. Here, you can hold my cue stick as collateral.
Rule number one of playing pool on the road: Always make sure the bathrooms have windows that are large enough to crawl out of! 🙂 Well, I’m off to find some adventure. Does going solo mean that I’ve gone loco? If anything interesting happens, I’ll let you know.
Angle of Reflection 