An afternoon with Charli


A couple of weeks ago I got a message from Charli. Now, most of you dont know charli, but you wish you did. He is one of the kids that I taught english to in the English camp last summer. Now, receiving a message from him isn't really a cause for a blog post, as I receive messages from several of my students from time to time (no death threats surprisingly). But in this case Charli told me that his family was coming to madrid and that he wanted to meet up. I was a bit surprised because we had talked about it a couple times in passing like one of those things that you simply say to be polite or something. But I was happy to hear he was coming and amused with the very thought of meeting up with him. You see, he comes from a small spanish town of about 8000 people and you can totally tell when you talk to him.
Anyway, yesterday we met up. I waited for him next to the cathedral (which his parents were going to see). I wondered if it would be weird to talk to him in spanish. At camp last summer we communicated through hand motions and such things because I didn't reveal that I could speak spanish until half an hour before camp was finished (it was an extremely amusing time for me). But the language change was not a problem. Charli and I walked around the town for a couple hours. I bought him lunch. We talked and laughed. Strangely enough he seemed to care what I thought and kept asking me for advice about various different aspects of his pubescent existence. I think I convinced him not to drop out of school quite yet.

15 year olds are really funny. Their brains work in a different way than the rest of people (actually, their brains work in a way that is disturbingly close to my own). Combine this with a small town mentality and you have an afternoon of guaranteed entertainment. At one point we were chilling on the lawn at Plaza España when we had a small lull in the conversation. It wasn't an awkward one, just one of those silences that signals that both parties are thinking.
Suddenly he says "Have you ever seen a turtle that can do down stairs?" I would have answered, but I was too busy laughing.
"No seriously," he said "think about it. I bet you have never seen a turtle that can go down stairs." By now he was laughing too. "Because if you come to my house someday I can show you one. My turtle can go down the stairs. I was with my friends the first time he did it. It blew our minds."
That is the kind of conversation we had all day long. Ridiculous anecdotes, stories about his adventures with weed, tales about his life and more.

Comments

Anonymous said…
You were a bit disturbing when you were 15 and I have evidence that I have been holding hostage for years in case I ever need it. But you were also a lot of fun!
5/3/07 10:28
Anonymous said…
hehe, sounds like a fun guy...
5/3/07 12:00
Anonymous said…
i kind of wish that you pretended not to speak english when we first met.
8/3/07 13:03
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