We met our friends from Rondeau Bay when they were coming into port at San Carlos. J.F. was at the helm and Marie was on the starboard side waiting to jump off and tie the boat to the dock. It was a pretty tight fit because they were parking next to another boat with a really wide hull. My mom, Casey, and I decided to help. With a bit of a hassle we helped them get their boat tied.

Later they invited us to a beach restaurant for a snack and drinks. I don't know how the subject came up but we started to talk about Spanish.
"Yea, we don't have a good Spanish program, Rosetta stone didn't really work," my mom said.
There was more talking and then Marie said, "Well, I could e-mail the head of my department. They could recommend some good books..." She paused, "or I could teach you!" Marie was recently a high school Spanish teacher but quit to go with J.F. on their sailing trip. "Yea!!" we yelled. We finally had a Spanish teacher!

The next day I was making a big pot of soup and Casey was cleaning the bathroom. Marie stopped by and said "Hola! Como esta?" I immediately knew this was a test. She wanted to catch me off guard and see if I actually knew the little Spanish I claimed to know. "Bien. Y tu?" I said. "Bien, gracias," she said. "Come over to my boat when you're done. We will start 1A, the easiest lesson."

Casey was done cleaning the bathroom, but my soup was still cooking. I had replaying visions of the boat on fire or soup boiling over and mom shaking her head saying she'd never trust me to make soup again. Well, that's ok, I thought, I'll just run over every few minutes and check up on it. I shook it off and began to walk to their boat with Casey. When we got there, Marie and J.F. were scrubbing the bottom of their dinghy. "Hi girls!" she said. "Hola," I said. I was ready this time. She introduced us to some of the dock workers (who were Mexican) in Spanish. "Te Presentar Casey." She did the same for me. She introduced us to a teenage boy that came to help his dad (who we had already met) work on some boats. "Mucho Gusto," Casey and I said at the same time. "Shake hands," said Marie. Casey and I held out our hands. He mumbled something in Spanish and held up his hands, which were coated in a white sticky paste that he was using to wax a boat. "Oh!" said Marie.

She gave us an assignment. "Go find at least one person and ask them their name in Spanish just like I showed you." (We had already practiced asking names: Jesus-the kid helping his dad, Francisco-Jesus' dad, and Victor-the guy that cleaned our boat bottom.) So Casey and I set out around the docks to find a person and ask them their name. Sounds a bit weird, huh? I looked around. The docks were deserted. That seriously cut back on our options.

Luckily we found a security guard. No tattoos, No mysterious scars on his face, not listening to heavy metal that can be herd from a mile away. This was our man. "Hola, me llamo Tara," I said. Casey said the same. "Como se llama," I said in the formal way for when you just meet someone. He looked at Casey and me for a second. "Fernando," he said. "Gracias," I said and smiled. We started to walk away. "Castion..." He said. What? We turned around. He wasn't finished telling us his name. "Lopez." He finished and smiled. His name was Fernando Castion Lopez. I said thank you in Spanish again. I tried to tell him we were learning Spanish. I said, "Learning Espanol" and pointed to my head. Marie hadn't taught us how to say that we were learning Spanish yet.

We returned to Marie and told her that we had met Fernando Castion Lopez. She told us to find five boat names in Spanish and write them down. This wasn't a lesson - it was a scavenger hunt, and it was fun. We found some boat names and were about to leave when I saw some fishermen fishing off the docks. "Come on Casey, lets go meet them! Marie said one or MORE, remember?"
"No, I'm gonna find boat names"
"Chicken!" I yelled.
She waved goodbye as she walked down the dock.
"Come on!"
No answer. I knew I had to go now or I'd look like the chicken.
"FINE!" I yelled and headed toward the fishermen. This was going to be embarrassing.

I came up to a fisherman and said what I said to Fernando. "Por que?" This guy wanted to know why I wanted his name. For all he knew I could be a mass murderer or a FBI agent. I didn't have an answer. I decided to say what I said to Fernando. "Learning Espanol," I said, again pointing to my head. He didn't understand. He obviously wasn't as bright as Fernando. He squinted and gave me the stink eye. I did it again. Finally he decided that he was making this more trouble than it was worth and said, "Me llamo Alberto." "Mucho gusto Alberto," I said and walked away.

Casey and I reported back to Marie. "I want to hear all about it!" she said happily. Bringing back the visions of the soup boiling over and the fire, I thought that would be the same line my mom would use except there would a charred sunken boat, firemen in the background, and she would be furious and yelling frantically. "I'll be right back. I gotta go check the soup!" I hadn't checked the soup or even stirred it in two hours. I sprinted. The boat was still there. I ran inside. I sighed with relief. I stirred it and walked back to Rondeau Bay. Marie taught us our Spanish ABC's and went over our numbers (we already knew most of them). And then she gave us homework. It was a fun experience and we learned a lot of Spanish in just one lesson.