Thursday, July 17, 2008

Tile, Tile Everywhere!

In Spain, ceramic tile is the medium of choice when it comes to flooring and even walls. I don't have to explain why tile is so desirable because if you ever lived in a hot arid, sandy region you would certainly understand. If you haven't well, maybe you should visit one or stomp around the neighbors sandbox and then walk across your nice wall to wall carpet. If things aren't stucco-ed here, then they are tiled. The sidewalks are tiled




The houses are tiled



And the mother of all tile jobs was this. The esplanade in Alicante that extends for several blocks.



Then of course there is the stone carving.



Even this is too grand for "The Old Crack House".
And let's not forget "Betty"! She would look so "kewl" next to Elizabeth's red pig!



I have a question for all you folks who really know Spanish. I wanted to learn to speak Spanish really badly. So, I searched the web and from it I learned to speak Spanish really badly! I tried three different translation web sites and got three different answers for the phrase "This Old Crack House."

Here is what I got;

esta antigua casa de crack
Esta casa vieja de la grieta
Esta Vieja Casa de Primera
I suspect it is Este casa vieja de cocaina or something similar. Sombody please enlighten me!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I'm far from fluent (good enough to get around Argentina and to talk with trabajadores here), but I think it would be: esta casa vieja de cocaina. 'grieta' is a crevice or crack like in a sidewalk. 'antigua' is old, antique or ancient so could probably work instead of 'vieja'.

Most likely there's Spanish slang for crack as the English is. About.com suggests 'roca' (rock) or 'piedra' (stone) for it. Since you could easily have a house made of stone, 'roca' is probably the better bet.

So our final answer is: esta casa vieja de roca.