Spelling bee

(Note: Tomorrow is a travel day, so I´m not sure exactly when I´ll have internet access next.)

Last night, Kristian asked me if I wanted to take a ride over to the children´s school to catch the tail end of a spelling bee. His wife, Denise, had been roped into selling key chains at some stand and the family was going to keep her company.


Truth be told, I wasn´t really all about going. But Kristian seemed to be all about having me tag along, and it was really one of the last opportunities I would have to spend some quality time with the family.

So, Sophia, Mariana, Kristian, and I packed into the car. Sophia kicked the back of my seat for the entire ride--quality family time--and by the time we arrived I had a mild case of whiplash.

We made our way into the gymnasium.

The spelling bee was already in full swing, and as we searched for seats and I soaked in the environment something seemed to be just a bit off that I couldn´t quite put my finger on.

Then it hit me.

To my surprise--and heavily biased delight--the spelling bee was in English.

Oh, shush you. I know. I´m here to learn Spanish. But, sometimes after long days of concentrating really hard on what everyone around me is saying, my head feels like it´s about to explode. Hearing my native tongue last night was the equivalent of throwing back 600mg of Motrin.

I´m actually really glad that I went. In fact, I highly recommend that everyone attends an elementary school spelling bee at least once in their life. Not only was it fairly enjoyable, but I also learned two important things about myself last night that I hadn´t previously known.

1) I learned that I may NOT be smarter than a fifth grader:

As perhaps the only native English speaker in the crowd, I couldn´t help but to either nod or shake my head as each letter was spoken. What I didn´t realize, though, was that my family and a few people around me were watching MY reaction to each word, instead of waiting for the judges.

See where this is going?

One of the contestants stepped up to the microphone and began to spell, and letter by letter I nodded my head. The flawless English spelling was music to my tired little ears.

Then, out came a letter that made me wince.

And everyone around me sighed.

Naturally, the kid was correct.

Now, I "don´t remember" exactly what the word was. But the judges were obviously going by the Olde English spelling. That´s my story and I´m stickin´ to it.

2) I learned that I´m not as nice a person as I thought I was:

Have you ever wished failure upon a five-year old? Well, if you have it in you to sit through two hours of a spelling bee without praying for "one these damn overachieving kids to just mess up already," then you deserve a Nobel Prize.

By the end of the night, each time a new word was presented, I couldn´t help but to think anything but, "You´re done, kid. You´re done."

It seemed as though infants were nailing words like, `miscommunication,` `outrageous,` and `atrioventricular.`

Gimme that damn microphone.

The word is, ¨Antidisestablishmentarianism."

Game over.

Vamanos.