Yo no criminal ni ladron.

“I am neither criminal nor thief” - in Spanish. Good for a conversation-starter. To dissolve any suspicions that someone might have had before. Not very logical, though. I mean: every thief is criminal, but not every criminal is a thief, right? Then, I could add, “Las mujeres de haora no tenemos edad”. We, modern women, don’t have an age. It could be flirtatious or friendshippy, depends.

Well, I don’t know Spanish, nor am I planning to study it soon. It just… suddenly I have a company of friends, whose first language is Spanish. They are from different places in Latin America. We have much in common (our husbands are students in the same school, for one), we have a great time together, in fact, that’s why they keep forgetting that I don’t speak or understand Spanish, so they sometimes just switch on it, leaving me to look for some familiar Latin roots. Then, of course, they would switch back and translate for me, but still I am beginning to think about getting a textbook. There my thoughts jump to my friend - she studied Spanish several years ago, and she was telling me about her progress along the way, constantly wondering about the choice of sentences in her textbook. They were all about flirt, love, beauty, crimes and death. Some of them stuck in my head. That where those phrases in the beginning came from. Which makes me wonder in turn - why I remember so many things I don’t need, while cannot keep in mind something important?

Anyway, here is the tip for living in Colombia.
Ron (some Canadian guy): So, Is life in Colombia really that bad as we hear in news?
Maria Angelica: Yes, but if you follow some rules, it’s okay.
Ron: What rules?
Maria Angelica: not walking alone in the night, wearing thick gold chains…