On day one of my solo adventure, I am mainly soaking up the sunshine by the pool at the villa that I can call home for the next 3 days before I venture elsewhere on my trip. After a mad year, I decided I wanted some chill time bopping along to my tunes before doing more activities with like minded people on the latter part of my trip, where I've opted for a hostel.
Whilst Tinder back home seems to have gone from bad to worse, I decided to have a nosey at it over here. I've no particular inclination to meet up with anybody, but it's definitely keeping me entertained!
The first thing to say is that at face value, there is a lot more talent out here. Maybe it's just the Spanish tan, but these boys are pretty! And even better, you get matches almost every time - maybe my Englishness is exotic to them... or much more likely maybe they just really aren't very picky about who they pick up on tinder!
But the thing I am finding most amusing is the Spanish profiles and messages that you receive. My Spanish extends about as far as 'Hola' and 'paella', so one might say I'm not exactly fluent. Anyway, I decided I would message one dude and take a guess at what his Spanish might say. His profile was as follows:
"Breve intro! 😃 Soy profesor de instituto, senderista, voluntario, frikie, y muy optimista! No me importa en una persona ni el peso, ni altura, ni nivel de estudios, ni que sea bi o poliam. Lo que me importa es el carácter y la sinceridad, que es lo que hacen persona al individuo! 😊
Dani NO es mi nombre, es Miguel ¿Por qué no he puesto mi nombre real? Para saber si lees los perfiles, si me saludas por Daniel sabré que no has leído la descripción y le has dado a like por dar :P"
My response and attempted translation went something like this:
"Hi Daniel, I'm going to play a game and hazard a guess at what your profile says...
Brief intro! Professor at an institute (uni?), something about volunteering and optimism, money isn't as important as the person?! (My first guess at that was you aren't important but you like mexican cheese, then I remembered that's queso 😂) you are a sincere person with a good personality?
Your name isn't Dani, it's Miguel, and I've no idea why but I'm sure it's a valid reason!"
Upon since looking on Google translate, turns out I wasn't a million miles away on some of it so I basically think I'm Spanish now:
"Brief intro! 😃 I am a high school teacher, hiker, volunteer, frikie, and very optimistic! I do not care about a person or the weight, or height, or level of studies, or that is bi or polyam. What matters to me is the character and sincerity, which is what makes the individual person! 😊
Dani is NOT my name, it's Miguel. Why did not I put my real name? To know if you read the profiles, if you greet me for Daniel I will know that you have not read the description and given it to like to give: P"
Anyway, I still don't know what frikie is and Dani/Miguel is yet to reply so obviously isn't as impressed as I am with my genius Spanish (shame because he's hot), so I've started a new game now. Some dude called Lucky messaged (if Daniel was a fake name surely Lucky is?! Speaking of which someone calling themselves John Doe also messaged, does nobody have a real name over here?!) Back to Lucky - he sent me a message in Spanish which I successfully guessed as "hi, how are you?" (original) and so instead of asking if he speaks English, decided I should get involved in the culture and have now made a pact to only reply in Spanish with the wonders of Google translate, which of course never wrongly translates anything! 🤔 When in Spain!
In summary, I suppose I better stick to not actually meeting up with any of these Spanish delights because it might be slightly awkward when they realise I'm not quite as fluent in Spanish as I'm making out.
Anyway gotta run, cerveza awaits! ¡Salud! (Not aclamaciones as Google translate first suggested for 'cheers').