The Tube of Death

Last weekend we had an EQ camping and water skiing trip. It was a lot of fun. I had to race back through Bay Area traffic to make it to Pete's house in time to go up to the lake with him and his crew. Some of you know Pete from UCD, he was a math major, his wife is Rene...ring a bell?. Anyway, he has been a leader in the Spanish branch for the last few years and so his crew were mostly members who spoke little English. Now, I have always found it frustrating when I don't speak the language, but there is something that is maddening. Being able to understand everything, but not being able to communicate clearly.



I understood just about everything that was said, since I speak Portuguese (Brazilian). So, I would laugh at the jokes. But when I needed to say something it would come out all messed up. Worse, I sounded like I had severe mental problems. If I were going to try and say something in German it would all come out slow, every.single.word. With Spanish I have the pace and intonations of someone who speaks fluently and then I just suddenly choke on a word. It makes for this unintelligible halting speech that must be torturous to hear.

Regardless, it was a blast having so many people there from the Spanish branch it sure made things more interesting.

Camping was fun. I sometimes forget that my techniques are a bit unusual when it comes to camping. Though the forecast called for rain I brought my hammock with the intent to sleep out under the stars. It created quite a stir and I spent quite some time explaining to everyone how to set it up, and how to sleep in it. We were lucky that it didn't rain during the night, as it was raining just about everywhere else. In the morning, I woke up and got breakfast. What was funny was hearing everyone complain about what terrible sleep they had had. Even those who were in campers seem to have been uncomfortable. When they asked me how I had slept I replied, with a bit of guilt, "amazingly well. I fell asleep and didn't wake up until after dawn." (I have promised multiple people, including some people who were at the ski trip, that I would post the answers to some backpacking questions and I will in short order.)

As we were eating breakfast it started to rain and was pouring a few minutes later. More than half the crew took off, but a few of us and the whole Spanish (really Mexican since they were ALL from Mexico) contingency stayed. We got one boat in the water, threw out a pair of inner tubes and spent all morning battling to stay on the things.

It was a lot of fun being out on the water in the rain and wind. Usually when you get outside the wake the water is relatively smooth, but with the weather conditions the minute you got outside the wake it was so choppy that it ended tossing you around with relentless waves. Also, I don't know who's bright idea it was to put out two inner tubes on topes that were almost the same length. We were constantly bashing into each other. Twice I tried to duck a rope and got it caught around my arm or neck.

The Mexican crew had a great time. I don't think any of them had been on a ski boat before. What I found really funny was that Pete gave them wet suits since it was pretty cold, but he just assumed that they knew how to put them on. At one point I was on the boat helping get one of them into a PFD and I realized that his wet suit was on inside out and backwards with the zipper running down the front.

For lunch the Mexican crew BBQed. Authentic Mexican food is hard to beat. All in all it was a fun time and a great opportunity to practice my Spanish.