9 months later...

I know this is going to sound stupid, but this evening was a milestone for me: I ordered a pizza to be delivered.

I was really jonesing for pizza, not a huge pizza fan (can't take the red sauce so much) but every now and again I want it. I had some once from Costco at Janet and Joe's, they have a counter where you go in there and pick it up (I think Costcos in the US have the same deal), but that is it since I was last at VCI (in February - their pizza is okay, but the ham on the Hawaiian is that slimy sandwich ham you find at the grocery store and never seems cooked and the cheese is panela and it has a wierd texture on your tongue). A couple of weeks ago, while Joe was in NY, Janet and I drove by the Papa John's on Coba and I took down the number and we decided we would order a pizza to be picked up for dinner that night. I would call it in, Janet would come get me and we would pick it up at the store on the way back to Janet's.

I had always been leery of ordering simply because my Spanish sucks. I shouldn't even call it "my Spanish" because frankly, it's barely Spanish. Way back in the day, my neighbor Laura told me that she had issues ordering home delivery because our address is wierd. I am not sure why, but it has something to do with the Lote. I know I am in Super Manzana (SM) 31, Manzana (M) 5, and then the rest is just my street, building and apartment number. She said she would be ordering and they would ask her what Lote and she didn't know and then they would ask more questions and it got too confusing and so she would just hang up. I figure if she was having problems I would be completely lost.

The only thing I have delivered to my house is Hong Kong (Chinese) because I can order it online and it shows up like in a half hour. I don't have to talk to anyone. I don't have problems ordering in person or ordering at the Sushi Ken down the street either, but if you run into problems you just point at what you want...

Anyway I decided to try Papa John's tonight. So I phoned, and understood the gist of the conversation with the guy on the phone, and when he asked for my address, he asked - Which SM? Which M? and then the dreaded - Which Lote? I said, No se, 3, quizá? Turns out it didn't matter. 20 minutes later I had my Hawaiian pizza delivered with no issues. The ham was Canadian bacon (yay!), the cheese was mozzarella, and the crust was cooked. Really good. And now I have dinner for the next few nights to boot.

So I am pretty proud of my accomplishment, as odd as it seems. It puts things in to perspective anyway, the things you take for granted when you have complete command of the language.

¡Provecho!