<h1 class="entry-title"><font size="5">The Story About Poppa's Ill-fated Spanish Lessons.</font></h1>

I've had this post written for a while but in honour of Poppa's birthday today, I thought that I would post it.

Happy Birthday Poppa!

Poppa has a lot of funny stories that I get him to tell me at least once a year. They never grow old and I think I laugh harder every time I hear them. There are an awful lot (more) that I ask him not to tell me again. This is one of the former stories.

I know that I can't make it as funny as him telling it (he gets pretty animated) but I think it's that funny so I'll give it a shot. I'll let you be the judge on the funny factor.

Way back in 1914 the day, Canada had this funny rule that in order to graduate from High School you had to have a foreign language credit.

Not to be rude, but it's safe to say that Poppa has a hard enough time with English to make learning another language pretty near impossible. However, if he's anything he's a crazy schemer hard worker so he and a close friend came up with a plan. In the summer of their Senior year, they would take a six-week summer course (offered at a University four hours away) and have the necessary credit by the end of August to graduate with all their friends.

These guys were serious. They left for "Destination Habla Espanol" one week before classes started. They wanted to find a place to live, get oriented and most importantly,

Get Studying Before Classes Started!

You read that correctly, before classes started. Their dedication was impressive and beyond that of the average 18-year old. But these guys weren't your average guys. They read, took quizzes, practiced around the house and generally immersed themselves in all things "Spanish".

The day came for the first day of classes and they couldn't be more proud. They had read the first 10 chapters and were well on their way to ordering beverages and getting directions in a foreign language.

The first few hours went famously. By the first morning break, they were keeping up but by the afternoon, the cracks were starting to show. And, by the end of the day, they were pretty near in tears.

What had taken them one entire week to learn, with barely a meal thrown in was done and old news by 2pm. Their homework for the night, read chapters 10 through 20! Oh, and they needed to buy the other NINE books in the series.

Needless to say, that was the end of the beginning and the boys packed up that night and headed for home.

Through some twist of luck fate, Poppa managed to bribe get his Foreign Language Equivalent and obtain his High School Diploma.

Besos, The Zoo