Monday, July 29, 2013

Today's walk report: 072913

Who-Me-Ah.

Alias, Jew-Mill-Ah...


This is the street I live on. Not this particular block but that's the name of the street, Jumilla. I grew up on this street. I spent 18 years living here before college, some time during and after college and for the last two years my home has been here once again. Strange how life is because 26 years ago I said I would never live in this area again.

Growing up everybody pronounced the name of the street as Jew-mill-ah. This was basically a white middle-class neighborhood. What did we know about Spanish? Growing up in So Cal which is now over 50% Hispanic and after two years of Spanish I never thought to say the name of this street properly. Technically I knew how to pronounce the name of the street after all of that. My Spanish is also pretty decent for the most part now, for a gringo anyway. I have a good ear for languages I just need to practice them. It wasn't until 1998 when I married a native Mexican and the 1st (and only?) time she came onto the street with me, I said Jew-Mill-Ah and she said WHAT?!?, It's Who-Me-Ah. I asked her what it meant and she said it doesn't mean anything, it's just a name.

Jumilla takes up between 1.31 and 1.90 km of my walk depending on whether I take an an outer street walk, parallel to Jumilla or an inside walk, meaning I walk back in toward Jumilla after the street breaks up for a block.

Jumilla is also a town in southeastern Spain.

That's about all I have to say about Jumilla. In fact, I'm pretty sure I've said more than enough. I had a nice walk though, despite my struggling to find something to write about.

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