We don’t have a finished property to visit and enjoy, but we do have keys, which is something. We have keys that open something of ours in Mérida! Those two little words: “your keys,” “Estas son sus claves.” Ahhhh. Tell me more about my keys. I cling to those keys, even though I can’t touch them because they’re actually in someone’s drawer in Mérida.
The word loses its beauty power when they’re your keys, their keys or the other person’s keys. Sometimes, the word can be ugly and brutal. When we were house-hunting, the real estate agent very often didn’t possess the keys to places he was showing, and there are no lock boxes like you’d see in the States. (Something about attitudes regarding keys and ownership, we were told.) Often, a team was sent just ahead of us to get the keys, and when someone failed to connect, we’d be left waiting on the curb. “No tenemos las llaves.” Grrrrrr. Not a pretty phrase at all. (Is llaves and claves interchangeable, or is Google Translate messing with my head? No matter.)
I actually have a bad history with keys in Mérida. We stayed at one place that gave us two keys, [Read more…]