This story requires some background context, so it might get a little long. Just bear with me.
On Monday, I finally decided that I HAD to get a haircut and I couldn´t wait any longer. It was getting out of control. After getting a recommendation from the women in the program office, my friend Jen and I headed to the peluqueria (hair salon).
En route to the salon, we were stopped by two women – one with a microphone and the other with a TV camera.
Reporter: Can I ask you girls a question?
Me: Uhh… We speak English.
Reporter: But you speak Spanish too, right?
Jen: She does! She does! (Pointing to me)
Jen proceeded to take 10 steps backwards while I was stuck talking to this woman. (Remember, this entire conversation is taking place in Spanish, and I´m a little caught off guard and not really sure what´s happening).
The reporter proceeds to tell me that Sarkozy (President of France and the European Union right now) and some other famous politicians have been rumored to wear elevated shoes while on television to make themselves appear taller. My response to this? “Ohhh… You mean like Tom Cruise?!?!”
Then the woman asks me why I think they do this. First of all, I don´t even know if this is true or not, or if she´s just joking around. Second, if it IS true, why would I know why? Third, even if I DID know why, I probably wouldn´t know how to say it in Spanish. So I laughed a little and responded with, “Umm… maybe because being taller makes them seem more masculine?”
Not the best answer, but not the worst either, and I think my Spanish grammar was mostly correct. I thought I was off the hook until she followed up with another question. Because I was so flustered, I didn´t entirely understand the question. I THINK she asked me if I thought that the Spanish president should do the same thing so that he could regain control of the Parliament, or something along those lines. Now let me explain the difficult (and also hilarious) part of the question.
The Spanish president´s last name is Zapatero, and just as we refer to the American president as Bush, the Spaniards just call him by his last name. Now, the Spanish word for shoes is zapatos, and zapatero literally translates into shoemaker. So you see how it was a bit of a play on words when she was asking me about Zapatero´s zapatos? Funny for Spaniards maybe, but not so easy for me.
By this point, I was REALLY confused and not sure how to respond. I didn´t know who this woman was, I didn´t know what TV show she was from, and I had no idea what Zapatero should do with his zapatos. So I laughed uncomfortably, told her I had no idea, and she let me leave. In the United States, my nonsense answers and awkward laughs would have been cut from the program entirely and no one would ever see my ridiculous interview.
Apparently, that is not the case here.
(Here´s where you need some background information). On Monday and Tuesday mornings, I hold a conversation group in English with high school students at a school down the street. They´re learning English, so I take a group of them into a separate room and we just chat about life, movies, travel, school, etc. Since the staff apparently thinks I´m amazing and a certified teacher, I get special perks. Like a key to the elevator so I don´t have to walk up 7 flights of stairs like the students do 
On Tuesday, I was waiting for the elevator – by myself – in between classes. One of the teachers who I had never spoken to before also came to wait for the elevator. He turns to me, gives me a strange look, and says to me (in Spanish), “I saw you on TV yesterday!”
Oh. Dear. God.
I felt my face turn bright red, asked him to repeat what he just said, and immediately died. I kept saying over and over that I didn´t understand the question, it was a disaster, oh my goodness I can´t believe they showed that on TV! He then proceeded to tell another teacher what happened, and I died all over again.
I now see how hilarious it is that I was on TV in Madrid and had no idea what I was saying, but I couldn´t believe that he saw me and RECOGNIZED ME. (Remember how I was on my way to get a haircut? That means I hadn´t brushed my hair that day because why would I need to style it when the hairdresser was going to do it for me?)
Needless to say, I´m still slightly embarrassed but mostly amused. It will make a great icebreaker story someday, don´t you think?
