The sequel: I regret to inform you that Gwyneth won in the end

Yeah, yeah, you win, you're awesome, okay, whatever.

I believe I have already documented my love/hate relationship with Gwyneth Paltrow and the annoying/awesome fact that she speaks practically perfect Castilian Spanish. Before you read this post, you should probably read that one first, seeing as this is basically the sequel.

Here's what went down:

Two weeks ago. We had been in Spain about four hours.  Stumbled off the plane, dragged suitcases in the rain to our hostel, looked around wildly for something to eat.  A kind but rather mangy-looking Brit that we found in our hostel took us a few blocks down the street and pointed to a restaurant.

There, he said.  There, you will find good food and cheap beer. (We were on board).

So we sat down, ordered chicken, because chicken is possibly the most universal food, and when you have just recently tumbled out of a plane you are not in the mood for experiments. The waiter smiled at us condescendingly, because we were breaking code by eating dinner at 7, and only non-Spaniards would be so lame as to eat dinner before 9.

So he brought out the chicken, and we lifted our tired heads to begin eating.  We cut open our chicken pieces - beautifully grilled golden brown chicken - and looked inside.

Raw.

Totally, completely raw.

Raw like sashimi.

And in my tired, hazy, jet-lagged stupor, I summoned up the Spanish words that I knew exactly how to say because I had heard Gwyneth say it, right on those dang "Spain: On the Road Again" episodes.  Resigned, I summoned the waiter.

"Es tan crudo," I lamented.  It's very raw.

So in the end, after a year and a half of more or less intensely studying Spanish, the first Spanish sentence of any real significance that I uttered in my new home country was taught to me by that dratted Gwyneth Paltrow, to whom I apparently owe my well-cooked chicken, after the waiter, who understood me perfectly, threw it back on the grill.

And that, my friends, is how Gwyneth and karma won in the end.