Last Maple Leaf

 Mondays and Thursdays, Domingo and I scrub down the parlor after milking. We've made up a few games. One is Domingo will occasionally say, "Vamonos" (translated "Let's go") and I'll reply "Not yet - veinte minutos" (translated "twenty minutes") or something like that. It becomes a regular countdown. Another is Domingo will ask "¿Qué vas a comer?" (translated "What are you going to eat?"). Then I have to figure out how to say what I plan for lunch. Hamburger is hamburguesa; potatoes are papas; bread is pan; chili is just chili; and a hot dog is perrito caliente (I thought that one was cute). However, today I had my heart set on stopping off at the Chinese restaurant and picking up Mongolian Beef w/ rice. I tried my best. Beef is carne and rice is arroz but "Mongolian" just had Domingo looking puzzled. I told him Mongolia was part of China and I went through all of the country names I knew in Spanish and then gave the Spanish word for the country of China. However, maybe that wasn't it because Domingo still looked confused. I tried various stereotypical (and probably ethnically insulting) pantomimes to explain "Chinese" but all that accomplished was to get Domingo laughing. In the end not only did I fail our little game of "What are you going to eat" but I probably have set back Domingo's understanding of English by at least a week.