After living in this condo complex for almost four years, Manny the Maintenance Guy, has been a daily constant. Because we both hang out here all day, I often see him out and about and working hard to make this place a nice place to live. A native of the DR, when I first met Manny his English wasn't that great. Over the past few years I've helped translate stuff and even taught him American phrases like "busting your balls" and other idiosyncrasies. He's also helped me with my Spanish.
Today I saw him after I was a bit frustrated about the fact that the washing machine ate all my quarters and then refused to work. Our cultural exchange:
Pahkcah02: Manny, la lavadora esta muy decompuesto!
Manny (in English): Yeah, it's a fucking piece of shit. Did you break it?
Pahkcah02: No....
Manny: Did you rock it back and forth to try to get your quarters back?
Pahkcah02: Um, I might have.
Manny: I did too. It didn't work.
Pahkcah02: Yeah, but now it doesn't work at all and then it started leaking so at least I turned the water off.
Manny: (totally not impressed with my handy-woman skillz): Thanks
Pahkcah02: De Nada.
Note: that was a classic example of Manny busting my balls.
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