Lost in Translation: Language Edition

May 17, 2023

    Checking out in the Zara line, I get a notification on my phone telling me to check into my American Airlines flight. I panicked. The entire time I thought I was leaving on the 17th of May instead I was leaving the next day. Less than 24 hours later and I was in a plane to Madrid. Flying in, I was in awe with how beautiful the city looks from the air, and I got even more excited for the trip. Looking around the airport, everything was in Spanish. I began to fear the language barrier that was existing, but it also made me realize I am really in Spain. When we arrived, I met up with my roommate at the airport so we could call a taxi together. I was not used to standing outside with a line of Taxis waiting to pick people up. This was the first big step of my Spain journey. Usually, my dad handles all the transportation, so this was a new task for me. I sat in the front seat, and spoke to the man with the little Spanish I know. Although I thought I knew little to no Spanish, I became the translator for my small group of friends. When we arrived at the Accent Learning center, our coordinator, James, checked us in, gave us a brief overview, and then we were on our way to Residence Galdos. Maddie (roommate) and I unpacked our clothes then went to lunch. It is weird that Spaniards do not eat until around 1pm for lunch (if they even have lunch). We showed up to a restaurant at 12pm, and they looked at us weird then did not serve us food. Because we could not understand the staff, we decided to leave to figure out why there are no lunch places open. I went to the grocery store after we finally found a place for lunch, and bought a few necessities I forgot! It was weird to me that the Spaniards do not refrigerate their eggs. They just sit on a shelf. Checking out, I was very nervous for my encounter with the salesclerk. Since Spain does not give you a bag unless asked for, I had to figure out how to ask her for one in Spanish. This was the first time I was very nervous to speak. I quickly Google Translated “bag” before paying, and kindly repeated to her “dos bolsas por favor.” When I got back from the store, I went to the downstairs gym to do a short workout. Later in the day we did a quick tour of the city along with a market visit. The group decided to go back so we took the metro. That was an experience. I ended up taking the wrong 6 Metro and had to go on 20 stops before I arrived at the desired one. This took an hour total while the ret of my friends got back in 20 minutes. When I finally arrived to the residence, I got ready for dinner at Lateral. It was honestly pretty average food, but I had a great time! Of course I had to get dessert so we walked to get gelato and then hailed a taxi home for bed! The language barrier sure did make things harder to communicate, but I survived day one in Spain with little Spanish knowledge! I am constantly learning new things along the way, and cannot wait for the rest of the trip!

My first grocery store experience! I was very lost at
first because everything was in Spanish. One weird thing
I discovered were that eggs and milk are not refrigerated. 

Our residence hall that I will be living in the 
next 3 weeks! It is much nicer than expected!