Sept. 18: La Regresa Continuó
Current location: On plane, 2102 miles East of Toronto, 5:47 PM
Let me update my initial estimated guess: if all continues as planned, we will be taking six modes of transportation today in order to get home (List: Car/Train/Subway/Bus/By Foot/Airplane).
It ended up taking us a little longer than we anticipated to get to our gate at the airport in Madrid, for we kept getting pointed in the wrong directions. Happy we had five traveling brains to figure it out. We made it with plenty of time to spare.
We're about three hours in to our 7.5 hour flight, heading due West. I've tried the media thing on the back of the seat in front of me, and while it distracts me from my airplane headache, its content is a little too thematic to comfort me all that well. Goes to show why I don't usually use it that much.
I'm sitting beside a young woman from the Toronto area and an elder gent from Michigan. They are both returning from a week long stay in Spain; she with her family on vacation, him to pay thanks to a Pueblo that saved his life 40+ years ago when his battle-plane crashed during wartime. Intense. The two enjoyed hearing my stories, too.
What a novelty hearing English is again. Especially after EVERY LECTURE in Spanish and a "no-English-in-my-house" policy with my host mom, Cristina. You'd probably be surprised to hear that I need to practice my English again. My time here has adapted how I structure my English sentences, sometimes.
A lot of the daily Spanish words are currently stuck in my vocabulary, so you'll have to excuse it when they slip from me. But, so that you may understand me when they do, I'll compile a list.
Some of my most frequently used words and phrases are:
Vale ("bah-le"), literally "It has value," used as an affirmative like "Good!"
Está bien, literally "It's well," used like "No problem!"
Perdón, literally "Pardon."
Disculpáme, literally "Excuse me."
Lo siento, literally "I feel it," used like "I'm sorry."
(Yo) Lo tengo/puedo/quiero, literally "I have/can do/want it."
It's strange to change something I thought so inherent to myself, like my English, even a little! I think the biggest surprise insight I've gained during my time away from home is the significance of one's language in culture, communication, and identity. I now appreciate the plight of the "foreign student" in a way I couldn't before, well-summed-up by a quote Dana and I appreciate: "A foreign accent is a sign of bravery."
Which reminds me of an anecdote.
On our first day of class, we recieved small notebooks from the University of León, with a saying in Spanish across the cover. "If you speak languages, the world is not too big." As an intensely Anglo-centric speaker all of my life, I was hesitant to adopt the phrase at first, but the concept proved itself relevant as I let myself perform a culture I wouldn't have called my own on a normal day. I have found an identity in being flexible, which suits me well.
So maybe so, notebook, maybe so. And if that is the case, I want to learn more!
(Care to teach me some Japanese, Geoby?)