Being a gringa

A "gringa" is a foreigner, usually referring to an American, but I still consider myself quite alien to this country. I do not speak Spanish yet, but I'm learning! (Todavia no hablo espanol, pero estoy apprendiendo!) Learning to speak the language is something that I'm very excited for. I took a semester of Spanish in my undergrad and I'm using Rosetta Stone right now as well. Lucky for me, some of the other new teachers are pretty fluent in the language and are very patient and wonderful teachers! I've learned so much already!

So today we went shopping for house stuff, and I thought it would be a good idea and a challenge to go off by myself and find a tool kit for the house. Keep in mind that I had no idea how to say "tool" in Spanish...and I didn't ask any of my English speaking friends first. I found the tool section of the store and couldn't find one on my own, they were only drills, drills, and more drills! So I said to myself, "Self, the best way to learn spanish is to get in there, try, and hit the ground running." I approached a sales associate and said, "Permiso, donde es..." At that point, I think my face kind of froze in a deer in the headlights kind of way. I then continued on to say, "...tool kit?"

The associate had no idea what I was saying, and replied back to me in Spanish- to which I didn't understand! I recited my well rehearsed lines, "Lo siento, no hablo espanol. Estoy apprendiendo." He laughed, but looked like he was thinking really hard on how to communicate with me. I ended up pointing at a drill kit, making the shape of it with my fingers and saying "kit". Then pointing at the screwdrivers, then running to a different aisle and pointing at the wrenches, miming a hammer etc and trying to gesture that I wanted a kit with many different tools in it. Finally, as I was surrounded by 5 different employees who had all been involved in the process at some point, we (kind of) found what I was looking for. It was a decent kit that would do. It would put my desk together.

As I walked away, I repeated, "mucho gracias" over and over, as well as "Que tenga un buen dia!" (Have a good day). A minute later, one of the employees runs up behind me and says, "Is this better?" He had found a better tool kit, exactly what I had been looking for! What a sweet man! It was an extremely stressful experience, but I'm glad I did it!

I now know how it feels to truly be at a loss for words, and how frustrating it is not to be able to express yourself. For all of those ESL students out there, I give them MAD props for overcoming the language barriers! And I know if they can do it, then I most certainly can!

We don't get to move into our apartment until Friday now. I was really excited to get out of the hotel and really LIVE in Cali, but while I'm in this 4 star hotel with a pool, hot tub, and free delicious breakfast, I will take advantage and enjoy it!

<--Shopping for house supplies
Fueling up between shopping trips with a calzone bigger than my head! Everyone was impressed that I ate the whole thing, no big deal-->





xo Sam

P.S. Today a local asked if I was latina! How sweet is that? Mandi then told her I was Chinese and Jamaican and the lady said that now she saw that I had Chinese eyes and dark skin. Yay for being tanned!