Lulu Authentica

The beginning of this July, I had a 10 day hiatus from work. Our office closed, and I used the time for an experiment.

I went to Colombia.

I’ve been learning Spanish for a little over 6 months. In case you’re wondering, this is exactly enough Spanish to get oneself in trouble.

But it’s been a dream to learn Spanish and backpack across South America. And I wanted to test myself. Sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know until you’re in the thick of it.

I was terrified.

The Spanish was fast and everything felt unfamiliar. Shades on, jacket on, backpack HEAVY, no cell service, lost as hell, walking the streets of the Crespa looking for my hostel.

After 30 minutes of walking (the hostel was only a 5 minute walk from the airport, I just was really turned around), I finally broke down and asked for help in the most rudimentary of Spanish. Thank god I had set my GPS/phone to Spanish months ago, or I would have never known the difference between derecha and derecho. I still might be walking in circles through Cartegena.

I tried to check in, got stranded with no service trying to buy a SIM card, and understood that I was in over my head.

“Maybe this was a mistake,” I thought. “I’ve bitten off more than I can chew.”

What turned it around was a simple conversation with an expat from Ohio. The chances of meeting a fellow Estadounidense were slim, but it was such a relief.

“I’ve been here for about 5 years now,” she told me. “I was about like you when I got here. But when I stopped worrying about speaking perfectly, I started to progress. You’re never going to speak like a native and that’s ok.” She indicated the bartender, a young guy, sweet and friendly who practiced English shamelessly with everyone. “He doesn’t care. He practices as much as he can, he doesn’t worry about being perfect. And he’s learning faster than anyone I’ve met. Don’t worry about perfection. Just do the best you can. You’ll improve from there.”

Maybe I did bite off more than I could chew. And I was in over my head. But sink or swim was the point of this experiment. So I started talking. I started making conversation.

And I sucked.

I still suck.

But I suck less than I did. I stopped mumbling. I started speaking with intention and clarity, enunciating my words, even if I pronounced them wrong. And suddenly, people started to (sort of) understand me. Within a few days, I had a real conversation with my Uber driver about his kids. Then another one with a different driver, about music and travel.

And then I started to get excited. I still heavily lean on Google translate to look up words. But for the first time, I no longer felt like an imposter trying to use a language that isn’t mine.

I had to use what I knew, but what little I did know was finally mine.

I have never loved any trip quite like this one. In the next few weeks I’ll share any valuable information I learned (the hard way, as usual) while traveling in Colombia.