Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone

I remember it like it was yesterday.  The date was January 2, 2002.

I peered through the window of my airplane, taking in the sights around me as I touched down at the Madrid Barajas airport.  As I disembarked from the plane and began walking to baggage claim for my bags, it hit me. 

Everything is in Spanish. 

The announcements over the intercom, the signs, the voices, the music.  Everything is in Spanish.  My brain and mind were being bombarded. I had spent the last 10 years in Colorado studying Spanish in high school and college.  I was an A+ student in the classroom, but we were far from fully immersed, taking only a couple hours per week.

Needless to say, it did not prepare me for what I was currently facing.  For the first time, I was fully immersed in Spanish, and a different dialect, at that!  In Spain, they speak Castilian Spanish.  It has a different accent, including the famous Spanish “lisp” or “th” sound you make with the letters C and Z. It was fast, it was intimidating, and I felt like I was drowning at the same time as my brain was frying.

I made it to baggage claim, and through the exit doors to meet my host family.  My host mom, Pepita, greeted me by kissing me twice, once on each cheek. This was very uncomfortable.  I then went to give two kisses to my host father Miguel, as he stuck out his hand to shake mine.  I was confused, embarrassed, and totally lost.