Mi Abuela
Posted by Megan Roney on Tuesday, July 12, 2011 Under: In Flight Stories
As it turns out, I did have to resort to high school Espanol in transit today. My plane buddy for my flight to Bogota, Columbia was a sweet, little old lady who wanted to chat, regardless of my inability to form complete sentences in Spanish and her inability to understand anything beyond "American".
I learned she was from a canyon somewhere near Bogota with the held of the maps in the inflight magazine. I managed to communicate that I'd flown from Colorado to Miami and was heading to Sao Paulo from Bogota for work. Her eyes lit up with the mention of Mickey Mouse (Disney is always universal playing ground). She excitedly rambled for a while and chuckled when I simply shrugged.
When the air conditioner blasted into full force she hugged the hot pink knit seater she wore tighter around her shoulders and pulled the matching cap down around her ears. She seemed to find me quite amusing, laughing and warbling to herself each time we made eye contact. The real kicker for her was when I attempted to cut an extremely large tomato slice with the plastic knife I'd been given at dinner. The tomato took up half of the space in my thimble sized salad cup, and the task proved to be quite difficult. I swear my plane buddy was nearly in tears.
I think I would have served as plenty enough entertainment for her if she hadn't become extremely curious (and a bit envious) of my ease in using the onboard entertainment. When she saw I was watching a movie, she asked with her eyes for help in turning on her own screen. I led her to the movie menu and pointed to the scrolling buttons to indicate that she could choose a movie. She shot me a confused look and said "Chapeuzinho Vermelho". She wanted to watch Red Riding Hood, the same flick I was currently watching. So I started up the movie for her and a few preview commercials came on before it began. Her eyes darted between my screen and hers, and again she looked confused. I fast forwarded for her, but her eyes continued to drift to my screen, until I realized she wanted us to watch the film together. I rewound my screen and paused hers and began them in sync. She beamed and gave me a thumbs up.
As much as I've traveled in the past few years, I'm till amazed at how basic communication between two humans can be, despite the many differences they may share. It's strange to me that while war, religion, politics, greed and so many other things can at times cause conflict in humankind, the basic instincts like fear, survival, love and laughter make us realize how similar we all really are.
I never learned my traveling companions name, I don't know if she is Catholic or Buddhist, Republican or revolutionary, but when the plane bumped it's way through a grey cloud, high above any nation's border lines, she grabbed my hand and held it tightly. And with that simple gesture of human contact, I felt she could have easily been my mother, my sister, my aunt or mi abuela.
I learned she was from a canyon somewhere near Bogota with the held of the maps in the inflight magazine. I managed to communicate that I'd flown from Colorado to Miami and was heading to Sao Paulo from Bogota for work. Her eyes lit up with the mention of Mickey Mouse (Disney is always universal playing ground). She excitedly rambled for a while and chuckled when I simply shrugged.
When the air conditioner blasted into full force she hugged the hot pink knit seater she wore tighter around her shoulders and pulled the matching cap down around her ears. She seemed to find me quite amusing, laughing and warbling to herself each time we made eye contact. The real kicker for her was when I attempted to cut an extremely large tomato slice with the plastic knife I'd been given at dinner. The tomato took up half of the space in my thimble sized salad cup, and the task proved to be quite difficult. I swear my plane buddy was nearly in tears.
I think I would have served as plenty enough entertainment for her if she hadn't become extremely curious (and a bit envious) of my ease in using the onboard entertainment. When she saw I was watching a movie, she asked with her eyes for help in turning on her own screen. I led her to the movie menu and pointed to the scrolling buttons to indicate that she could choose a movie. She shot me a confused look and said "Chapeuzinho Vermelho". She wanted to watch Red Riding Hood, the same flick I was currently watching. So I started up the movie for her and a few preview commercials came on before it began. Her eyes darted between my screen and hers, and again she looked confused. I fast forwarded for her, but her eyes continued to drift to my screen, until I realized she wanted us to watch the film together. I rewound my screen and paused hers and began them in sync. She beamed and gave me a thumbs up.
As much as I've traveled in the past few years, I'm till amazed at how basic communication between two humans can be, despite the many differences they may share. It's strange to me that while war, religion, politics, greed and so many other things can at times cause conflict in humankind, the basic instincts like fear, survival, love and laughter make us realize how similar we all really are.
I never learned my traveling companions name, I don't know if she is Catholic or Buddhist, Republican or revolutionary, but when the plane bumped it's way through a grey cloud, high above any nation's border lines, she grabbed my hand and held it tightly. And with that simple gesture of human contact, I felt she could have easily been my mother, my sister, my aunt or mi abuela.
In : In Flight Stories
Tags: transportation language
After a while of traveling in foreign countries, you begin to realize that it's not just your luggage that can get lost. When you don't speak the language, you loose your ability to speak. If you can't decipher the written word, you loose your ability to read. And if you can't read the signs to know where you're going, you yourself can get lost. It can be a bit overwhelming, and at times humiliating, but I'm sure even Odysseus experienced frustration on his adventurous travels. This blog is my account of my travels. Hopefully, my blunders will assure others that they are not the only ones lost in translation.
