Most of the time I have at least a vague idea of what the people here are saying, but there have definitely been some instances where the language barrier caused some confusion. For example, last monday both of my classes were canceled because my teacher wasn't feeling well, so my friend Jackie and I decided to venture to a huge public pool that one of her friends had heard about. Jackie asked her house mom and found out it's only a bus ride away. So we met Monday morning at the bus stop and waited for the 37 bus to arrive. Luckily, it pulled up within 5 minutes. Jackie climbed up the bus steps and asked the bus driver "vas a Parque Norte?" and he replied "no" and slammed the door shut almost before Jackie could even hop off. That was a little disheartening, but we continued to get on each 37 bus that pulled up and asked every one if they were headed to our desired location. Finally, one of the bus drivers said they were headed there. We scurried on the bus so fast that we forgot to stop at the front and pay, no one said anything though, so we got a free ride to the pool.
Once arriving at the pool, we were expecting to just relax and take in some sun. We didn't realize there was a whole process you had to go through before you could enter the actual pool itself. Parque Norte is actually a huge public place with tennis courts, soccer fields, pools, restaurants, etc. The first couple pools we tried to enter were strictly for children or camps or private parties. Eventually, we stumbled across the main entrance to the pool. When we tried to enter the woman rambled something in the least-comprehensible spanish I have ever heard in my life. We asked her to repeat it a few time but she didn't slow down or change any of her words so it wasn't very helpful. Finally Jackie said she understood and we walked away. "I have no idea what she said..something about going to the middle pool" Jackie informed me. I was confused because she insisted that she had heard the word "medio" and I hadn't heard her say that word at all. After a few jumbled spanglish conversations with other guests we came to the conclusion that she said "medico" and we found a building that also said medico and walked in. We were immediately creeped out. We wondered around in an all white room looking for a sign of life. Then we turned the corner and there were dressing rooms with "doctors" in them and Jackie and I were quickly ushered into different dressing rooms. We had no idea what was going on. It was a struggle but they managed to explain to us via hand gestures that they needed to check our hair (presumably for lice) and then they looked under my arms and between my toes. I'm not really sure what they were looking for with the second parts but apparently we passed the test and we were given a pink pass to enter the pool.
These struggles don't even include the time we rode the wrong bus for an hour and a half before we realized it was the wrong bus, or the time we got locked in our apartment/stuck in the elevator for 45 minutes. I'll save those stories for another day.
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