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Hola Friends!

I'm home. Back from an amazing week in Lake Tahoe. I was studying Spanish in an immersive language program at Lake Tahoe Community College.

They've offered it every year for over 30 years, but this was my first time to go. It was five full days of grammar lessons, cultural breakout sessions, conversation groups, and evening social gatherings, all at a very affordable community college price.

I went with some friends and so that made it even more fun. I was also able to bring along my bike and ride back and forth to the campus each day. I LOVE riding my bike but it's a little challenging to ride it where I live, so I was in heaven!

When my friend invited me to go along I was super excited to go. Now, I don't have much Spanish language ability under my belt. I had studied it in high school, but let's be honest, that was more about getting a grade than it was about learning. I started studying it again on an app on my phone at the end of the Pandemic, looking for a distraction (the app is called Duolingo if you're interested, this is NOT a paid endorsement by the way).

I wasn't sure which level to sign up for, I had pretty much zero experience actually speaking Spanish to anyone, so was pretty sure I was going to be in over my head. I picked a class that seemed like a review of grammar I had already learned in hopes that my brain could focus on listening and speaking instead. I think that worked! I had so much fun testing out my verbal skills. And I got a couple nice complements from folks amazed that I hadn't ever spoken before this class.

I do have a love of languages though, I studied Japanese in college and lived in Tokyo for a couple years. And then, to make life more interesting moved from there to the Czech Republic and learned Czech for a couple years. At one point I even tried to brush up on my Japanese again and so bought a Japanese textbook in Czech to do so. I also tried to teach myself French for a few years (again, no speaking practice) and can read it fairly well (as long as the topic isn't too serious or intellectual). So yah, I'm a little bit of a linguistic nerd weirdo. Lol.

So having the chance to speak Spanish was scary at first, but soon I couldn't get enough. I absolutely love learning and will be a life-long student to be sure.

Beyond the language part though is the cultural part. I had one teacher from Argentina, another from Colombia, and a third from Mexico. I got to go to breakout sessions on travel in Argentina and Chile, I attended a weeklong series on racism in Mexico, and I learned about gastronomy across Latin American cultures. Expanding my world and learning about how others do life on this planet is one of my favorite things ever. If anyone anywhere ever tries to tell me, "well, that's just how it's done," I will be the first to say, hell no, this is a hugely diverse planet and nothing makes me happier than learning and experiencing some of the different ways we get to do life.

One of the highlights of the week though for me by far as getting to dance every single day! There was a class each day that taught salsa, bachata and merengue. I had taken salsa lessons way back in my late 20's when I was living in the bay area. I absolutely loved it. The only challenge though was that as a single woman at the time, hanging out waiting for guys to ask me to dance (which was culturally part of the whole experience) became kinda disheartening. It was actually one of the reasons I started to learn belly dance, I didn't have to be part of a couple and I didn't have to wait to be asked to dance. So getting to dance salsa and the other dances this week made me so happy! I forgot how much I actually love to dance. I will definitely need to seek out some more lessons and dance opportunities now that I'm home.

Every day was so full, from 8:00 in the morning until 5:00 in the evening. Potentially it could have been exhausting, but I was having too much fun to think about being tired for too long. The hardest part of the week actually was coming home. Re-entry was tough. Going from a busy daily schedule with lots of wonderful, fascinating people from different cultures and backgrounds, and having interesting and complex conversations to being back at my quiet little house in the small quiet little rural community I live was a huge shock to my system.

How can I possibly keep that momentum alive now that I've returned? The best way I can describe what it feels like is that participating in the language immersion program was like unfurling my wings and taking off and soaring high above the earth. It's a strange kind of high that I experience whenever I travel to other countries too. Coming home feels like trying to shrink back into a shape and size that no longer fit. It feels cramped and uncomfortable. And I get a bit depressed if I'm honest.

I know that even the strongest of birds have to come back to earth to rest. And so I can see it from that perspective, to integrate all that I've learned the past week and to rest. But I'm so itching to stretch big, to take off, and to fly again. There's just something in my soul that is so fed by language and intercultural experiences.

Sigh.

So for now, I keep on morphing my new creative path to ensure that whatever I'm doing to earn a living, it will afford me ~ and even offer me ~ the chance to weave in opportunities to visit, work in, or even live in other countries and to keep meeting people from all over the world!

Step by step. Paso a paso.