My peeps!

It was Family Date Night at a local eatery for dinner (or as the locals say, tea).  As I’m trying to convince LJ to finish eating his dinner, I heard a group of people pass by yelling at each other to get in line, get a table, find out what is the roast of the day, and so forth.  I didn’t think anything of it until my husband said “did you hear that?”  And I was like “um, what?”

MJ:  What those people were talking?
Me:  What about it?
MJ:  Listen!
Me: (after a confused few seconds) SPANISH!  They’re talking Spanish!

I quickly did a scan to see if I knew them (as if I would know every person who spoke Spanish in the world) but I didn’t (surprise, surprise). Then I tried to pick up on the dialogue and pinpoint what country they were from.  They were very South American (nowhere near my peeps) but I was so amazed that there were Spanish speaking people either living or visiting this part of Australia!  I would have to assume they were visiting as they seemed out of place but then again anyway who isn’t walking around in flip-flops (or as the locals say thongs) and shorts when it’s cold out, seems totally out of place here.  In any event, I just wanted to get up and start talking to them for no reason other than we shared “Spanish”.  Of course I didn’t do that for risk of humiliation but it was nice to know I wasn’t the only “minority” in this part of the world.  And it just made me feel “not lonely” if only for a few minutes.

Of course, after my initial elation I had to ask my very white, non-Spanish speaking husband, how did he know they were speaking Spanish.  His reply “They were loud”.  I then yelled at him telling him not every Hispanic person is loud.  As he smiled at me, I kicked him.

Categories: Culture shock

When feathered friends attack Feeling like crap