It’s Blaise today. I’m stepping in for today’s entry. I speak a good amount of Spanish and I have taken the role of translator on this trip.
If you where wondering where I learned Spanish, our story begins at Bishop Carroll. It was the first day of my Freshman year. I was sitting at lunch and one after another my Hispanic class mates just started sitting at my table. I just thought they were being nice but it had turned out they had miss taken me as one of there own, I’m pretty dark in the summer.
This is where I learned to speak Spanish. Every day at lunch they would all chat in Spanish and I slowly started to figure out what they were saying. Carlos finally figured out I wasn’t Hispanic after I took off my watch for a test and he saw my watch tan. But they still sat next to me and I would help them in math for exchange of help in Spanish.
We have used significantly more Spanish on this trip than I would have expected. I would say about 20% of the people we have met speak descent english. That leaves the majority of ordering food, making reservations and any other communication with the locals up to me.
My dad says that I didn’t learn any of the important words before going on this trip, like Beer (Cervasea), Wine (Vino Tinto / Blanco), Cigar (Puro) or few of the food words. ( I totally didn’t ever get frustrated about his critiques and totally didn’t order him fish).
The worst thing is that there are 4 different versions of Spanish that we have run across on the trail. They are Basque, Asturias, Castilian and Galician. Which means about every 100 miles I have to figure out all the food words again. This is very important because none of us want to accidentally order any fruits, vegetables or worst of all fish.
Once my Spanish started to improve from Taco Bell level to On the Border level. We started to get a lot more free food. Apparently once you look and sound Spaniard enough you unlock tapas (a free snack). So now we can always get a free little sandwich, Spanish tortilla or cookie with our coffees. My advice to you if you want to take this trip and want free food, learn some Spanish.
Boys told me I had to say goodbye to my trusty water bottle 
44. St. Nicholas They moved this church stone by stone from the river bank after they flooded the town Leaving Portmartin Most of today was shaded Almost there Strong Galician Soup Traditional Galician fries and pork loin
Haha, I never knew how you learned Spanish Blaise. I had it in 7th and 8th grade. My guess is that your exposure was almost 0 before you went to Carroll.
Also, words in Spain are different too! I know Mexican book Spanish, Spaniards have different words for things than even Mexicans!
I was going to say that you look “Spanish” in a previous comment, but I thought that might not be the best. Now you’ve created the perfect opportunity. I might be able to speak sort of okay Spanish, but I certainly don’t look Spanish.
Anyways, it is awesome that you are learning Spanish. You certainly have been exposed to a lot of it if only 20% speak decent English! Until I comment again, take care.