Will Stone - CI

We left Jacksonville at  around 7:00 pm and drove through the night for around eight hours till we finally reached Miami. My parents had arranged for us to visit our cousins down south for the first time since I graduated from high school. My whole family took turns driving down, with two people staying awake the whole time. It was my turn to drive when we got off the interstate and made our way through the highways of Miami to the suburbs of Kendall, where our cousins lived in a gated subdivision. The security guard working the gate stopped us and spoke only Spanish. Judging by his intonation, I assumed he was asking us something, probably where we were going (given that he is a security guard). I didn’t really understand what he asked me so I just responded with my cousin’s address. The guard repeated his question (?) and I did the same, this time with more confusion. He asked one more time and I told him that my Spanish was very poor. The  security guard shook his head before he walked around the car and copied the license plate onto his clipboard. When he finished writing he motioned us through, the gate opening as I drove forward. I didn’t know it then, but the experience with the security guard would be indicative of much of my visit with my family in Miami. My cousins greeted us and had prepared a few air mattresses for us to sleep on while we were visiting. I woke up early the next morning and my cousin Alex was making coffee. His mom came into the kitchen, greeted us both and said something in Spanish to Alex. They held a quick conversation before his mom left to go get things ready for the reunion later. Alex said that she asked him to go get pastries before the rest of my family woke up and wanted to know if I wanted to come with him to the bakery. It was a Cuban bakery with one large glass display case with various and assorted pastries. The shop keeper greeted us in Spanish and Alex responded, sparking a conversation. I just listened and between their body language and gesturing to the glass pastry case that Alex was requesting pastries, but I did not pick up on any familiar words or phrases. I did however start to recall what little Spanish I did know, which consisted primarily of formalities, such as por favor or gracias or una mas. As Alex paid for the pastries, we both thanked the shop keeper and left to bring the pastries back to the house. On the way home we stopped to get gas. Alex gave me his card and told me to put fifteen dollars on it. I went inside to try and tell this to the clerk, but he only spoke to me in Spanish. I said fifteen and he asked me two prices that I couldn’t quite make out, so I chose the latter. Fifty dollars appears on the check-out register and I immediately corrected him, saying I only wanted fifteen. He told me to go pump the gas up to fifteen and then come back. Upon my  return the clerk handed me thirty-five dollars. I was a little shaken about my complete failure to communicate resulting in almost spending a bunch of money that wasn’t mine. Fortunately, Alex was pretty understanding about the who situation. When we pulled up to the gate, again we were greeted by the old security guard, only this time Alex engaged his queries and we entered through the gate fairly quickly. Alex told me that all he does is ask about the license plate and your destination. Apparently he is the guard who asks this and it is of frequent annoyance to my cousin’s family. When we arrived at his his my family was just waking up, so Alex and I went out  the back yard, where his grand-father was sitting around. Alex’s grand-father immigrated from Cuba 40 years ago and primarily speaks Spanish. He was smoking a cigar when Alex and I came  and sat down, bringing the box of pastries to the table. We sat with his grand-father, Carlos, for hours with Alex talking in Spanish and occasionally Carlos speaking in fractured English. We all just talked about just general stuff, such as weather, NBA championship, Euro Cup amongst other things. It’s a disorienting experience not being able to readily communicate with people speaking a different language. It made me appreciate  the efforts of my conversation partners and tutoring students over the summer for their ability to pick-up so much English that for the most part we could hold a conversation.