Things I Forgot (Cosas que me olvidé?)

I’m in another airport writing this. This trip is a little longer than last week’s to Newfoundland. It’s also a little more stressful since I just realized I forgot a few things. Not my passport, no, and clearly not my computer, and not even the mallets or music I need for the vibraphone festival and three other concerts I’m giving with a great Peruvian percussionist. But important things for an anglophone heading to a Spanish-speaking country for two months none the less. This list includes:

• My Spanish-English dictionary
• My Spanish class notes
• I’m sure there are more and I will leave this space to fill out when I remember the next thing I’ve forgotten

Fortunately, I’m being picked up at the airport by someone who speaks English, and at the place I’m staying there will be English speakers too. Plus my guide book has a handy list of vocabulary. But most of Lima doesn’t speak English, and I keep trying to say I dimenticato‘d qualcosa, which is neither English nor Spanish (and far from French). I took those Spanish classes (years after those beautiful but mind-muddling Italian classes) to be a better traveler. I passed, but then I went and did the equivalent of not studying – review before an exam is essential, and two months in South America is one heck of an exam. Not exactly multiple choice.

When I first moved to Montreal four years ago from Toronto I dropped $20 worth of wild blueberries down the escalator in the Jean-Talon market. They fell out of my granny grocery cart and trickled down the moving stairs like a dark blue river. At the time my French was not as good as it is now, but I understood clearly what a French woman said to me:

“C’est une expérience de la vie.”

So true, Madame. It was an experience in life. And here’s another. But you’re a lot more comfortable facing these experiences head on with a shield, maybe a sharp object. In this case, my shield should have been my notes, my sharp object my dictionary.

Well, no choice now. No turning back. This is how it’s going to be. At least this time I know how to conjugate the past tense in Spanish. I’ll be alright. I’ll try my best to be muy bien, even, dictionary or no.