by Talpha Everette
A few days ago, I was in a staff meeting regarding the production of current events and personal goals. I decided that one of my personal goals would be to master Español. Of course, my team thought this to be a great idea since I was in a Spanish speaking country, and that would be the only way that I would be able to survive.
Within a matter of minutes, my first Spanish lesson appointment was set up, and within a matter of seconds, I was told it was to take place in less than 30 minutes!
As I rushed to pack my things, directions on how to get where I needed to go were being instructed to me. I guess the program manager saw my face of confusion because she offered to give me a ride there…of course I happily accepted!
So we hopped in the truck, and “¡vamos!” we were on our way. We were told by the program director to be on the lookout for a lady in blue tights who could be standing within a 3 mile distance between the 2 towns.
As we sped down the road eyeing the streets like eagles looking for prey, we finally spotted a lady in blue tights waving her hands frantically and smiling.
“Yep, that’s her,” we said simultaneously. We came to an abrupt stop, and I hopped out of the truck ready to begin my new lessons.
However, as soon as I hopped out and landed, I noticed that, compared to the stillness of the truck, I was getting shorter and shorter. I looked down to discover that I had hopped down into quicksand! I instantly started panicking as my life flashed before my eyes. Yelling and causing a commotion, I struggled to free my foot and my poor flip flop.
It was probably only a matter of seconds, but it felt like half an hour of time to me as I struggled to free my sinking leg. Finally, I took a good hold on the truck and yanked my leg and poor flip flop out as hard as I could. I looked down at my now orange foot and leg and couldn’t believe what had just happened to me.
My new Spanish teacher ran up to me, took one look at my leg, foot, and face and busted out laughing. She then said something in Spanish – which I had no hope of understanding- but by the looks of the accompanying expressions, it was somewhere around, “Poor girl lets go get you cleaned up,” as she sympathetically led me away in front of onlookers holding in their laughs of amusement.
Talk about first impressions!