It was a bright and sunny morning in the town of Farragudo, Portugal and I was sitting at a café as the waitress approached me. In my broken Portuguese I placed my order, “eu quero um café americano, por favor.”
I look at the waitress hoping my order was comprehendible enough. She looks back at me and promptly proceeds to correct me, “in Portugal an Americano coffee is called ‘abatanado.’”
Another blow to my ego.
I am humbled by my complete lack of understanding of the language once again. But the truth is that these kinds of interactions is what makes traveling interesting for me. It gives me an opportunity to interact with people in a meaningful way as they educate me about the peculiarities of their culture.