Language

I arrived in Spain, in September of 2006. I had just finished working my first summer in Maine, and had stopped in Germany for a week. Now, I was ready to put away the suit-case and get to work. Well, not really, but when no one speaks your mother tongue, learning is forced on you, prepared or not.

A few years before I had spent five months on the Iberian Peninsula, and so I arrived with a bit of confidence in the fact that I would have a good base of Castellano to work with. I soon found out that after about two and a half years without practice, it wasn't going to be so simple. Then adding to that, everyone I lived with spoke Valenciano, requiring a lot of dialogue to be translated for my comprehension. It is a strange position to be in: Surrounded by so many people, but quite alone. Unable to really express one's self, or interpret what one is told beyond a very basic level. Conversations end up containing a lot of words, but very little substance, bringing to mind the idea of speaking a lot, but saying very little.

That was when I really began to understand the beauty of something like climbing: It didn't matter how well we knew each other, or how well we spoke each other's language, when we climbed, we voiced everything. At the crag one witnesses their partners in the most honest emotional states. From fear to repose, anger to elation, climbing became the basis for my communication with almost everyone I met.

So they were some arduous times. Each day came to an end with muscles aching and tongue twisted. The body and the mind completely exhausted. Those days I slept extremely well.

Now im here for the third time by myself. Without any other english speakers anyway. A lot has changed. The Spanish flows unabridged, and I understand the majority of the dialect spoken here too. Climbing hasn't though. It may have increased in intensity, and the group of companions grown, but it remains the same outlet and inlet for the most basic expression.

Es muy dificil llegar a un pais donde no se habla el idioma. Se puede estar en la compania de mucha gente, pero estar completamente solo. Si no se puede comunicar, se pierde todo al rededor. Pero en la escalada, encontramos una forma comun de expresarse. En las paredes se ve las emociones en sus estados mas puros. Del miedo a la tranquilidad, la rabia a la alegria. A menudo se habla mucho sin decir nada. Pero en la escalada es el contrario. Sin hablar, decimos todo.

La primera vez que estube en Espana, la escalada era mi mejor manera de hablar. Aunque casi todo lo que dije era del miedo! Hoy en dia, controlo a la lengua mucho mas, pero la escalada sigue siendo la manera mas facil de hablar.