¿A Donde Vas?

This was what I heard a Spaniard lady tell her husband this morning while waiting for the light to turn green at a crosswalk here in Vigo. Tim and I, in our never-ending battle to loose the extra “baggage” we carry around, were out on our morning walk. We came to one of the hundreds of crosswalks that are in this city and the walk light had just changed to the little red man. Which means, “Parar” or stop. A Spaniard couple was walking just behind us and when they came up to the crosswalk, she stopped and he took a couple more steps, like he was going to keep walking. She looked at him with a look that I have seen many wives give their husbands when he is about to do something she thinks is stupid, myself included, and in a very loud voice said, “A Donde Vas???” which being interpreted means, “Just where do think you’re going????” He stopped immediately and just kept staring ahead like nothing had happened. I had to laugh to myself as I thought, “some things are the same the world over”.

I have never really “fit in” in Spain. Being tall, blond-haired and blue-eyed in a sea of short, dark-haired, dark-eyed people kind of makes you stand out. Meghan and I are constantly stared at but we have grown accustomed to it, for the most part. Another thing is when people hear us speaking English they will literally stop what they are doing and just look at us. It’s so funny! We have been walking down the street and been talking and all of the sudden, somebody that was walking in front of us that hadn’t seen us but could hear us, will just stop dead in their tracks and turn around and watch us as we walk on past them. This has happened more than once. Another time, right after we got back this year, Meghan and I were walking into a little market down the street from where we live. As we walked in we were chatting to each other in English. There was an older man kneeling on the floor at the front of the store, putting price stickers on cans of tuna. When he heard us speaking to each other in English he stopped what he was doing and gave us this harsh look. Then he said something that I couldn’t quite understand until the very last part, which was “necesita habla Espanol”. Which means, “you need to speak Spanish”. We haven’t been back to that store!

So, needless to say, I often feel like an “extranjera” or foreigner. But then I hear some Spaniard wife tell her husband “A Donde Vas” and I feel right at home!