Last week I attended two dinners with other mom’s from Kate and Jake’s school.  The first one, on Thursday night, was at a restaurant in Belgrano (starting time at 9 pm) and it included 23 mom’s from Kate’s class.  The second one was on Friday night. It was at the home of a friend of mine, Natalia.  Natalia has a daughter in Jake’s class and she invited 4 other mom’s from Jake’s class to join us.

I was thrilled that mom’s were reaching out to me and wanted to include me in their events.  However, I was also somewhat scared too because my spanish isn’t great.  The dinner on Thursday night was tough.  Everyone was talking very quickly and I felt somewhat awkward that I couldn’t join the conversation.  The women were very kind and a few reached out to me in english.  However, I really wanted to join the larger conversation and felt that I should be speaking spanish.  I ended up leaving around 11:30 feeling somewhat defeated.

I had to get my nerve up to go to the second dinner party on Friday night.  My friend Natalia lived in the US for 15 years and speaks perfect english.  However, when I arrived Natalia told me that it would be good for me to speak spanish and practice.  She was right.  Having a smaller group of women that understood my situation was perfect.  They were all so kind, talked slowly and made sure I understood.  I did much better.  I had a wonderful time and made some new friends.

I think this experience showed me that there will be good days and bad days.  When I am feeling frustrated or defeated, I need to keep trying and know that there will be a good experience right around the corner.