Although I have been lucky enough to travel to dozens of different US states and a number of countries in Europe, I had never visited anywhere in Latin America before embarking on the College of Charleston’s Maymester trip to Panamá to study the Panamá Canal and its related business implications. Having no family of Latin descent and with only classroom experience and Spanish, I had not considered the region as a tourist destination. However, I decided that this study abroad course would be a fantastic way to learn more about the language and culture of a new region firsthand. In this blog post, I would like to discuss some of the challenges and learning experiences I have had while visiting Latin America for the first time. In particular, I will focus on food, since it is one of my favorite subjects when travelling.

              Deciding on a reliable way to fulfill the basic need of eating is a good first step when visiting a new place. I experienced this firsthand, when after finally arriving to the hotel after a much delayed flight I found myself quite hungry. Thankfully, our local contact had informed us there was a grocery store just a few blocks away from the hotel. So after putting on my rain jacket due to the oncoming storms of the wet season, I ventured down to the supermarket unsure of what it would look like compared to what I am used to in the United States. To my surprise, I found that the store, El Rey on Via Espana, was shockingly similar to many of our grocery chains in the US. In fact, since much of Latin America imports a solid percentage of their food from the United States, many recognizable brands were there as well. In fact, it felt even more like a US grocery store than many chains in Europe due to the existence of US brands, the use of the US Dollar as currency, and the lack of self-checkouts. However, I still found some interesting differences. For example, there was a larger bakery section than usual, liquor was sold in regular aisles, and individual packages or bottles were okay to take out of bigger containers to buy at just one at a time. Overall, after stumbling a little bit with my Spanish at checkout, I left the store quite pleased with my assortment of both American and Panamanian items.

Of course, it would not be feasible to rely only on grocery store snacks when traveling. To combat this, we visited a number of local restaurants serving food in a wide variety, including traditional Panamánian cuisine, pizza, Chinese, and even barbecue. As discussed, my knowledge and use of Spanish had never before extended outside of the classroom, so the first couple of days were a struggle of pointing at the menu and using Google Translate. However, few things on this trip made me happier than ordering fully in Spanish without assistance on the fifth day of the trip. Even though it was only a “Fresa Cocada” –

a frozen coconut beverage with strawberry – it still gave me much pride that I had remembered enough terms and etiquette to order in the local language. Overall, it was surprising to me how much easier it became to remember important phrases like asking for the menu, ordering politely, etc., when I was actively using them instead of just reading in a classroom. Overall, I enjoyed the linguistic experience of practicing Spanish language skills with native speakers in Panamá.