Hola chic@s,
Espero que estén bien.
Let me take you back to a time when life was much simpler and I was doing an internship in Madrid.
I had long blond hair because I was trying to look like Kurt Cobain.
I nailed the greasy part, but the hair itself looked terrible because my hair is really thin.
Every Friday for lunch my colleagues and I would go to the local café for 2 hours (very Spanish) to order from the menú del día.
I’ve shared before how much anxiety these group trips used to fill me with.
I only ordered meatballs (albóndigas) for the first few months because that’s the only word I knew from the menu.
There was one colleague called Carlos who helped me through the earlier times.
He was the funniest guy in the group. Black hair, beard, Spanish af.
We used to sit together at the back of the office organising files and making up stories of how they belonged to drug dealers (camellos) in Madrid.
Looking back, I have a lot of respect for that younger version of myself.
He couldn’t express what he wanted to say and half the time he didn’t understand what was going on and yet he kept showing up, trying his best to connect with people.
One Friday, I finally admitted to my colleagues why I ordered the same thing every lunchtime.
We all burst out laughing.
And strangely I felt closer to them.
Spanish has taught me a lot about humility and finding creative ways to communicate.
In that moment, Carlos also said to me:
“Estás en tu salsa.”
The literal translation being:
“You’re in your sauce”.
But it actually means:
“You’re in your element”.
I’ve remembered that phrase ever since and every time I use it with native speakers it draws a smile from them.
It’s the kind of phrase you pick up from awkward lunches, not from textbooks.
Un abrazo,
Harrison
Spanish for living, not just learning
P.S - You can find ‘estar en tu salsa’ along with 40+ other words and phrases the locals actually use in the Insider Handbook. I created it to help you connect with Spanish speakers more easily. Enjoy.
