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A new life. A new language that made part of that life. It was September 2016 and I was finally making my biggest dream come true: I arrived in Spain to study my master’s degree. Discovering Catalonia on my own was about to be a big adventure, but finally being able to become part of the society I knew was going to be the biggest challenge. The first time I went to a Supermarket and someone started to speak Catalan assuming I knew the language I panicked. I am fluent in four languages and Spanish is my mother tongue. I already knew that the situation with the politic situation in Catalonia was one of the reasons why many people would resist speaking in any other language but Catalan. My first reaction was saying that I didn’t speak Catalan, but this person continued. I was scared to death, this never happened before while traveling. I still can’t understand why you are making a foreigner feel uncomfortable. I am not the type of traveler who believes everyone needs to understand me, but, taking that in account, I feel exposing people to uncomfortable situations isn’t that welcoming either. Was in that moment that I understood that the only way you can actually integrate in a town like Girona was actually learning the language -even if everyone is bilingual-. That was the moment I started the process to learn Catalan. Catalan courses are available all around the region since the government has an organization which purpose is to normalize Catalan language. Their courses are incredibly accessible when it comes to prices, which makes it even easier for anyone coming from outside Catalonia to actually learn the language. After doing a Bachelor’s in Foreign Languages and several courses in Portuguese, Italian and Russian I thought that Catalan was going to be easy. That was the moment I realized that we definitely learn in a completely different way as we grow old. As an Italian speaker, Catalan grammar was something I was able to handle. I thought the vocabulary was something I was dealing with, that it wasn’t that hard but, every time I went back to the real world, I felt that same panic sensation I felt that first time someone spoke in Catalan. To learn a lot more Catalan, I accepted a tutoring job on which my student and I exchanged Spanish with Catalan. Being able to speak Catalan with someone way younger than me helped me a bit on gaining some confidence. Why I couldn’t be with this language like I was with Portuguese or Italian? I remember the first time I spoke Portuguese to native speakers. It was in Orlando; I was 17 years old. I didn’t panic, I just wanted to say that I have been studying Portuguese since I was 12. It was so rewarding when that lady said “Você fala muito bem” but no, that experience wasn’t being the same with Catalan. After finishing my course, I knew that someday I had to ask for something in Catalan. My Colombian friends were able to actually ask for “una miqueta de pa” or call a gorgeous lady like “maca” and I was just able to understand but repeating was a completely different challenge. I remember heading back to that same Supermarket where my panic for this language start, I faced my fear and headed to the bakery. When the baker asked said “hola, que vols?” This time I didn’t feel the panic getting over me. I answered graciously: “Hola, vull una miqueta de pa, si us plau”. Was in that moment, after being able to actually say a proper sentence in Catalan that I actually felt that Girona was a place I could call home.