Language barriers

I knew that when I was abroad I would experience both triumphs and trials. Today was the first day that I felt really overwhelmed here. Today was the day that I started my IPSL service. I went over to the hospital to meet the doctor that I was going to be interning with. I met a bunch of people and they explained how home visits were set up. It was actually quite fascinating to see how they organized everything and how they knew everyone because the island is so small. They also tried to teach me how the house identification sheet worked. It is this giant sheet that has all these little boxes where I am supposed to record things, such as the living conditions, number of people in the house, etc. I think I got most of it, but it was really hard to understand because I am not that great at Spanish yet. It also didn’t help that there were a bunch of people all talking at once over each other. Sometimes I feel like if I don’t understand something, people will just repeat it louder. I really wish I had taken Spanish in high school now. The language barrier was pretty frustrating, but I am excited to start my rounds with the doctor and I know that the only place I can go from here is up. My Spanish class starts on March 3^rd and I have never been so excited in my life for a class.